Even if a day starts under bright sunshine, winter on the Great Plains is unforgiving, and a snowstorm can close in rapidly. Such a day was March 15, 1920.
William Miner arrived at the school to take his children home. He tied his horse and put Hazel, Emmet, and Myrdith Miner in the sleigh. He told them to wait while he got his own horse. But the horse pulling the sleigh grew anxious and set off. When William returned, the sleigh was gone.
It was usually an easy trip, but on this day, it was anything but easy. Fifteen-year-old Hazel took the reins but became lost in the blinding snow. Then the sleigh overturned. Hazel put down blankets in the shelter of the overturned sleigh for the younger children to lie on and covered them with a heavy robe. She opened her coat and lay on top of them to keep them warm. Throughout the long night, Hazel had the children sing songs and told them stories to keep them awake. When a search party found them fifteen hours later, they found Hazel’s frozen body lying protectively on top of her younger siblings, both of whom survived.
One newspaper editor wrote that Hazel “proved herself a heroine, whose devotion and self-sacrifice is rarely equaled by one of her years.” Hazel’s funeral, held on this date in 1920, was attended by family, friends, and total strangers who were moved by her sacrifice. Her story touched North Dakotans across the state. Every family on the Great Plains could easily imagine that their own children might meet Hazel’s fate. Twelve of her classmates served as pallbearers.
Even as the years passed, Hazel was not forgotten. In 1936, Louis Lemkuhl put his thoughts down on paper as a monument was erected to her memory. He wrote, “There is another courage which is perhaps greater and even more sublime than the courage of men who give their lives in desperate conflict on some great battlefield… Surely it is well that the memory of this young girl and what she did shall not be lost nor forgotten.”
Hazel is buried at the Center Community Cemetery in Center, North Dakota. A statue, commissioned by Governor L. B. Hanna, stands in front of the Oliver County Courthouse. It commemorates her courage and sacrifice in saving the lives of her brother and sister at the cost of her own.
Dakota Datebook written by Dr. Carole Butcher
Sources:
- Find a Grave. “Hazel Miner.” https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/95447167/hazel-miner Accessed 2/21/2026.
- Jamestown Weekly Alert. “Story of Heroine Told at Funeral of Hazel Miner.” 3/25/1920. Page 4.
- Nonpartisan Leader. “Memorial for Girl Heroine.” Fargo ND. 5/31/1920. Page 8.
