Book Description

THE DEADLY SNOW, a Wyoming Ranch Family's Cold War Memoir.THE FRIGHTENING STORY of Preston and Laura Mitchell and their family in rural northeast Wyoming began with a snowstorm in April, 1959, that mysteriously killed 100 ewes and 300 newborn lambs and soon sickened the entire family. The Mitchells consulted local, state and federal veterinarians, to determine the cause. Meanwhile, the Mitchells and their six sons and daughters suffered from headaches, nosebleeds, dizziness, lethargy and bloody stools as they struggled to care for their dying flock of sheep. Later, they found hundreds of fish had perished in their farm pond, dozens of deer carcasses littered their pastures and squirrels and mice turned up dead in unexpected places. Less than a month after the storm, two men claiming to be rock hounds showed up at the Mitchell's remote ranch, asked many questions about their animals and family members and finally urged them to get their listless baby daughter to a doctor. Before long, another federal veterinary team arrived, that they were going to treat their sheep. They, too, asked questions for hours, but gave no answers about themselves. In fact, the visitors warned the Mitchells not to talk publicly about their health problems and assured them that they would never receive any compensation for their losses. Two years later, Dr. Alan Tench, a veterinarian from England, suggested that the Mitchells sue the federal government "for what they have done to you.". In early 1961, they filed a lawsuit for nearly $1 million in damages they claimed were caused by exposure to radiation poisoning as a result of government negligence. In response, government lawyers deposed the family's physicians, mocking their lack of knowledge of radiation poisoning. In early September, shadowed by armed men in dark suits, the Mitchell parents and their two oldest daughters were taken to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, for intensive physical exams. In their reports, the doctors said they found no evidence of radiation poisoning. However, as one of the physicians who escorted the four Mitchells out of the hospital on dismissal, told Preston they had indeed been exposed to radioactive materials. In December, 1961, the federal court in Cheyenne, Wyoming, declared the Mitchells had failed to make their case and rejected it. Government authorities attributed the malady of the sheep to photosensitization (intense exposure to sunlight), possible consumption of selenium, a heavy metal found in the soil on the ranch, or poisonous weeds. They offered no explanation for the suffering the Mitchell family members endured.