This past week the downtown Fallon Theatre (aka the old movie theatre) showed a movie called Operation: Haylift. It's not a documentary, but a fictionalized account of the happenings of the winter of 1948-49. There were several back-to-back blizzards in quick succession that winter, which made it impossible for the ranchers to get feed to their cattle and sheep. In order to help save the livestock, the Air Force dropped bales of hay to the stranded animals. They say Nevada lost 22,000 head of cattle. The sheep fared better. Many other states were affected, too, but the movie was set in Elko, Nevada.
There were a few in the audience who had either helped load the hay or push the hay out of the planes themselves, or they had relatives that had something to do with the real Operation: Haylift. Glen's dad and his Uncle Jim were too young to participate in the effort, but they remember going out to the Fallon Naval base here to watch the planes being loaded with hay.
This is what Wikipedia has to say about the movie:
Operation Haylift is a 1950 American aviation film by William Berke starring Bill Williams, Ann Rutherford, and Tom Brown. The film documents the United States Air Force mission in 1948–49 to save thousands of cattle caught in the snowdrifts of a sudden winter storm in northern Nevada. "Operation Haylift" involved scores of cargo aircraft delivering hay to the stranded animals.
Anyway, it was a fun evening to go and watch the movie, though I do admit living in Nevada and having some connection to the story made it more interesting. I'm just glad that I've never had to experience blizzards like that.
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