I was a kid living in Niles, Michigan, when the 1965 Palm Sunday Tornadoes swept through the Midwest, including areas just twenty miles to my south. Among the photos in the newspapers was one I’ve never been able to find on the Internet. Some years ago, while researching the event at the Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Library, I came across that photo (appearing second in order below) and its brother, which precedes it.
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Regretfully, I don’t know the name of the photographer and so can’t credit the photos the way I’d like. If that person happens to stumble across this blog, though, I’d be delighted to hear from him or her, and I invite them to post a comment.
What I do recall is that the description placed the tornado between LaPaz and Wyatt. The stout column in the second photo does seem to correspond with another shot I”ve seen of the LaPaz funnel.
More is going on in these two images than is immediately apparent. The photos seem to depict a hand-off between two different funnels. In the second image, the narrow, cone-shaped tornado shown in the first photo appears to have dissipated into the nub-like lowering on the left side of the wall cloud in photo two, while a new funnel has materialized to the right. This is corroborated by what appears to be a barely noticeable, slim tube in the first photo, located by the left, bottom branch of the left tree in the midground. The image quality in this post requires that you squint and use your imagination to see the tube, which, in this smaller format, looks like a tiny, hair-thin, downward extension of the branch. However, in the original, larger print, you can clearly make out the tube as cloud material. Its position suggests that it was forming as the funnel to the left was getting ready to lift–a transfer of energy from one vortex to another within the wall cloud.
ADDENDUM: Credit for the photos goes to Willis Haenes. Many thanks to Jim Stewart for providing the name of the photographer. Click on “Comments” below to read Jim”s message. The bottom photo appeared in a groundbreaking paper by Dr. Ted Fujita on the Palm Sunday Outbreak. According to a map by Fujita, the view is from Bremen, Indiana, looking west toward just north of LaPaz.
These photos were taken by a Willis Haenes at looking west Bremen, Indiana just after 5PM CST this according to an official document from Dr.Ted Fujuita. The link for this document is https://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/098/mwr-098-01-0029.pdf.
I lived near Lima, Ohio in those days and one of the tornadoes passed just 8 miles to our north. I was 9 yrs. old, but remenber it like yesterday.
Jim, many thanks for providing the name of the photographer. I will make an addendum to the post crediting Mr. Haenes.
You were the same age as me at the time of the Palm Sunday Outbreak. If you happen to read this response, I’m wondering what your personal experience was of that day, and whether you’d care to share it here.