Hazel Miner

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum proclaimed March 16, 2020 “Hazel Miner Day” in honor of Hazel and of the 100th anniversary of the blizzard. The town of Center, North Dakota held a ceremony on that date at which Chuck Suchy sang The Story of Hazel Miner and tours were given of places significant to her life and death. A roadway in Center is named Hazel Miner Avenue in her honor.

The May 30, 2002 centennial issue of the Center (N.D.) Republican featured a story about "Hazel Miner, Angel of the Prairies." The story was also recounted in Joe Wheeler's 2002 anthology Everyday Heroes: Inspiring Stories of Ordinary People Who Made a Difference. A retired Mandan, North Dakota elementary teacher, Kevin Kremer, wrote a 2019 children's book called Angel of the Prairie based on the story of Hazel Miner.

In recent years, a folk ballad entitled The Story of Hazel Miner was written by folk artist Chuck Suchy of Mandan, North Dakota. The song was recorded on Suchy's Much to Share (1986) cassette and on his Dancing Dakota (1989) cassette. In the song, recalling Hazel's outstretched arms, Suchy sings of "wings on the snow, a fate not chose, morning finds a dove so froze." But "in warmth below, her love survived."

Her brother Emmet later recalled the blizzard for an article in the March 15, 1963 issue of The Bismarck (N.D.) Tribune:

Emmet and Myrdith were interviewed by various North Dakota newspapers numerous times in the years following the blizzard and many news articles were written about Hazel. Emmet's grandson told a reporter that Emmet rarely spoke about the story to his family and he thinks Emmet had never gotten over the traumatic experience and “never forgave himself” for his sister's death. The story eventually attracted national attention. In 1952 the Ford Motor Company commissioned two paintings of scenes from the story by North Dakota artist Elmer Halvorson. The paintings and an article about Hazel Miner were published in the February 1953 edition of the Ford Times.

A Gothic-style granite monument honoring Hazel's memory was erected in front of the Oliver County Courthouse in 1936, sixteen years after her death, by former North Dakota governor L. B. Hanna. The stone reads "In memory of Hazel Miner. To the dead a tribute, to the living a memory, to posterity an inspiration." Hazel's grave can be found in the Center Community Cemetery in Oliver County.

Hazel became a posthumous heroine after her story became known. On January 15, 1921, an article in The North Dakota Children's Home Finder appeared about how "this guardian angel of the prairies, covered with a thick sheet of ice, gave up her own life to save her brother and sister." The North Dakota Children's Home Society wanted to use publicity about Hazel's story to raise money to build an orphanage for children in the state. A memorial committee was established in Center and talked of naming a new hospital in Hazel's honor, but some months later her parents said they wanted a memorial statue erected instead. Children across the state collected money to pay for a memorial.

On March 15, 1920, the first day of the blizzard, the school dismissed its students early to enable them to go home before the storm arrived. Many of the students, like the Miner children, were used to driving to and from school with a horse and buggy, but the school teacher had a rule that no child was permitted to drive home in bad weather without permission from a parent. William Miner, who was worried about the blizzard conditions, rode the two miles to the school on a saddle horse to escort his children home.

Today the story of Hazel and her actions during the 1920 blizzard are also studied by some students in North Dakota as part of a North Dakota history class.

Hazel Dulcie Miner (April 11, 1904 – March 16, 1920), a student at a rural Great Plains one-room school, died while protecting her 10-year-old brother, Emmet, and 8-year-old sister, Myrdith, from the spring blizzard of 1920 in Center, Oliver County, North Dakota.