During the oppressive heat of the week of June 16, 1919, and the sticky, hot day of Sunday, June 22, Fergus Falls was struck by a giant funnel cloud that appeared near Vine Street and Summit Avenue. After hours of continuous thunder that grew into an angry growling, heavy rain fell and the funnel moved north and east, ripping apart everything in its path. Lake Alice was one of the hardest hit areas of town, with dozens of homes flattened and so much debris filling the lake that it looked as though a person could walk across it. The cyclone destroyed or damaged nearly two-thirds of Fergus Falls, leaving over fifty people dead and hundreds injured. Moments afterward, W. T. Oxley took hundreds of photographs of the damage, and some were published across the nation to help raise money for relief efforts.