Springtime in the southern plains. Although the days of the black dusters have long-since passed, March and April still bring with them the ferocious winds that once doomed the barren grasslands. While gone are the dunes that once piled against fences and buried unfortunate automobiles, stick around long enough and you might still see a … Continue reading The Czar, The River, and the Thistle
The Dust Bowl
Home Sweet…Hole?
In the early 1900's, bolstered by the tune of "every man a landlord," thousands flocked West, hoping to snag a piece of Manifest Destiny and the American dream. Land was cheap, hope was high, and there was nothing standing between a man and his homestead but a few weeks' travel and a little elbow grease. … Continue reading Home Sweet…Hole?
The Dust Bowl Takes on NYC
New York City was dirty. Fueled by rapid industrial and population growth, by the early 1930s New York City had swelled to almost seven million people. Immigrants seeking a better life, rural Americans seeking better pay, and hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life seeking the fun, excitement, and culture of a … Continue reading The Dust Bowl Takes on NYC
Christmas in the Dust
As the 1930's wore on, the rain still refused to fall on parts of Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. The dusters got worse, health deteriorated, and money grew scarce as crops withered and what would come to be known as the Great Depression tightened its grip on the country. Every-day life became a battle against … Continue reading Christmas in the Dust
The Brown Plague
Since the late nineteenth century, the western plains had been a haven for those with respiratory ailments. At time when the complex workings of the lungs were not-yet understood, many with breathing issues were often advised that it wasn't a problem with their organs; it was a problem with the air. The solution, therefore, was … Continue reading The Brown Plague
One Photograph, Two Worlds
Dorothea Lange was operating a successful portrait studio in San Francisco, photographing some of the city's most elite, when she walked past a breadline near her office. Moved by the faces of the unemployed and homeless, she began snapping pictures, soon moving from the city streets to the migrant camps popping up in the nearby … Continue reading One Photograph, Two Worlds
So Long, It’s Been Good to Know Yuh…
April 14, 1935. A cold front moving down from Canada clashed with a warm front moving up over the Dakotas. In a matter of hours, the temperature dropped thirty degrees and the wind whipped into a frenzy, throwing up dust and debris from a land aching for rain. The cloud grew into a storm hundred … Continue reading So Long, It’s Been Good to Know Yuh…
Dust Storms: The Shocking Truth
Dust pneumonia. Suffocation. Starvation. Being buried alive. There were hundreds of ways to die during the Dust Bowl, a time in the 1930's when great dust clouds rose into the sky and it seemed as if Mother Nature herself, no longer content to lay back and be abused, was instead rising up to wage a … Continue reading Dust Storms: The Shocking Truth
‘Till Hell Freezes Over
The Dust Bowl invokes images of mass migration: hundreds of poor, desperate farmers packed into over-loaded jalopies, making their way westward with dirty-faced children and bone-thin wives. Fleeing the dust, the drought, the near-starvation, and searching for the promised land. But not everyone left. Many Dust Bowl farmers found the notion of fleeing abhorrent, an … Continue reading ‘Till Hell Freezes Over
Suicide Sal and the Barrow Gang
Beginning with the stock market crash of 1929, the Great Depression, as it would later be called, swept across the United States, plunging much of the country into an unprecedented state of poverty. Crop prices fell by 60%. Construction projects and manufacturing ground to a standstill. Unemployment wavered between 25-33%. And, out west, in the … Continue reading Suicide Sal and the Barrow Gang
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