The Dust Bowl, to Endured It

Some of the most gifted Now an abridged version of photographers of the 20th century Ganzel’s original show has been worked for the FSA, recording what organized by Humanities Texas people were enduring even as they under the title The Dust Bowl, to endured it. These photographs reflect both vastness of the Dust

Arthur Rothstein. Grant County, ND, 1936 provoke questions: What became Bowl region and the particular Arthur Rothstein. Near Dalhart, TX, 1936 of these people? Did they weather impact upon Texans. the Dust Bowl and the Great The Dust Bowl exacerbated Depression? Where are they now? some of the worst tendencies of What did they make of themselves? human nature, and through its role How did the Dust Bowl affect their in redistributing the population, it view of America, of life, of society accelerated the alienation of people in general? from their natural environment. The Dust Bowl In the 1970s, Nebraska To an unfortunate degree, the photographer Bill Ganzel decided alienation continues, even though This exhibition is abridged from to seek answers. Guided by the southern plains have turned green Dust Bowl Descent limited annotations made by FSA by means of water pumped from the by Bill Ganzel photographers, he went in search great Ogallala Aquifer. Scientists of people who were festered in caution that at the current rate of and it is presented through colaboration of Dust Bowl sectors of the File. Upon pumping, the Aquifer will run dry Humanities Nebraska and Humanities Texas finding them, or their descendants, in less than fifty years—and the This exhibition is supported by he photographed them in poses Dust Bowl will return. Though Humanities Texas similar to the originals and tape it is tempting to “historicize” the recorded their recollections. Dust Bowl of the 1930s, to leave and the National Endowment for the These comparative photographs it safely situation in the past, it Humanities and memories were presented as better serves as a present reminder an exhibition and a booth, both that nature and people cannot long entitled Dust Bowl Descent. endure aliens and enemies. If there is a single experience was further removed from the reach Historians are in general created a new demand for grain did that unites senior Texans in a of families who wanted to live on agreement that although the Dust the Plains begin to recover. community of shared memory. It is farms. Family farms vanished, and Bowl occurred in the mid-1930s, The disaster was ecological. the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. This is farm families became migrants. its basis was laid in 1914 when It was also economic, social, and the common denominator of Texas In this condition, Texans of the the Turkish Navy blocked the cultural. Agriculture was the life during the Great Depression, High Plains suffered in common Dardanelles and cut off the flow linchpin of America’s economy. not only for farm people, whose with fellow residents of the Great of Russian wheat to the rest of the T.H. Watkins, historian of the livelihood was driven before the Plains northward from Oklahoma world. To meet the sudden increase Great Depression, points out that winds, but also for town folk through the Dakotas. Victims of in demand, farmers on the Great Great Depression, points out that hundreds of miles to the east, the drought and depression, they Plains plowed under land that agriculture was also the source of where black or yellow skies rained were also victims, at times, of they had not previously considered America’s self-image even in the worthy of cultivation, taking out 1930s. But as many as 2.5 million loans to purchase the equipment persons were forced off their land in needed to expand their work. the 1930s, and they had to find other When the price of wheat fell after places and other ways to support the war, they planted more and themselves. Most of these people more acres, racing desperately to became “irretrievably urban,” as stay ahead of their debts. Rainfall Watkins puts it, although some Arthur Rothstein. Near Missoula, MT, 1936 was irregular in the 1920s. When joined the “constantly moving and In the long run, we measure Americans saw of themselves in the rains stopped altogether in nearly invisible” army of migrant the true significance of an event the novels, newsreels, and photo 1932, the native ground-cover was workers who by its impact on the collective magazines of the 1930s are what “cut cane in Florida and dug gone. There was nothing to hold imagination of the nation, and the we now take for truth. potatoes in Maine, picked the soil in place. Dust Bowl has exerted a greater Some victims of the Dust In his book Great Plains, Ian peaches in Georgia and apples in Pennsylvania, plucked influence than many other events Bowl recorded their experience in Frazier describes the first great strawberries in Louisiana and that were hailed for a moment memories and letters that now are storm, which occurred in mid-April dug sugar beets in Michigan, as “definitive.” The Dust Bowl collected in local history archives; Arthur Rothstein. Cimarron County, OK, 1936 1934: A giant cloud: and harvested wheat from brought us John Steinbeck’s The many more handed down stories to public opinion, viewed as somehow “black at the base and tan at central Texas to northern Grapes of Wrath, which continues children and grandchildren. These dirt through streets, yards, and having brought their failure entirely the top, rose from the fields of Montana.” to hold us in thrall as a book and are stories that need to be preserved eastern Colorado and western house, and deposited grit into food upon themselves. If they joined the as a classic movie. It also propelled and shared, as expressions of Kansas and began to move served at tables. The devastation flow of families to the west coast, Woody Guthrie into international human perseverance despite of the High Plains turned noonday they were detested “Okies.” If they south. Inside the cloud darkness was total… . fame as a singer of American hopes almost inhuman odds. If they are so dark that people could see only moved to town looking for work, People in the cloud’s path and grim reality. Ian Frazier reports not now the subject of oral history by lamplight. But for Texans on they were hicks and hayseeds. thought the end of the world that in April 14, 1935, projects across a great part of the the High Plains, at the southern had come…” “a black dust storm from western nation, certainly they ought to be. reach of the Great Plains, grit and In May another dust storm Kansas blew down into the Texas For later generations of ultimately darkness were of less came up and blew all the way to Panhandle. …Guthrie, who was Americans, the Dust Bowl is living in Pampa, Texas, took a significance than the destruction the east coast, blocking out the documented merely by historical look at the approaching storm and of their way of life. Tenant farmers noonday sun in New York City. As narrative, but by visual images, wrote So Long, It’s Been Good to and share croppers, unable to photographs taken for the other storms arose, dust from the Know You.” pay rent, were turned out by historical section of the Farm Great Plains settled on President Another classic of the Dust Bowl landlords. Landowners, unable to Security Administration, one of Roosevelt’s desk in the White origins is the documentary film, meet their mortgage payments, the New Deal programs designed House and on the decks on the The Plow That Broke the Plains. were dispossessed by the banks. to to help farmers during the Great ocean liners at sea. Not until rain T.H. Watkins points out that to Land rich and cash-poor, the banks Dorothea Lange, Dalhart, TX. 1938. resumed in 1941 and World War II Depression. failed, and ownership of the land Dorothea Lange, Nipomo, CA,1936 a large degree, the images that