The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl

by Timothy Egan

  The trees from Franklin Roosevelt's big arbor dream have mostly disappeared. Nearly 220 million were planted, just as the president envisioned. But when regular rain returned in the 1940s and wheat prices shot up, farmers ripped out the shelterbelt trees to plant grain. Other trees died in cycles of drought over the last half a century. Occasionally, a visitor comes upon a row of elms or cottonwoods, sturdy and twisted from the wind. It can be a puzzling sight, a mystery, like finding a sailor's note in a bottle on an empty beach.

  The United States was founded as a nation of farmers but less than 1 percent of all jobs are in agriculture now. On the plains, the farm population has shrunk by more than 80 percent. The government props up the heartland, ensuring that the most politically connected farms will remain profitable. But huge sections of mid-America no longer function as working, living communities. The subsidy system that was started in the New Deal to help people such as the Lucas family stay on the land has become something entirely different: a payoff to corporate farms growing crops that are already in oversupply, pushing small operators out of business. Some farms get as much as $360,000 a year in subsidies. The money has almost nothing to do with keeping people on the land or feeding the average American.

  Only a handful of family farmers still work the homesteads of No Man's Land and the Texas Panhandle. To keep agribusiness going, a vast infrastructure of pumps and pipes reaches deep into the Ogallala Aquifer, the nation's biggest source of underground freshwater, drawing the water down eight times faster than nature can refill it. The aquifer is a sponge, stretching from South Dakota to Texas, which filled up when glaciers melted about 15,000 years ago. It provides about 30 percent of the irrigation water in the United States. With this water, farmers in Texas were able to dramatically increase production of cotton, which no longer has an American market. So cotton growers, siphoning from the Ogallala, get three billion dollars a year in taxpayer money for fiber that is shipped to China, where it is used to make cheap clothing sold back to American chain retail stores like Wal-Mart. The aquifer is declining at a rate of 1.1 million acre-feet a day—that is, a million acres, filled to a depth of one foot with water. At present rates of use, it will dry up, perhaps within a hundred years. In parts of the Texas Panhandle, hydrologists say, the water will be gone by 2010.

  During a three-year drought in the 1950s, dusters returned. There were big storms covering roads and spinning over towns but nothing like Black Sunday. Droughts in 1974–1976 and 2000–2003 made the soil drift. But overall, the earth held much better. Why no second Dust Bowl? In 2004, an extensive study of how farmers treated the land before and after the great dusters of the 1930s concluded that soil conservation districts kept the earth from blowing. There was also irrigation water from the Ogallala to compensate for drought, but it was not available in many parts of the dry farming belt. What saved the land, this study found, was what Hugh Bennett had started: getting farmers to enter contracts with a soil conservation district and manage the land as a single ecological unit. By 1939, about 20 million acres in the heart of the Dust Bowl belonged to one of these units. Hugh Bennett died in 1960 at the age of seventy-nine. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. His legacy, the soil conservation districts spread throughout America, is the only New Deal grassroots operation that survives to this day.

  Dalhart still stands, a windblown and dog-eared town at the crossroads of three highways. It never recovered its population from pre-1930; barely six thousand people live in Dallam County now. At the entrance to town is a striking monument: an empty horse saddle, dedicated to the XIT cowboys. Every year, Dalhart holds a celebration for the old XIT ranch and the ghosts of cowboys who ran through its grass during the glory years. After moving out of Dalhart, John McCarty, the town's biggest booster, never returned. In his later years, he took up painting, concentrating on art that depicted dust storms as heroic and muscular. Born in 1900, the same year as Dalhart, McCarty died in 1974. In a home he built at the edge of town, Melt White lives with his wife of more than sixty years, Juanita. He worked as a house painter and paperhanger, though he still considers himself a cowboy by trade and inclination. He keeps a couple of horses out back on land next to the old XIT. He curses the day farmers came to the Panhandle and tore up the grass.

  Boise City is alive—but barely. With just three thousand people, Cimarron County has lost nearly half its pre-Dust Bowl population. Fred Folkers was ten thousand dollars in debt at the start of the war. But four-dollar wheat got him out of it, in the same way that wartime factory production finally got the United States out of the Depression. In 1948, at age sixty-six, Fred had a heart attack. He continued to farm right up until his death in 1965. His wife, Katherine, outlived him by ten years. She died at the age of ninety. The children, Faye and Gordon, still own the homestead, land where Katherine ironed centipedes in the walls of the dugout. Hazel Lucas Shaw had another child, Jean Beth, to go with her son, Charles, Jr. Hazel's husband, Charles, died in 1971, of heart disease. After surviving the Dust Bowl and two subsequent tornadoes, Hazel outlived all her friends from Boise City. She died in 2003 at the age of ninety-nine. Though she never returned to live there, she told her grandchildren she always missed No Man's Land.

  Inavale, Nebraska, where the Hartwells lived, is a ghost town. Webster County, with four thousand people, has lost more than 60 percent of its population from the 1930s. Years ago, a neighbor found Verna Hartwell burning her late husband's diary. The diary was rescued and after Verna's death turned over to the Nebraska Historical Society in Lincoln.

  Approaching his ninetieth birthday, Ike Osteen lives with his wife, Lida Mae, not far from the dugout where the family of nine children passed their days in a hole in the ground. After leaving Baca County, Ike worked on the railroad and road projects, and then joined the Army. By the time Hitler's forces occupied most of Europe, Osteen was in boot camp. The soldier from the dugout landed in France on D-Day, June 6, 1944, fought the Germans through hedgerows, saw friends bleed and die. When the war was over, he thought about his place in the world and was drawn back to Baca County. It takes a certain kind of person to make peace with land that has betrayed them, but that is the way with home. Ike's mother died at the age of ninety-two. Most days, Ike puts in a full day's work around the house and usually spends some part of an afternoon sorting through the living museum of his life on the High Plains. He loves it still.

  NOTES AND SOURCES

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  INDEX

  Notes and Sources

  INTRODUCTION

  The quotes and descriptions of Dalhart, Boise City, and Baca County come from interviews conducted by the author and reporting trips to the High Plains. Ike Osteen was interviewed at his house in Springfield, Colorado, on April 25, 2002. Jeanne Clark was interviewed in Lamar, Colorado, on April 22, 2002, with follow-up phone conversations on April 3, 2003, and June 1, 2003. Melt White was interviewed at his home in Dalhart on November 21, 2002, with follow-up phone conversations on August 3, 2003, and September 12, 2003.

  The figure on percentage of the population that left the Dust Bowl versus the number who stayed is from the U.S. Census Bureau population surveys, 1930 and 1940, www.census.gov.

  Donald Worster is quoted from his book Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1979).

  1: THE WANDERER

  The story of the White family migration comes from Melt White, as told to the author, November 21, 2002, Dalhart, Texas.

  Descriptions of the XIT ranch from the author's visit to the XIT Museum, Dalhart, Texas, and Six Thousand Miles of Fence: Life on the XIT Ranch of Texas, Cordia Sloan Duke and Joe B. Frantz (Austin: Univ. of Texas Press, 1961).

  Early years in Dalhart and the Dawson family story from High Plains Yesterdays: From XIT Days Through Drouth and Depression, John C. Dawson (Austin, Texas: Eakin Press, 1985).

  John McCarty's story is from the Amarillo Public Library John C. McCarty Collection, Introduction to the collection, no title
, Amarillo Public Library, Amarillo, Texas.

  Quotes from the newspaper are from the Dalhart Texan, May 1, 1930.

  Property records and civil cases came from the public records on file in the Dallam County Courthouse, Dalhart, Texas.

  The early history of Dalhart from The Book of Years: A History of Dallam and Hartley Counties, Lillie Mae Hunter (Hereford, Texas: Pioneer Book Publisher, 1969).

  Comanche tribal history came from a variety of sources:

  Author interviews with Comanche tribal elders, among them Lucille Cable of Lawton, Oklahoma, and Ray Niedo of Indianola, Oklahoma, conducted on October 2 and 5, 2003.

  Being Comanche: A Social History of an American Indian Community, Morris W. Foster (Tucson: Univ. of Arizona Press, 1991).

  Comanches: The Destruction of a People, T. R. Fehrenbach (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974).

  The New Encyclopedia of the American West, Howard R. Lamar, ed. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 1998).

  Museum of the Great Plains, Lawton, Oklahoma, author visit May 15, 2003.

  Comanche Nation, Comanche Tribal Home Page, www.comanchenation.com.

  Grasslands and ranches, in part from United States Forest Service files on history of the national grasslands, La Junta, Colorado, provided to the author by the Forest Service. Also, "The Panhandle of Texas," Frederick W. Rathjen, Handbook of Texas online at www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook; Rathjen's The Texas Panhandle Frontier (Austin: Univ. of Texas Press, 1973); and The Grasses of Texas, Frank W. Gould (College Station: Texas A&M Univ. Press, 1975).

  Wesley L. Hockett's quotes are from his oral history on file in the Special Collections of the Amarillo Public Library, Amarillo, Texas.

  2: NO MAN'S LAND

  Descriptions of Boise City from author trips to the town and from interviews, notably Norma Gene Butterbaugh Young, interviewed at her home in Boise City, Oklahoma, on September 8, 2003.

  Early description of fraud from the Cimarron News, various editions, and records provided by the Cimarron Heritage Center, Boise City, Oklahoma, September 9, 2003.

  How people lived in part from Commerce of the Prairies, Josiah Gregg, Max W. Moorhead, eds. (Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1990).

  Early Boise City descriptions and family histories from The Tracks We Followed, Norma Gene Butterbaugh Young, ed. (Amarillo, Texas: Southwestern Publications, 1991).

  Early Panhandle homestead stories in part from author visit to Oklahoma Historical Society, Oral History Program, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, September 9, 2003.

  Anecdote on preacher and postal worker from Young, The Tracks We Followed, previously cited.

  The Hazel Lucas Shaw story and larger story of the Lucas family from author interview with Charles Shaw, Hazel's son, on September 21, 2003, and from Sunshine and Shadows (1984), a self-published family history written by Hazel Shaw, given to the author by Mr. Shaw in 2002, as well as personal correspondence from Mr. Shaw to author, September 22, 2003.

  The Folkers family story from author interviews with Faye Folkers Gardner, on April 30, 2002, and Gordon Folkers, on May 2, 2002, as well as Mrs. Gardner's self-published family history, So Long, Old Timer! (1979), given to the author by Mrs. Gardner in 2002.

  Descriptions of mid-1920s life in No Man's Land from author interview with Imogen Glover at her home in Guymon, Oklahoma, on April 29, 2002.

  Farming statistics from the annual Yearbook of Agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929).

  Oklahoma settlement in part from It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own: A New History of the American West, Richard White (Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1991).

  Information on windmills, dugouts, and first homes in No Man's Land from author interview with Janie Harland of Texhoma, Oklahoma, on September 3, 2003, and her oral history on windmills in Panhandle Pioneers, compiled and edited by the Texhoma Genealogical and Historical Society, vol. 7.

  The Government Bureau of Soils and John Wesley Powell's Report on the Arid Lands (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Geological Survey, 1878) provided early description of aridity and potential for agriculture in the High Plains.

  3: CREATING DALHART

  The White family travails from author interviews with Melt White on November 21, 2002, at home in Dalhart, Texas.

  Town-building years from the Dalhart Texan, various editions on file at the XIT Museum in Dalhart, Texas, and from previously cited Hunter, Book of Years.

  Dawson family details are from Dawson's previously cited book, High Plains Yesterdays.

  Kansas details are from Kansas: A Guide to the Sunflower State, Federal Writers Project of the WPA (New York: Viking, 1939).

  Story of early southern plains town-builders from oral history, Federal Writers Project, 1936–1940, public records, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html.

  4: HIGH PLAINS DEUTSCH

  Ehrlich family history taken in part from author interview with Juanita Ehrlich Thompson of Albuquerque, New Mexico, on July 18, 2003, and from Willie Ehrlich's oral history audiotape on file at the Oklahoma Historical Society, Oral History Program, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, recorded July 17, 1986, as well as from an unpublished family history, Seventy-Eight First Cousins (1990), compiled by Yvonne Fortney Jones and Georgia Ehrlich Fortney and given to the author.

  Borth family story from author interview with Rosa Borth Becker, of Shattuck, Oklahoma, on September 12, 2003.

  Information about early German settlement in the High Plains from author interview with Mildred Becker, curator, Wolf Creek Heritage Museum, Lipscomb, Texas, and from exhibits at the museum during author visit September 10, 2003.

  Details on home life, food, and routine of Russian Germans in High Plains in part from oral history archive of tape recording with George Hofferber, Oral History Program, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

  The story of the Volga Germans is drawn from several sources:

  Conquering the Wind: An Epic Migration from the Rhine to the Volga to the Plains of Kansas, Amy Brungardt Toepfer and Agnes Dreiling (Lincoln, Neb.: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1966).

  The Czar's Germans, Hattie Plum Williams (Lincoln, Neb.: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1975).

  Displays at the Wolf Creek Heritage Museum, Lipscomb, Texas, author visit September 7, 2003.

  American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, Lincoln, Nebraska, author visit June 22, 2003.

  "The Migration of Russian-Germans to Kansas," Norman E. Saul, Kansas Historical Quarterly, Spring 1974, vol. 40, no. 1.

  Population gains in the High Plains from the United States Census, 1870, 1890, 1900, 1910, and 1920, www.census.gov.

  Story of Scandinavians from Oslo on the High Plains, Peter L. Petersen, Norwegian American Historical Association, vol. 28, [>], 1979.

  5: LAST OF THE GREAT PLOWUP

  Early tree-planting from Plains Folk, Jim Hoy and Tom Isern (Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1987).

  Homesteading details in part from Homestead National Monument of America, Beatrice, Nebraska, author visit April 10, 2003.

  Kansas details from previously cited WPA guide, Kansas: A Guide to the Sunflower State.

  Size of the federal budget from The Great Depression: America in the 1930s, T. H. Watkins (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1993).

  Dawson family details from previously cited Dawson book, High Plains Yesterdays.

  Folkers details from author interview with Faye Folkers Gardner, April 30, 2002, and her previously cited book, So Long, Old Timer!

  Osteen family narrative from author interview with Ike Osteen, April 25, 2002, and his previously cited book, A Place Called Baca.

  Description of Boise City at the time from the Cimarron News, various editions, 1930.

  Early twentieth-century American life in general, in part from America in Mid-passage, Vol. III: The Real Rise of American Civilization, Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard (New Y
ork: MacMillan Co., 1939), and This Fabulous Century: Sixty Years of American Life, Volume III, 1920–1930 (New York: Time-Life Books, 1969).

  6: FIRST WAVE

  Bank closure from the Dalhart Texan, various issues, 1931, on file at the XIT Museum, Dalhart, Texas.

  Depression details in general, in part from several books:

  The Great Depression, Robert S. McElvaine (New York: Times Books, 1984).

  Watkins, The Great Depression, previously cited.

  The Great Crash: 1929, John Kenneth Galbraith (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1954).

  Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression, Studs Terkel (New York: Random House, 1970).

  White family troubles from author interview with Melt White, November 21, 2002.

  Dalhart details from previously cited Hunter, Book of Years.

  Dalhart collapse from letters, archives, and newspapers on file at the XIT Museum, Dalhart, Texas.

  Information on the Herzstein family came from a variety of sources:

  Author visit to the Herzstein Museum in Clayton, New Mexico, June 4, 2003.

  Author interview with Mortimer H. Herzstein on October 2, 2003.

  Herzstein family archives, on file at the Zimmerman Library, Lerzstein Latin American Reading Room, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

  Author interview with Isabel Lord, daughter of Simon Herzstein, on February 20, 2002.

  7: A DARKENING

  Weather records are from federal weather bureau records, available online, www.nws.noaa.gov/, and from archives at the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, author visit June 22, 2003.

  Hazel Shaw story from author interview with her son, Charles Shaw, September 21, 2003.

  Folkers details from Faye Folkers Gardner's previously cited book, So Long, Old Timer!

  Information on William Murray in part from Alfalfa Bill Murray, Keith L. Bryant Jr. (Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1968) and William H. Murray Collection at Oklahoma University, Carl Albert Center archives, author visit, September 9, 2003.