Volume 18 , Issue 25

NW Okie's Journey

What stories did your parents, grandparents, great grandparents tell you of the "Black Sunday," April 14, 1935? Were they farmers, ranchers? Were they tenant farmers hired by the "suitcase farmers?" Did the federal government and the soil conservationists help them restore their farm, pasture lands after the "dust bowl" of 1935 blew through Northeastern New Mexico, Southeastern Colorado, and the Panhandles of They Oklahoma and Texas?

They came to the conclusion that overgrazing and later over-cultivation produced the "dust bowl." It also believed that the return of much of the land to grass was the only permanent solution of the problem of wind erosion.





The farmers, merchants, county agents and resettlement administrators wanted a czar, with final authority over the entire region. They wanted a practical man, conversant with the problems of the situation who would shield them from the menace of politicians who would make capital of their sorry plight. They wanted part of the country condemned and allowed to go back to grass. And above all, they wanted the "Suitcase farmer" kicked clear out of the region. All of these points were covered at conservation meetings held in 1937 at Amarillo, Texas and Oklahoma City by the same farmers, merchants, county agents and resettlement administrators.

With better weather the suitcase farmers returned and the same process that caused the dust bowl started again in the 1940s and came back in the 1950s.

The dust bowl can happen again if we don't do something to conserve our water and be better caretakers of our lands.

Good Night! Good Luck!
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