Today's Winds-day: The Dust Bowl

A wall of dust a mile high. Coffee that tasted like soil. Kids coughing through the night while parents sealed windows with wet sheets. We dive into the Dirty Thirties to trace how a wheat boom, a drought, and one very bad idea—“rain follows the plow”—turned the Great Plains into the Dust Bowl, and how people fought their way back.

We start with the sales pitch that lured settlers west: the Homestead Acts, cheap tractors, and World War I wheat prices that made plowing up native prairie feel like destiny. Then the rain stopped. Without buffalo grass and blue grama to anchor the soil, the wind took the land itself. We walk through the grim reality of daily life under black blizzards, from dust pneumonia and zero visibility to livestock suffocating in drifts. April 14, 1935—Black Sunday—becomes the breaking point: daylight collapses, communities bunker down, and hope gets tested.

From there we explore the economic squeeze of the Great Depression—bank failures, foreclosure auctions, and impossible choices about staying or leaving along Route 66. Finally, we unpack the turning point: New Deal soil conservation, contour plowing, cover crops, and FDR’s massive Shelterbelt Project that planted more than 200 million trees across the Plains. Alongside Hazel Lucas Shaw’s family story, we pull out the lessons modern agriculture still leans on today: rotation over extraction, windbreaks over wishful thinking, stewardship over short-term gain.

If you care about history, climate, farming, or simply how ordinary people endure extraordinary hardship, this story delivers perspective and grit. Listen, share with a friend who loves history, and leave a review to help more curious folks find the show.

Transcript

Banter And Beers

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Oh, hey there.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Oh, hey there. I'm Kate. I'm Bradley. And this is Why are we doing this? History buffoo. History buffoo. Alright, you're still moving shit. Should I get that noise and play it there? How's it going? I'm well. How are you? I'm good. Excellent. So what do you got for us today?

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Um, we are gonna talk about the dirty thirties.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

I remember my 30s.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

It is the 1930s Dust Bowl when the planes were so over farmed, yeah, the topsoil would like lift up into the air for like a decade.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Yeah, the Dust Bowl.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

I've heard of the Dust Bowl before.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

They called it the Dirty 30s.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Well, I mean, it happened in the 30s. Sure did. It was a little dirty. It was dirty.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

I mean, it just works.

Support The Show

SPEAKER_02 1:11

It I mean, we can't make this stuff up.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

So, anyways, if uh you enjoy what you hear on the history buffoons, um, please go to our website. We have a link up top if you're willing to support us so we can keep creating content.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

A link up top where?

SPEAKER_00 1:28

On our website, like I said. Um did you? I sure fucking did.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

I'm gonna take off my shoes. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Let's get comfy, shall we? Jesus. Woo! Those dogs are barking. Uh all right, I guess I won't finish what the fuck I was saying.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

Say the thing. I don't want to repeat it. Top of the webpage. It's okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

If you just do that. If you're so inclined to support us, we have a link up top. Please help us out. We greatly appreciate it because we enjoy doing this content and we just want to keep it going. So uh historybuffoons podcast.com.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

What do we got?

SPEAKER_02 2:11

So my husband, Nathan, went on um a trip to Illinois. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Oh, I'm just gonna drink this one.

SPEAKER_02 2:19

It was like maybe three weeks ago, something like that. Two or three, yeah. And he texted me while he was going down to Illinois. He said, Hey, I picked you up some podcast beers. I was like, that's awesome, thanks. And I like looked at Life 360 and was like, Oh, we're still in Wisconsin. I was like, Oh, cool, that's whatever. So he comes back a couple days later, and he brought us what is it? Deuster Bex. Deucer Bex. It is made out of Elkhorn, Wisconsin. And in fact, you've taken me there. We met up with um a friend um who lives in Elkhorn. Um, and uh I don't I don't remember if she's ever been there.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

I think I I feel like that was her first time, but I could be wrong.

SPEAKER_02 3:05

Yeah. Um but either way, but yeah, we met her there. Um she is a um a friend of a friend, so she was she's pretty cool. Yeah, she was nice, but uh yeah, we met at Deucerbeck's and I don't remember if this is the one I had. It's um Big Farmer Pale Ale. It is a 6.2 in a 16 fluid ounce um can. And um, yeah, so Nathan got that for me. What did he pick up for you?

SPEAKER_00 3:31

So it I used to sell this beer.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

Uh it's been a couple of years since I've sold beer, so I could be getting my facts wrong. So if I do, I apologize. Um, I actually rather enjoy Dusterbeck's beer. I like their what they got going on there, it's super cool.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

They have a big red barn and it is so cool looking.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Yep. So I I have Bentis Candy, which is a juicy IPA, and if I'm not mistaken, the reason why it's called Bentist is his name is Ben, and he used to be a dentist. That's awesome. Or still is, maybe. I could be getting my facts mixed up. So that's cool. Dusterbeck's people, sorry.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

Yeah, that's awesome. But no, we we enjoyed the location, we enjoyed the beer, we enjoyed the company.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Super fun. Yeah, we had a good time there meeting up with a friend, and um, I just they had a band there. Yeah, uh, nice restaurant. Um, my supervisor at the time showed up, said, Oh, hey, what's up, dude? Oh, I don't remember that. You you guys were hanging out in the restaurant part. I went and said hello outside. Yeah. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

Okay, cheers. Cheers.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

So yeah, if I got if I got my facts wrong, sorry, but I rather enjoyed there. We I had a meeting there once prior to taking you there. That's why I'm like, oh, I should take it in. We like beer and whatever. And uh I and I knew my friend down there. So and I had a I had a few. It was good.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Did you?

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Oh yeah.

Today’s Topic: The Dust Bowl

SPEAKER_02 4:57

Don't remember. That's really tasty.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Well, you wouldn't remember you weren't there talking about the meeting we had.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

Oh let's continue.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Anyway, so we're gonna talk about the Dust Bowl of the 1930-30s.

How The Plains Were Settled

SPEAKER_02 5:12

Yeah, sorry, I'm rearranging my okay. Yes, so were you rearranging my microphone? If you heard that. So um yeah. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the South, the southern Great Plains, western Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle, yeah, southwestern um Kansas, eastern Colorado, um, they were widely promoted as America's great agricultural frontier.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Yeah, because they're still trying to get people to go out that way. Yes, yes. Yes, there was people out there. However, it was still relatively untouched, unpopulated. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

Railroad companies and land speculators and federal policy all work together to sell like this powerful idea that this land was meant to be farmed. If you recall from our um Oregon Trail episode, there was the Homestead Act of 1862 that had already opened up the Westlands to settlements by granting 160 acres to anyone willing to live on it and improve it. Um, but for the plains, 160 acres wasn't enough to uh sustain a family. So Congress expanded the opportunity. And so um came about the enlarged homestead act of 1909, okay, which increased claims to 320 acres of dry land regions, and then the Stock Raising Homestead Act of 1916, which allowed up to 640 acres for ranching.

Homestead Acts And Big Acreage

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Holy fuck. Yes. So and again, this is pure just what's your opinion on this? Do you think that's why a lot of I mean, we'll we'll call it Midwestern-ish, it's more west than mid, but do you think that's why a lot of families like had big ass fucking ranches that went through generations? Oh yeah, because like great grandpappy decided I'll do that. 640 acres. I mean, fucking hell. That's that's a lot of fucking land.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

So when people think Midwest, I always think that they think of like Ohio.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Which is to me, it's funny. I don't even think of Ohio in the Midwest. I don't think personally that either. But being from Wisconsin, you're from Nebraska, I consider that more Midwest. Obviously, too. Iowa, Nebraska, um Kansas, yeah, Minnesota, even I throw in there. Obviously, Wisconsin, like I said, you know, that's where I see Midwest. I I feel like Ohio's East still. But again, I I don't know if I'm right. That's just my perception of it.

SPEAKER_02 7:59

Yeah, that's my perception too.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

But yeah, so, anyways, um, because I just wonder if like, yeah, great grandpappy started this ranch 1917 or whatever the fuck years you're you're talking about, you know. It's like yeah, crazy.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

Anyways, so obviously, between all these like homestead acts, the the message was weirdly clear. Like, here is the land we want you to go and produce stuff here.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

This land is yours, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

That was a that was really exciting.

The Myth Of Rain Follows The Plow

SPEAKER_00 8:33

You got too excited for that.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

So at the same time, there was a popular phrase kind of gaining traction. Yeah, and it was rain follows the plow. Have you ever heard that? I've never no same. So maybe I just made it up. I don't know. But the belief was that cultivation itself would change the climate, that breaking the soil and planting crops would somehow increase rainfall.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

And boy, were they wrong.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

But it it sounds naive, but back then it was very like quote unquote scientific because there were periods of unusually wet weather in the late 1800s that seemed to prove like every time we plowed, it would start to rain. But it was just coincidence, except for yes, obviously.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

Right.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

But it's it would be like us like washing our car and then it rains.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Yeah. I literally was at one of my accounts, I think it was last earlier this week or last week, and this nice guy, Mike, that I talked to at this particular account, it's like, yeah, we're supposed to get rain, of course, and I just washed my car, you know. So yeah, he literally just said that to me.

SPEAKER_02 9:37

It's like so um they they took mistook like a temporary wet cycle for like a permanent shift. So the Great Plains were naturally semi-arid, semi-dry.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

Um, average rainfall decreases sharply the farther you go west.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 9:56

And much of the southern plains receives between 15 and 20 inches of rain per year, barely enough for consistent crop farming without irrigation.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

So they probably need some significant irrigation set up, right? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

So before settlement, that fragile oak ecosystem survived because of prairie grasses.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

Right.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

So buffalo grass and blue grandma didn't need deep rainfall.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Okay.

Wheat Boom And World War I Demand

SPEAKER_02 10:27

Their extensive root systems locked the soil in place and conserved moisture. So settlers didn't come west to grow grass, though. They came to grow wheat.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

I'm sure there's some that wanted to grow weed, but either way.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Wheat.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

Oh, I I grass, weed. So I got what you said. I don't think you picked up what I said.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

Oh, I got what you said, and that's why I corrected you because I didn't put two and two together, even though I heard you. When World War I erupted in 1914, global wheat, uh the demand for global wheat expanded exponentially.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

So, what's the difference between global wheat and just wheat? Continue.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

I was gonna try to uh so European farmland was devastated by combat during World War One. Okay. So that created a massive demand for grain to feed both soldiers and civilians everywhere else.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_02 11:32

So high prices and government encouragement pushed countries like the United States to plow millions of new acres, dramatically increasing production, especially on the Great Plains.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

Well, there's just so much open fucking land. It's like, hey, we're not doing anything. Let's, I don't know, maybe help out.

SPEAKER_02 11:51

Yeah, exactly. And that's what they did.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

So here's 640 acres, go make some farms.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

Yeah, and because of that, prices soared. Of course. Farmers on the plane could suddenly make some serious money, and so they plowed their hearts out. Tractors became more affordable then in the 1910s, 1920s. I feel a burr coming on.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Sound like you said, I feel a burr.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

I don't think it came out yet.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

It's close, it's real close. So while she's doing this, Great Plains, am I right?

SPEAKER_02 12:24

It's not there yet. So sorry.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

Either way. Um yeah. I I can't imagine being alive at that time and being like, I'll fucking do this.

SPEAKER_02 12:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

I'm also not a farmer, so I mean, props to all the farmers out there still.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

I mean, I I spent like, you know, a summer farming.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Okay. No, you didn't.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

Yeah, I did over t over 2020. I did. I was I was I taught I was learned I was taught how I was learned. I was taught how to drive a tractor and to drive into town. Yes, I was taught how to drive into town and unload the corn, drive back, unhitch, re hitch, and all the things.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

Did you actually drive like the combine that collected the corn in the combine, nope, just the the tractor with the bins in the back. Okay, so you didn't farm you delivered.

unknown 13:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:25

Well, there were a couple times when I got I I sat on Nathan's lap and I, you know, did the steering wheel shit.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Did he do the combine? Like did he help out with that?

SPEAKER_02 13:34

Yeah, him and grandpa did.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

Um I'm sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

Grandpa kind of weaned off towards the end just because you know it was hard to get up and down.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Well, he's getting older, so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

Yeah. Anyway.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

I like grandpa, he's nice. Grandpa's great. Yeah.

Plows, Tractors, And Torn-Up Prairie

SPEAKER_02 13:45

Okay, so again, tractors were becoming really affordable. Yep. And mechanized plows could break acres in a day, and that would have taken teams of horses far longer, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:57

So did they use horses or do they use like cattle, like bulls and stuff? Bullshit. I guess I'm not even sure. Horses. I use horses too, though, right? Yeah. Okay. So I just in my head, I did not picture a horse. I just pictured like anyways. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

That's okay. It's it's giving me time to burp.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

So or is it?

SPEAKER_02 14:18

So millions of acres of native prairie grass were torn up in a matter of years. So by the early 1920s, roughly five million acres of grant grassland per year were being converted into cropland across the plains. So the fields had been untouched for centuries, were suddenly exposed.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Well, you you eliminate all that grass that held the soil together.

SPEAKER_02 14:45

What were the I'm sorry, I don't remember the It was buffalo grass and blue Grammia or blue.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

Yeah, either way.

SPEAKER_02 14:54

Blue grandma or grandma.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Hey grandma, pretty much, yeah. Sad grandma. Anyways, um, yeah, obviously you start plowing that shit out. Nothing to hold the soil together.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

Yeah, but they didn't know.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

Well, I mean, it's not like we invented farming the year before. Fair. I mean, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:16

No, but people also weren't settled in this area.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

I I get that. However, you can't tell me this is the only place we've ever run into this kind of climate and soil conditions.

SPEAKER_02 15:28

I have seen it saying it is the worst natural disaster slash Americ um human-made disaster of American history.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

I I see it. Yeah. But it's just it's mind-boggling that, like, okay, yeah, just do it. I don't know what's happening, sir. Yeah. You know, I just I figured, I don't know. Anyways, continue. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

So at first, this looked like a triumph. In the 1920s, houses in excuse me, towns in the panhandle and western uh Kansas grew rapidly. Sure. Grain elevators rose along rail lines, and new houses were built, automobiles replaced wagons, um, and families like Hazel Lucas Shaw's family watched wheat transform their communities. So Hazel's father, like many others, rode that wave of prosperity. Wheat prices were high, crops were strong during these wet years, and Hazel Lucas Shaw grew up in that moment of promise.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Sure.

Prices Crash And Overplanting

SPEAKER_02 16:31

So her father had homestead um land in Boise City, Oklahoma, which is deep in the panhandle. Okay. And it was a region once named uh nicknamed No Man's Land.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

Um, but wheat had brought their family success. So the sky always felt like generous and enormous and just full of life and full of rain and just now the the panhandle is that little strip right above Texas, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:58

Correct. Okay. Yeah. So they I always get that wrong in my brain for some reason.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

So if you think of like skillet, yeah, yeah, the panhandle of the skillet.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

So the land seemed endless and super forgiving. Um, but when Hazel reached adulthood, when she marries her husband Charles Shaw, begins teaching school, she started having children of her own, the illusion of endless prosperity was starting to crack.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Starting to dry out, if you will.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

If you will. So after World War One ended, European agriculture resumed production. Rebounded, yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_02 17:35

So wheat prices then in America collapsed in the early 1920s. Sure. So farmers who had borrowed heavily to buy tractors and expand acreages finally faced this failing income.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

Well, they didn't have enough to pay back their debts, basically. And so, yeah, they had all this fucking money like borrowed to get these tractors, equipment, grain silos, all all this shit, and all of a sudden, oh shit, we're not making enough to pay this back.

SPEAKER_02 18:03

So to compensate for these lower prices, they planted even more acreage.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

So they made it worse. Yeah, that I thought there was a word I was gonna try and use, but I'm not that smart to remember it.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

Um, more land was plowed, more grass was destroyed, and by the late 1920s, the plains had fundamentally altered. So millions of acres that had once been protected by these deep-rooted native grasses were now covered in these shallow rooted annual crops. Yep. And then there was also little crop rotation, which I didn't know was a thing until 2020 when I learned how to drive a tractor.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

You didn't know that.

Drought Begins And Soil Exposed

SPEAKER_02 18:45

Um, Nathan might have said that beforehand, but I didn't really see it in action until 2020.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

Because like you've you've been to my house, uh, that road that you come on around to my house, Honey Creek. Yeah. I always joke, and I always get disappointed that like, oh, it's not cornier on both sides because it looks like you're driving the trench run in the Death Star.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

But then it's like, oh, they plant their uh what is the fucking thing they usually do?

SPEAKER_02 19:11

Um soybeans.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

Yeah, I think that's what it is. And it's like, well, that's disappointing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

But yeah, so because each plant takes different nutrients and puts certain ones back, right? So like with grandpa's farm, they alternated between corn and beans per um acre or per uh plot of land. Yeah, yeah. Which I that's super interesting, but and that's not what they did back then. They did not do that crop.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

They didn't know that, obviously. And like obviously, I know don't quote me on this because I'm not a farmer, but like I've seen, like, let's say I'm just picturing the road by my house. This field they had corn two years in a row, but then they they switched. So I don't know what the lifespan is of the soil, if you will, before they have to swap. I'm not sure, but I could have sworn there's a couple times where I'm like, oh, corn this year, corn this year, no corn this year. Okay, I don't know. Interesting, but it's it's crazy how they've learned that over the years, obviously.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

Since then, my dad would probably be able to tell us because he he's definitely he's in agricultural um sales, but oh, is he?

SPEAKER_00 20:17

Yeah, I guess I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

Um, from what I remember, which isn't much sometimes, and well, for us to admit, he sold um chemicals for agricultural crops. So okay. Um, like Roundup and shit.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

Roundup. I feel like that's not right, but maybe I don't know. Dwayne, let us know.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

Um, but grandpa's farm was always really good at beans this year, corn next year. Okay, sure.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

Like well, it just it helps the soil, it gets those nutrients back because the the nut the crop the following year is gonna benefit from that, and vice versa, you know, whatever. So yeah, makes sense. Yeah. Anyways.

SPEAKER_02 20:58

So soil conservation methods were fairly minimal. Fields were often left bare between plantings, especially after harvest. Yep. And then the rain stopped coming.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Who'll stop the rain?

SPEAKER_02 21:14

When drought conditions began in 1930, the land was already exposed and vulnerable. And without moisture, crop roots dried quickly. Nope, died quickly.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

I mean, they probably dried and then died. Probably. But yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:29

But with no grass left to anchor it, the topsoil dried into a loose, powdery layer.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

Literally just dust. Yes. Hence the dust bowl.

Daily Life In The Dust

SPEAKER_02 21:39

And the plains did what they had always done. The wind blew across the plains.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

It's like, hey man, my field's over there now.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

Yeah. The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plains.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

Is that a thing?

SPEAKER_02 21:55

It's from My Fair Lady in My Fair Lady. She is like this Cockney poverty stricken woman, and some hoity toity bachelor brings her in and teaches her how to speak properly.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

So it's it's like a it's like a is that what um uh fucking just lost the name of it. What's her name? Julia Roberts? Is that pretty woman, pretty much? So it's a sequel, it's a remake of that.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

No, so he basically speaks her.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Pretty woman is a remake of that.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

Yes. So so the rain, so so the practiced mantra that she had to do was the rain and spine falls mainly, but she's like falls mainly in the pines. Anyway, let's I dictate that.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Let's move on. Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

So the winds picked up. Hazel grew up during this boom. She saw sorry to interrupt.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

That's okay. This is now is are we we're in the Great Depression already?

SPEAKER_02 22:58

Yes, we are. I was getting I'm going to mention that, but no, you are exactly in the right time frame. Exactly. So Hazel grew up in this boom. She saw that wheat um bring brought a lot of prosperity to Boise City, Oklahoma. She saw the pride of the settlement, the sense that her family was building like something permanent in a place that once had seemed empty. Um, and by the time that she was a young wife and teacher in the early 1930s, that that permanence was starting to unravel.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

That optimism of rain follows the plow had started to turn into this dangerous illusion. Sure. Um, the Federal Lands Acts, like um, excuse me, the Federal Land Acts had succeeded in populating the plants, but they had not changed the climate. The wheat boom had enriched these families, but it had also stripped the land of these natural defenses.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

Nutrients and everything, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:57

So when the drought deepened, the conde conquences were immediate and they were catastrophic.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

And families like um Hazel Lucas Shaw's were left to live inside this result. Yes. So by the early 1930s, what had once been dependable farmland across the southern plains had become something unstable, something that was shifting and almost unrecognizable.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

Well, yeah, it's just fucking dust everywhere and dirt.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

And it got bad. Um, the the wind no longer like skimmed harmlessly across the field of these this anchored grass.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

It lifted the very surface of the earth and carried it away.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

So I've I don't want to say made you because you enjoyed this movie. Oh, excuse me.

SPEAKER_02 24:46

I know what you're getting at.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

Interstellar.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

Yes, I have a picture. Do you? I'm gonna insert, I'm gonna um highlight this, this, this, um, this area. There is a picture between um a dust, the dust bowl covering an automobile and the movie Interstellar, where the dust is covering the truck.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

That's fancy.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

So I'll put a side-by-side picture, but it immediately made me think of Interstellar.

SPEAKER_00 25:12

How could it not? I mean, yes, and by the way.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

Describe a little bit about the beginning of Interstellar, so if people don't know.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

The beginning? Yeah. So basically, um, more or less Matthew McConaughey's character Cooper, which it's funny. I I saw a video speaking of Interstellar, since let's go on a tangent here. Um, they never mention his first name. Oh, really? In the movie? Just Cooper. He's always referred to as Cooper. Could can you guess what his first name actually is in that movie? No, Joseph.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

I like it. I like it.

Black Blizzards Across States

SPEAKER_00 25:44

So it's funny. The video I saw was somebody asking Matthew McConaughey that. Like, did you ever know? He's like, I might have once, but I've no idea. It's like, and they tell him it's Joseph. He's like, Cooper Joseph? He's like, no, Joseph Cooper. So it's pretty funny. I love Matthew McConaughey. He's he's one of my favorites. But, anyways, so the earth is dying. They have farmers similar to what we're honestly talking about, that are trying to, you know, dust everywhere, and literally, literal fucking dust storms come through. And they're all like masks and goggles and everything, and so on.

SPEAKER_02 26:21

And so, yeah, and at the dinner table, they would have their plates turned upside down, so when they were ready to eat, they could then turn it up and it would be semi-clean.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

Yep. So, yeah, so it's literally uh well, that's set in the future. Yes. So it's literally like a hundred years apart from what they're talking about, and it's the same thing, more or less, except the literal planet is dying in Interstellar, where the rest of the Earth in the 1930s is not. Either way, very similar.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

But if you have not seen Interstellar, it's a fantastic movie. I had not it was made in 2014. I had not seen it until like maybe late last year.

SPEAKER_00 27:00

Yeah, I I had you watch it with me because so I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 27:04

No, that's okay. It was so good, and I honestly would recommend everybody watch this.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

It is, it's not what you call wholesome, but it's there's not foul language, but it is though, in a way, with the love of his daughter and everything, and I don't want to give anything away because you know, whatever. It's so good. My my brother Corey and I, Corey, who wrote the music for our our intro and our podcast and everything. Um, he and I love Christopher Nolan. We absolutely love Christopher Nolan as a director, and we will pretty much see anything, and and it's great. The uh they there's a new one coming out, I think it's in July, if I'm not mistaken. The Odyssey. Literally, Homer's the Odyssey with Matt Damon.

SPEAKER_02 27:44

Matt Damon who you love.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

I love Matt Damon. My brother and I cannot wait to see this movie because it's we we we love what he does. Christopher Nolan is a great fucking director. Yeah. And his brother, oh shit, Jonathan Nolan, I want to say. He writes a lot of stuff. I don't know if he wrote on the Odyssey. Um, but it's funny. Um yeah, it was inner stuff. No. Uh one of the lines in the Dark Knight trilogy.

Interstellar Parallels

SPEAKER_02 28:12

Yeah, the one that Harvey uh Oh, the the sky is dark or darkest just before the dawn or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

You either become the hero or live to see yourself long enough to become the villain or something.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:29

His brother wrote that. Nice. I I think that's the line I'm thinking of. Either way, I love Christopher Nolan. I like his brother's writing. It's great. Go see Interstellar. No, not go see, but watch it. It's yeah, it's it's out there, it's fucking great. Let's get back on our story. 1930s.

SPEAKER_02 28:43

Yes. Um, so the wind no longer skimmed across these grasses, right? Picked it up, lifted it up and carried it away. So storm after storm, towering clouds of topsoil that rose high into the atmosphere, sometimes climbing more than a mile above ground. Holy shit. And what began in a single county did not ever stay in that county.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

No, so it's like, I don't know counties and obviously Oklahoma, but it's like, hey, Racine's dirt is now in Milwaukee's dirt.

SPEAKER_02 29:18

You know, basically. So dust from Oklahoma drifted into Kansas.

unknown 29:23

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 29:24

From Texas, it drifted into Missouri. Sure. And on certain days, reports claimed as far as Chicago. Oh my God. And some days reported as far as New York. And some days it was reported.

SPEAKER_00 29:37

Atlantic Ocean.

SPEAKER_02 29:38

The Atlantic Ocean on the ships.

SPEAKER_00 29:41

Shit, really?

SPEAKER_02 29:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

Holy fuck. And that's fucking wild. Because like, do you have do you have any type of mileage on that by chance?

SPEAKER_02 29:51

No, I have a map that I can enter here.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

Um of like holy shit.

SPEAKER_02 29:56

I have a map of like the general area of where where the most of the dust traveled and then where the kind of the heart of the dust bowl was.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

I know this is not perfect, what I'm about to say, but what is it? From New York to LA is 3,000 miles roughly. Cut it in half.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:14

Roughly. Yeah. We'll we'll we'll even take a couple off. Yeah. 1,300 miles to the ocean. Give or take, obviously. I'm not being specific here, but holy that's a long yeah. Fuck. Yeah. So that's insane.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

So 19 states would eventually feel this reach. Sure. So statistics didn't convey what it meant to stand in the middle of it. No. Which is what we're going to talk about today. Well, of course. If you were living in the panhandle, yeah, Western Texas, east, sorry, western Kansas, eastern Colorado, the dust bowl was neither a headline nor a weather pattern. It was literally your kitchen table. It was the plates that you ate on.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

You had to turn your plates over.

SPEAKER_02 31:02

Yeah, it was the dust in your eyes. It was the dust in your lungs.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

Like it it was That is just crazy. Like I can't.

Homes Turned Into Bunkers

SPEAKER_02 31:11

It was a phenomenon.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

Like I couldn't think of I can't I can't even imagine what it would be like to like live in that such I don't want to call it filth, but it is. It is. And just have like layers of dust on fucking everything. That's just fucking wild. That would be such a burden on your day-to-day life. Yes. I gotta sit down in the old portage on or I mean outhouse and go wipe off my seat. Yep. Or I'm gonna make dinner, I gotta empty the pot out of dust and shit. I mean, just everything. It's fucking wild.

SPEAKER_02 31:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:52

Crazy.

SPEAKER_02 31:53

So they would like wipe off their kitchen table in the morning and then it would be covered again by noon.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

Why wouldn't you just put a fucking like plastic? Well, not plastic. We're talking about the 1930s.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

That's yeah. A blanket or something.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

A blanket andor, you know, a tablecloth and then just lift it off. That's what I would do.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

I'm sure people did. I'm sure people did, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

So anyways.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

But it was the way the air itself like seemed heavier, thick enough that you noticed it in every breath.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:23

It was waking up in the middle of the night coughing, your throat raw from inhaling particles so fine you cannot see them individually. No, yet you could still taste them constantly.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_02 32:36

It was the unending sound of wind pressing against the house. It wasn't like a sharp gust that passed, but like a city low roar that seemed to like settle into the walls. Like that's what they would experience as the dust bowl.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

Do you do you think like with the the wind like that that they kept hearing a little ding?

SPEAKER_02 32:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 32:59

I mean, fuck.

SPEAKER_02 33:00

Yes, they said that there was like a roar that would come with it.

SPEAKER_00 33:04

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 33:06

So even when a storm finally moved on and the sky returned to blue, the dust never disappeared. No, it lingered in the cracks and the floorboards and in the seams of clothing. I mean, I have been to the beach once wearing glasses, and I forever carried sand in the crevices of my glasses. Like it gets everywhere. Sure. So and that's sand.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

That's sand. We're talking about even finer. Finer. Like dust. Yeah. That's even finer than what you were experienced there. So I mean, yeah, this is literally getting everywhere. Could you imagine having dust in your ears like that? If you had to walk outside and go farm or whatever, fuck.

SPEAKER_02 33:52

Yeah. Um, it would sift into dresser drawers beneath mattresses, even. I collected in the folds of curtains and along the edges of windowsills. Yes, Bradley.

Dust Pneumonia And Health Crises

SPEAKER_00 34:06

I I I have to say this because you brought up mattresses. Also, I love this beer. I really like it. Good. Yeah. Good job, Nathan. Yeah, thank you, Nathan. I really like mine too. Um I finished one. Look at you. That never happens. I know. I'm sorry. Am I talking too much?

SPEAKER_02 34:24

No, I like it.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

So I used to sell mattresses.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

Right. Do you want to know what of the one of the most disgusting things I ever see? To this day. I literally saw it like a week or so ago. People will transport a mattress to a different house and not fucking wrap it.

SPEAKER_02 34:44

Cover it. I know.

SPEAKER_00 34:46

It's like, do you I don't care if it's nice out, it doesn't matter. Do you know what particles are getting on your bed? And then you're just like, oh, I'll be alright. I'm putting a sheet on it. Nope. So fucking gross.

SPEAKER_02 34:59

Nope. No, I totally get it.

SPEAKER_00 35:00

Get a fucking bag.

SPEAKER_02 35:02

Get a bag. Get a bag.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Go to Steinhoffels. They at least we used to. We used to just sell mattress bags for the size you need. Tape up the fucking end. It's worth it. Because that you can't get those clean like that. Yeah, you can use a fucking Stanley steamer or whatever the fuck they use.

SPEAKER_02 35:21

Topical.

SPEAKER_00 35:22

Yeah, that's all it is. You're not getting the depth. Yeah. Anyways, that's my fucking TED Talk or whatever they call those.

SPEAKER_02 35:30

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

SPEAKER_00 35:32

About mattress safety and cleanliness.

SPEAKER_02 35:35

So this dust would also work its way into flower sacks and sugar bowls into boots and blankets, fine lines of your hands.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

Did the boots have the fur?

unknown 35:49

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

Boots with blankets.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

Okay. I'm sorry. That's on my that's on me. Yeah, you shouldn't do that. No, okay.

SPEAKER_02 35:57

Um you would sweep and sweep and sweep, and still there would be a coating on the surfaces.

SPEAKER_00 36:05

Yeah, you couldn't get it clean.

SPEAKER_02 36:07

Hayes would later describe those years in a way that still captures like the claustrophobic um essence of it. Yeah. She said, quote, it seemed like the black dust was always with us. It seemed that we lived in a land of haze. The atmosphere seemed to always be closing in around us, creating an eerie and uneasy feeling, end quote.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 36:30

So outside fields that had once been green, um, and they laid flat and pale, their top soil was stripped away, or it was even piled into drifts, like were in like snow, yeah. Like snow in Wisconsin. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:48

It would be all up along fence lines.

SPEAKER_00 36:50

Given up in their business.

SPEAKER_02 36:52

Livestock would stand coated in this dull gray film. Ribs were starting to show um sharply each week as the pasture disappeared between these layers of loose earth. They had no grass, no grass to eat and no water to drink.

SPEAKER_00 37:09

No.

Economics In The Great Depression

SPEAKER_02 37:11

So the land had been pushed beyond its limits long before that first storm um came about because of all the plowing. And they just didn't know. That's the thing. Like they just didn't have that education, that that working knowledge.

SPEAKER_00 37:28

But how how would how would they have though? Exactly. Like they just they did not know it, learn it situation. 100% huge situation. But and that's all you can really say about it. It's like they just they didn't have the knowledge of that time for knowing we need water, we need irrigation, all this, whatever. Just go go make wheat, you'll be rich. Yeah, fuck. We don't need it.

SPEAKER_02 37:54

Yeah, we don't need we don't need that buffalo grass. Yeah, yeah. So when the drought arrived, there was no deep prairie roots left behind to hold it together. There was no thick grasses to bind that soil together to um battle against the wind. And what had once been a living, resilient system had been broken apart and exposed. And so when the wind came, as it always had on the plains, and oh my gosh, does he get windy there? Um, there was nothing left to stop it from taking the ground itself. Right. The storms did not arrive very nicely, they weren't polite in any way.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

They were like, hey, we're gonna win you now.

SPEAKER_02 38:36

Just so you know, we're coming, prepare, do what you need to do.

SPEAKER_00 38:40

If you if you got it a couple minutes, get ready.

SPEAKER_02 38:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 38:44

Um they came in waves as well. And after a while, the calendar just stopped mattering. They stopped saying like today's Tuesday. Instead, they would say, It's blowing again, or it's the day after the last blizzard.

SPEAKER_00 38:59

Or so would they say today's Wednesday? Wednesday.

SPEAKER_02 39:05

I don't like what you did there. Today's Wednesday. That's funny.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 39:17

Drink some more. Okay. Cheers to that.

SPEAKER_00 39:21

Thanks, Tuesday backs and Nathan. Oh boy.

SPEAKER_02 39:27

By 1932 and 33, the wind had become something just everyone watched. It was just part of their daily routine then.

SPEAKER_00 39:34

God could you imagine sleeping in this? Oh gross.

SPEAKER_02 39:41

Mornings began with a glimpse towards the horizon. Always. They would wake up and look outside.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

Just it was automatic. Well, why wouldn't you? Like, hey, are we getting fucked today? No. Yep, no, never mind.

April 14, 1935: Black Sunday

SPEAKER_02 39:52

They would read the color of the the horizon to see what was coming. So a pale yellow haze meant grit would be in your teeth by noon. Oh, gross. And a darker brown line, excuse me. A darker brown line meant that you might see not see the barn from your porch.

SPEAKER_00 40:13

And that was probably 50 feet. Yeah. Give or take, whatever. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:17

So the sky, the horizon became like a warning system every day. Jesus Christ. So on the worst days, days, the wind would start low and steady, then build until it seemed to vibrate through the ground. You could hear it before you see it. It was like a long-distant roar, like an approaching train. Sure. The light would begin to fade, the air thickened, the chickens started heading for their coops well before sunset, and then it would hit.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 40:48

The first gust slammed against the house hard enough to rattle windows in their frames. Dust poured across the yard in sheets, rolling and folding over itself like waves. Within minutes, the world would turn sepia, then brown, then black.

SPEAKER_00 41:07

So sepia, like we're in the beginning of uh Wizard of Oz.

SPEAKER_02 41:10

Wizard of Oz, exactly. So if you were caught outdoors.

SPEAKER_00 41:13

Were they in the dust bowl too?

SPEAKER_02 41:15

So if you were caught outdoors, you wrapped your arms across your face and like bent into the wind, hoping that you could make it 10 feet without losing direction.

SPEAKER_00 41:23

Oh fuck, yeah. I mean, that that had to be shitty too, because all of a sudden, like, wait.

SPEAKER_02 41:29

And then more than one farmer would walk straight past his gate because he couldn't even see where the gate was. So inside the house, it obviously became like a bunker. Rags were shoved into door cracks, newspapers were were tacked over window frames, wet sheets were hung across openings in a desperate attach uh uh attempt to catch some of this dirt. Yeah, but the dust was persistent.

SPEAKER_00 41:58

It was relentless.

SPEAKER_02 41:59

Relentless. It found the smallest seam and worked through it like it was the mummy from the from the it was like the mummy from the movie The Mummy with Brennan Fraser, and he would like go through the keyhole.

SPEAKER_00 42:10

Again, national treasure. National treasure. Brennan Fraser. Brennan Fraser, yeah. Here's the mummy for. That has been so I really, really hope everything I'm hearing is true.

SPEAKER_02 42:23

With Oded Fair coming back?

SPEAKER_00 42:25

He fucking better. He's so dreamy. If you haven't seen The Mummy with Brendan Fraser, then you haven't listened to other ones where we've talked it up.

SPEAKER_02 42:35

So anyways, Hazel remembered how her mother tried to keep the dust out when she was growing up. She said, quote, mom said she had every crack stuff with rags and she would wet them down. She'd hang sheets over everything where dust might come in, but it didn't keep it out. It would come in somewhere, end quote.

SPEAKER_01 42:53

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 42:54

And it always came in somewhere. Yep. It sifted down from the ceilings, it rose through the floorboards. You could see it drifting in lamplight like smoke from a fire that never quite went out. Jesus. Women swept until their backs ached, which if you know, you know it doesn't take long for your back to ache after that. They wiped down tables again and again. They cooked their meals under under blankets. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 43:23

Fuck.

SPEAKER_02 43:24

Flour was mixed with grit. Coffee tasted like soil. If you were to spoon beans from a from a bowl, there would always be like this layer of brown that settled um underneath.

SPEAKER_00 43:40

Oh, it's so gross.

SPEAKER_02 43:41

Children stopped playing outside, their throats started burning, their eyes watered constantly. Um, many developed hacking coughs that would linger for weeks. Sure. Some coughed until their ribs hurt. Have you ever had that? It's painful.

SPEAKER_00 43:57

Excuse me, it's it's the fucking. Worst. I hate that shit.

SPEAKER_02 44:02

Doctors began using a new phrase. Dust pneumonia. It wasn't a cold, it wasn't bronchitis. It was dust. It was lungs overwhelmed by the sheer volume of fine particles inhaled day after day.

SPEAKER_00 44:17

Well, that's the thing. You can't have so much dust in your lungs. You can't, I mean, you shouldn't have any, honestly, but it's like mesothelioma. What is it called?

SPEAKER_02 44:25

Mesothelioma.

SPEAKER_00 44:26

Is that what it is?

SPEAKER_02 44:27

Fuck up, I know. Parents would lay awake at night listening, listening for the sound of a cough from their kids. Um, a cough that might sound deeper than the rest. Um, listening for that moment when that irritation might become something worse.

SPEAKER_00 44:44

Wow, that's wild.

Aftermath, Exhaustion, And Resolve

SPEAKER_02 44:46

Obviously, livestock fared no better. Cattles would turn, turn their backs to the wind, standing motionless for hours as dirt packed into their little nostrils. Sheep suffocated in drifts, chicken were found dead beneath layers of dust that had filled their coops. And some mornings, farmers walked out into the fields and found that calves were half buried where they had laid down the night before, having never risen again.

SPEAKER_00 45:14

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 45:15

Oh, it breaks my heart. Um, the economic strain tightened alongside this environmental one. So wheat prices, like I said, had collapsed after World War I.

SPEAKER_00 45:27

Yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_02 45:28

And as you said earlier, now we are in the Great Depression.

SPEAKER_00 45:32

Which does not make things better.

SPEAKER_02 45:34

Banks had failed and credit disappeared. Farm mortgages came due, whether crops grew or not. Families had borrowed money during the boom years, now found themselves unable to make these payments. Yep. Um, sheriff sales were common. Um, auction notices were were um tacked offense posts, entire farmsteads sold off for fractions of the the cost. Yep. And many people kept planting.

SPEAKER_00 46:05

Because they didn't know better and they they thought they had to, because this is hey, we need to make money. So this is what we gotta do. We gotta let's do it.

SPEAKER_02 46:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:13

They didn't know.

SPEAKER_02 46:14

Yeah, they didn't. It sounds irrational from this distance, obviously. But from inside it, it made moved. Yeah, and it made desperate sense to them. If you didn't plant, you literally had no chance at all. It's like if you wake up in the middle of the night and you're like, I should get up, but if I get up, then I have zero chance of falling back to sleep.

SPEAKER_00 46:32

What? What? Like I did.

SPEAKER_02 46:36

What?

SPEAKER_00 46:37

Like I did.

SPEAKER_02 46:38

What what happened with you?

SPEAKER_00 46:44

There are times, for some reason, I'll wake up and be like, all right, time to go to the work.

SPEAKER_02 46:50

Time to go to work. Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 46:51

And Sarah will be like, Brad, what are you doing? Like, I gotta go to work. Like, no, it's 11:30. Like, I've been asleep for two fucking hours, two and a half hours. Yesterday. Yeah. I did that Thursday night, but then she didn't catch me the second time when I woke up in the same night. In the same night, but a couple hours later, I woke up, I think it was 1.10, if I'm not mistaken. Oh no. Got up, turned the shower on, started getting my stuff ready, and I'm like, I get showered and everything, and I'm like You're already showered. Oh, it's 1.30.

unknown 47:31

What the fuck?

SPEAKER_00 47:32

So I just went to work. That's the one nicest thing about my job is I mean You can just go in. Minus the one that wasn't open. Because it was so fucking early. Anyways, yes. So anyways.

SPEAKER_02 47:45

But yeah, it's like if you if you don't plant crops, then 100% you're not gonna grow crops.

SPEAKER_00 47:52

No, so they they did this because hey, we need to make money. So we gotta plant this shit, whether it's dusty or not, let's fucking do it. They didn't know. They didn't know, they didn't know, like, hey, we should probably get some irrigation going on up in this bitch.

New Deal Soil Conservation

SPEAKER_02 48:11

So if the rain came after they planted, you know, even once, maybe they could salvage something, something, maybe they could make a payment, maybe they could hold on for a near, so they plowed again, breaking up this little grass that had tried to return. Yeah. And when the wind came, the more it took. So by 1934, the storms were growing more frequent and more intense.

SPEAKER_00 48:35

So I don't know if you get into this. Sorry if you don't. Do they have an explanation why these storms were so prevalent at this time? So the wind is gonna come no matter what year you're which I get, but it just seems all about that grass being taken out and that soil being you go there a hundred years ago, you go there today. It's roughly the same, but obviously now there's irrigation and so on and such whatever. Yeah. It's just that's what the climate is in this region.

SPEAKER_02 49:09

Literally, the only reason why it was so bad was because they removed the grasses. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:15

Of all the over farming at that time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Over over farming might not be the proper term, but it's over farming under fucking um irrigation, properly doing it. Right. If you will.

SPEAKER_02 49:30

It was very topical, very yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:33

Yeah. So the number of black blizzards, as they were called, increased dramatically.

SPEAKER_01 49:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:40

In some towns, visibility dropped to zero dozens of times in a single year. There were days when drivers stopped in the middle of roads because it because they couldn't see the hood in their of their own car. Jesus. More than one accident occurred when vehicles simply ran into each other in the darkness. Electricity flickered and died. Many people actually died of um CO2 poisoning in their homes because all they had was kerosene lamps.

SPEAKER_00 50:11

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 50:14

Um, static would build up in the air so strongly that people re reported small shocks every time they had to touch something metal.

SPEAKER_00 50:21

So you see the lightning?

SPEAKER_02 50:23

That's fucking weird. Have you ever done that? Yes. Yeah. It's crazy. Um, at work at the chiropractor, I'm shocking people constantly.

SPEAKER_00 50:31

It's just with your talents.

SPEAKER_02 50:34

Oh, yeah. I'm gonna keep going. I'm not gonna even say what I was gonna say. Some said their radios cracked with um interference even when switched off.

SPEAKER_00 50:46

Because the it would create electricity to it. Yes. Wow, that's crazy. Really? That's fucking wild.

Staying, Leaving, And Identity

SPEAKER_02 50:54

By early 1935, people were exhausted. They had learned to recognize the subtle signals, the way the air felt before a storm, the faint shift in light. Um, they have developed routines. Close windows, wet sheets, gather children, cover mouth, whatever. Close your eyes. In early 1935, Hazel's infant daughter at this time, oh boy, Ruth Nell.

SPEAKER_00 51:20

Ruth Nell became ill.

SPEAKER_02 51:22

Little Ruthie became ill. Oh, not Ruthie. The air was thick with suspended soil. Indoors, the dust still hung like smoke. Hazel tried to seal the windows, dampen sheets, protect her child from the storms. But as I've already mentioned in great detail, this my apologies.

SPEAKER_00 51:44

No, don't apologize. That was amazing.

SPEAKER_02 51:47

The storm never stayed in outside.

SPEAKER_00 51:50

No, it it got through the cracks.

SPEAKER_02 51:53

Little Ruth Nell died of dust pneumonia.

SPEAKER_00 51:56

Oh, sad.

SPEAKER_02 51:57

Within hours, Hazel's grandmother. Oh shit, Grandma Lou also died two generations in this same small stretch of time. God, that's sad.

SPEAKER_00 52:09

That's too bad. And then I'm not trying to make light of the grandmother dying. Terrible. She lived her life. She lived her life. She lived the majority of her life, we'll say. But the baby had no fucking shot. That is fucking depressing.

SPEAKER_02 52:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:26

Because you don't like to hear that. That is sad.

SPEAKER_02 52:29

So then on April 14th, the rains came. 1935.

SPEAKER_00 52:34

The rains came.

SPEAKER_02 52:36

After years of drought and dust. The rains came. The morning dawned clear. The sky was blue in a way that it hadn't been in so long. The birds were chilling. Yes, exactly. There's songs that were sung. Lyrics were written. Hallelujah's echo through the heavens.

SPEAKER_00 52:59

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 53:00

The air felt gentle.

SPEAKER_00 53:04

Do you know why I said it that way?

SPEAKER_02 53:05

No.

SPEAKER_00 53:07

Nicholas Cajun gone in 60 seconds. Said that. And he says part. It's like, don't you mean part? Anyways.

SPEAKER_02 53:16

People stepped outside cautiously as if testing whether it was safe to trust what they were what they saw.

SPEAKER_00 53:22

It was like, how are we being duped today?

SPEAKER_02 53:25

So people would take out their rugs and like and shook them out. Yeah. Some open windows to let the clean air in. What does this sound like to you? As in an episode that we have done, where all of a sudden weather has been shit, then all of a sudden we've got a clear day.

SPEAKER_00 53:47

Sounds like the the children's blizzard.

SPEAKER_02 53:49

Blizzard of 1885. If you want to look that up, people, it's episode number 37. It is called Unreasonably Warm because I couldn't say unseasonably at the time. So for a few hours, there was a reprieve.

SPEAKER_00 54:04

Just a few hours.

SPEAKER_02 54:06

But just like the blizzard of 1888.

SPEAKER_00 54:08

It comes back with a fucking vengeance.

SPEAKER_02 54:10

With a vengeance. That morning dawned cleared and blue. The sky looked innocent, and laser would hazel. Did I say laser?

Lessons From The Dirty Thirties

SPEAKER_00 54:21

You fucking did. Laser, laser, taser. Sounds like we're in fucking dodgeball.

SPEAKER_02 54:32

Hazel laser. No. Would later remember how that day felt. She was preparing for a double funeral.

SPEAKER_00 54:43

I'm glad you didn't say homicide.

SPEAKER_02 54:45

The procession carrying her grandmother's body left Boise City. Hazel and her husband Charles stayed behind, unwilling to leave their baby's body unattended. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 54:59

Because the wolves, am I right? We don't know. Coyotes.

SPEAKER_02 55:02

No one yet knew that what was forming to the north would become a storm that everyone would remember. Oh dear. And everyone would end up calling Black Sunday.

SPEAKER_00 55:14

Black Sunday, okay.

SPEAKER_02 55:17

It would feel different from anything else before. The air began to change around noon, just like in the blizzard of 1888. It was around noon.

SPEAKER_00 55:25

And then it's funny you said 1888 there. You said 1885 earlier.

SPEAKER_02 55:29

Sorry, 88. It's 1888.

SPEAKER_00 55:31

I know. And I was gonna correct you, but I'm like, I don't I hope I'm not wrong.

SPEAKER_02 55:34

No, you're no that yeah, it's 88. Um, and no one could have predicted exactly what was coming, but many felt that something bad was coming.

SPEAKER_00 55:44

They they felt it was an ominous thing.

SPEAKER_02 55:46

Yeah, um, there was a subtle shift in pressure, a faint coolness. Um, and along the northern horizon, excuse me, along the northern horizon, the sky darkened in a way that did not resemble the norm. The norm. Well, their norm.

SPEAKER_00 56:05

You know what I mean.

SPEAKER_02 56:06

It was thicker than that, it was more solid, as though something immense had risen from the earth itself. The line on the horizon was too straight, too dense to ignore, and then it began to move.

SPEAKER_00 56:19

Fucking hell.

SPEAKER_02 56:21

And on that note, I have to pee.

SPEAKER_00 56:25

We'll be right back. And we're back. Do you feel relieved?

SPEAKER_02 56:32

I do.

SPEAKER_00 56:33

Are you not entertained?

SPEAKER_02 56:35

So, what rolled south that afternoon was not simply another dust storm.

SPEAKER_01 56:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 56:41

It was a wall. Oh, fuck. Say it low. Fuck. No, I meant the wall. Oh. The wall. No, not good. The club. The clock. Witnesses would later say that it looked like a mountain range advancing towards them or like an ocean wave suspended in the sky. I know exactly what they're talking about because sometimes when I go into work, I go to the east, which is towards Lake Michigan, and you can see clouds on the horizon, and it literally looks like mountains. It's crazy. Yeah. So the wind hit first, sharp and cold, carrying a low roar that built into something mechanical in force. Within minutes, the blue sky had um offered just shattered hope. That disappeared between like this towering curtain of soil. Yeah. Daylight collapsed into nightness, darkness, and nightness. Nightness and gonna just drive on past.

SPEAKER_00 57:59

We can't let that one go. Daylight turned into nightness.

SPEAKER_02 58:10

Black Sunday overtook everything. Men shouted shouted to their children to get inside. Women slammed doors and plus pressed blankets up against the windows. Cars were abandoned alongside roads. Um, and that was that wasn't even the start of it. Because then the dirt came. Oh fuck. So it slammed against houses in sheets and surged over rooftops and the roof rooftops.

SPEAKER_00 58:43

Who's rooftop?

SPEAKER_02 58:45

Hey, Mrs. Ruthtop, we're ready for the CU now. It forced its way into chimneys and through cracks that had already been packed tight with rags. Yep. And newspaper from previous storms. The wind howled with such force that it seemed to vibrate through the walls and the floorboards. Inside homes, the air grew so thick that even lamp light struggled to cut through it.

SPEAKER_00 59:09

It's fucking wild.

SPEAKER_02 59:11

Dust scratched your throats and filled your nostrils. Handkerchiefs were tied across faces, and claws, wet claws were pressed against mouths. And in certain towns, the darkness lasted for hours, so complete that neighbors could not see one another across the narrow streets.

SPEAKER_00 59:32

So they can go.

SPEAKER_02 59:34

I'm still alive.

SPEAKER_00 59:35

Oh, that too.

SPEAKER_02 59:37

The storm lingered until evening, merging into night as if the day had never even existed at all.

SPEAKER_00 59:44

Yeah, it's probably like cool, another night. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:48

So outside, sand and soil drifted deep against fences and buildings. In low-lying areas, a machinery and equipment were half buried by the time the wind began to weaken. It was not the first storm that these communities had endured, obviously, but something about this one was a little different. The earlier storms had been terrifying, but this was heavier, broader, darker, and less like an isolated event and more like a declaration of destruction. Yeah. So when it finally passed and the sky lightened to a dull exhausted gray, people stepped outside into a world that looked completely rearranged. Fence posts protruded awkwardly from fresh, fresh drifts, fields lay flattened until um into smooth wind sculpted structures. That's wild.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:42

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:43

Dirt pressed thick against doorways, forcing families to have to dig themselves out before they can fully re-enter the world.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:51

It's kind of like when you see blizzards. Yes. You know, and and and someone shows them opening a door and the fucking snow is halfway up. Exactly. Same fucking thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:01

That's fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:02

And the physical damage was damage was obvious, but the emotional damage was also really hard to measure.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:10

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:11

Before that day, Manny had still believed that the dry the drought might break at any moment, that the storms were temporary interruption in this like grander cycle of years.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:23

And after Black Sunday, that belief thinned.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:28

Well, I would hope so.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:30

Conversations around the kitchen table had begun to change. Families calculated what they could sell and how far a tank of gas could take them. Others resolved just as quietly to stay and endure planting again when they could and attending meetings about new soil conservation methods.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:52

Well, I mean, that's a start because they fucking needed it, obviously, but damn. All right.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:57

Of course, the storms did not stop after that afternoon. They continued through the spring and into the the heat of 1936. Jesus. When temperatures soared and the land seemed to just bake underneath them.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:11

That sounds terrible.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:13

But April 14th, 1935, remained fixed in memory as the day the sky had fallen. The moment where when hope and fear collided under this wall of earth.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:28

Is that a tax day? No.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:31

No, I think it's the 15th, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:33

That's what you said.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:34

April 14th. Was that was that Titanic Day?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:37

12th.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:38

Was it?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:39

I believe the 12th is right.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:40

From then on, every clear morning carried an age, an edge of uncertainty. Each breeze was measured, measured, and watched and interpreted. And people stepped outside carefully as if the world might suddenly be unstable beneath their feet. Um, the landscape looked stripped down to its bones. Fields that had once shown the faint promise of recovery were now scoured flat again. Their topsoil scattered into long, uneven drifts.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:11

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:12

Inside homes, the cleanup began the way it always did, slowly, methodically, almost ritualistically. Exactly. You could clean for hours and still see it floating in the air when they shaft a sunlight across the room. That's crazy. And while the dust could be drip brushed off a table, it could not be brushed out of the lungs. Doctors across the plains were already overwhelmed. But after Black Sunday, the number of respiratory cases climbed sharply.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:45

I'm sure it was exponential. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:47

Children coughed through the night. Elderly farmers struggled to draw breath even after short walks outside. Yep. Dust pneumonia became a phrase people understood without needing explanation. Crazy. Um, a cough that didn't go away, a fever that lingered, tightness in the chest. All serious. In some towns, um, makeshift clinics were set up in church basements or school houses.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:11

Yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:13

Nurses worked with limited supplies. Of course. They obviously advise families to keep doing what they're doing. Windows closed, dampened sheets, etc., etc. Yep. Medicine could treat symptoms, but not stop the wind.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:30

You can't stop Mother Nature. She's gonna keep fucking pounding your ass.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:34

And there's still the economic pressure.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:37

Correct, because they have all these bills.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:39

Banks were failing across the country as the Great Depression deepened. Correct. And rural communities felt it immediately. Yep. A farmer who had managed to scrape together a partial payment might find his bank closed the very next week.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:55

Foreclosures increased, auction notices appeared nailed to posts along dirt roads, entire farms were sold in a single day.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:05

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:06

Um, but sometimes neighbors would would buy their neighbors' items at such low cost in hope that that family could buy them back.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:16

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:17

Like that's genuine community and friendship, and just that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:23

You know, something we don't have these days.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:25

Solidarity, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:27

Yeah, it's sad.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:28

By late 1935 and into 1936, the pattern became brutally familiar. Sure. Um, a brief stretch of calm would allow more planting. Um, sh green shoots might break through the soil, then the wind would return, and sometimes paired with this record-breaking heat at the same time. The summer of 1936 was one of the hottest in American history.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:53

Seriously? Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:55

Temperatures climbed over a hundred degrees and held there for days at a time. Crops that had survived the dust would bolt under the sun. Yep. And the soil dried further, becoming finer and easier to lift. Night brought very little relief. Um, the houses trapped the day's heat. Families lay awake listening to coughing and the wind, scraping along the sides of the building. Psychologically, the exhaustion began to settle into something much deeper. No shit. It was difficult to describe what it does to a person living in this prolonged uncertainty to wake each morning unsure whether their sky would remain clear or collapse into darkness by afternoon.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:43

Or if their lungs were fucking empty.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:45

Exactly. So families would stop making long-term plans.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:51

Why would why wouldn't why would you make long-term plans? Seriously.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:54

Purchases were delayed indefinitely. Gardens went unplanted because they would there was no guarantee that they would survive even a week. Children grew up measuring time not by holidays or birthdays, but by storms. They would say, quote, before the big buster, or quote, after the last black blizzard. Jesus. Their memories would form around these weather events rather than milestones. Sure. But yet life continued. Schools kept opening each fall. Yep. Um, even students would arrive covered in dust. Churches still held services.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:33

That's the thing about the human race. We are fucking resilient, even with all these trials and tribulations. I mean, you gotta keep going.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:43

Women canned what little produce they could salvage. Men started attending meetings about new farming methods, listening to talk of contour plowing and soil conservation, even though it was kind of met with skepticism.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:59

Because they knew what they knew. Yep. They're like, eh.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:03

In 1935, the federal government began responding more directly. Um, soil conservation programs were finally introduced.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:11

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:12

Farmers were encouraged to plant cover crops and leave certain fields unsown to allow grass to return. Yeah. And most famously, um, FDR, who was president at the time, launched the Shelter Belt Project, um, which was over 2,000 miles of windbreaks. They would build um lines of trees as a windbreaker. Yeah. In the mid-1930s, um, crews and volunteer farmers planted more than 200 million trees from North Dakota to Texas fighting the wind directly. Sure. Those belts may never fully hold back a storm, but they have slowed erosion ever since.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:02

Well, yeah, that makes sense. They're not gonna stop it completely, but it's gonna help.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:07

It's gonna help a lot.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:08

For sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:09

For others, it did offer more of a thin ray of hope. Um, but government programs did not immediately change their daily life. The wind still blew and the dust still came. Of course, of course. The difference slowly was that people began to see these small shifts. Yeah. In areas where new grasses were planted, the soil held slightly better. Sure. Where contouring plowing was used, erosion less lessened. And still by the late 1930s, hundreds of thousands had left the plains. Oh, of course.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:46

You know that not everyone's gonna endure this. So, of course, there's gonna be some that leave, obviously. So, yeah, agreed.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:57

Old cars rattled westward along Route 66, loaded with mattresses, tools, children, whatever, whatever they had.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:05

Mattresses, tools, and children. I I guess, yeah, take that kit.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:12

Those who stayed watched neighbors disappear one by one, houses standing empty behind them. Yep. Hazel did not leave immediately. Her pride had run deep. Her family had homesteaded there. There they were pioneers, and leaving felt like a surrender. Yeah, for sure. But eventually, for the health of another child that she had. Oh, she did. Okay. Hazel and Charles relocated east, still within Oklahoma, but not in the panhandle. Not in the panhandle. They were I mean, technically it's still the panhandle, but it but hopefully they were thinking of more clear skies and stuff like that. Yeah. I don't think they quite made it there because pretty much all of Oklahoma panhandle was covered in the Dust Bowl. But anyways, I digress. Even as an old woman, she remembered the shock of black skies and the sound of sand against the windows.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:06

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:06

But her all but her tales also carried a strange pride. She said, quote, those were some of the toughest years I've ever had. And yet looking back, she confessed she almost missed life in No Man's Land.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:19

Really?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:20

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:22

For the families who stayed, survival required new expectations. They learned to live smaller, to value a calm day as a victory. When rain finally began returning more consistently towards the end of the decade, it did not feel triumphant. It felt a little bit more cautious. But fields slowly greened. The most catastrophic of the storms diminished. The sky more often than not stayed blue, but the dust bowl did not simply end and vanish from memory. It had reshaped the planes physically, economically, and emotionally. It had taught hard lessons about land, climate, and human confidence. It had carved into the identity of an entire generation.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:11

Which is crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:12

And even when the wind quieted, people still would watch the horizon. Because once you have seen the sky.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:19

How could you just give that up? Seriously. You're gonna be like, uh fuck. Right?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:24

But because once you have seen that sky turn black at noon, you never quite look at it the same way again.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:35

There's no way.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:36

And that is the dirty thirties, the dust bowl.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:41

It's Wednesday.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:47

Isn't that awful?

SPEAKER_00 1:12:49

Yeah, I mean. Awful. So and again, I don't know if this is party research or whatever, but um obviously irrigation is a huge thing these days. That that's ahead of health, right, in that region.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:08

What is irrigation?

SPEAKER_00 1:13:12

That's just like putting water where you need it.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:17

Is it water or is it is it air? Like oxygen.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:20

Water.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:21

Is it?

SPEAKER_00 1:13:22

Yeah, basically.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:25

So like irrigation is the supply of water to land or crops to help growth, typically by means of channels. Good job.

Sign-Off And Calls To Action

SPEAKER_00 1:13:39

It's like I knew. You're so smart. You're so smart. I'm SMRT. SMRT. Well. Alright, buffoons. That's it for today's episode.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:52

Buckle up because we've got another historical adventure waiting for you next time. Feeling hungry for more buffoonery? Or maybe you have a burning question or a wild historical theory for us to explore?

SPEAKER_00 1:14:04

Hit us up on social media. We're History Buffoons Podcast on YouTube, X, Instagram, and Facebook. You can also email us at History Buffoons Podcast at gmail.com. We are Bradley and Kate, music by Corey Akers.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:18

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SPEAKER_00 1:14:22

Until next time, stay curious and don't forget to rate and review us.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:26

Remember, the buffoonery never stops.