Tell Me About the Dust Bowl

[livius drusus]

I saw a show on the History Channel recently about the "Black Blizzards" of dust that raged through the middle of the country in the 30's. I had heard about the Dust Bowl, but I didn't study the period in school or really know much about it beyond the drought + overfarming + winds = giant dirt storms. The Grapes of Wrath and Dorothea Lange pictures are as deep as I've gone into the subject.

The documentary really bowled me over. They did some small scale recreations, like closing a historian in a typical wood slat house from the period and using huge fans to blow fine dust at it. He called it off after ten minutes, choking dirt and struggling for breath. Some of those storms went on for days, and of course were much higher intensity than a few fans blowing a few bags of dust.

One of the stats that amazed me was that by the end of the decade, enough topsoil had gone up in dust to fill half the Grand Canyon. Also that some of the large storms didn't stop until they reached the Atlantic, blotting out the sun and blanketing Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., with a thick layer of silt.

Hugh Hammond Bennett, head of the Federal Soil Conservation Service under FDR, was trying to persuade some Congressmen to help when one of those clouds approached. "That," he said, pointing to the black cloud obscuring the sun "is Oklahoma".

Then there's the dust pneumonia that killed and sickened so many children, the plagues of centipedes and jack rabbits, the constant grit in people's food, sheets, clothes. The foreclosures, migrant workers, famine, a litany of devastation.

So, for the folks here from the most affected states -- Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Kansas -- I was wondering if you had any family stories, or maybe local landmarks, museums, markers about the period to tell me about.

[Doctor X]

It was dusty?

--J.D.

[Qingdai]

A lot of people moved away from those areas after the dustbowl. A fair amount moved to Oregon, so it's a story many in the west could tell you.

My maternal grandmother was born in Ada, Oklahoma, for example. She wouldn't talk about the past though, and was from a well-off family that left in the 1920s.

[Dingfod]

As for the Dust Bowl era, I had relatives living in the region (mostly in southeastern Kansas) at the time, but never heard any specific stories. I worked for farmers that grew up in the 1930s, who no doubt had lived through them, but they never shared any stories about it. I got to experience what it was like first hand in 1977 out in northwestern Oklahoma. The wind whipped red dirt up into the air in advance of an approaching cold front. The wind howled, the dirt blew. It got so dark out during the dust storm the street lights were still on at noon. You literally could not see across the street. Air filters on cars clogged up. Dirt blew through closed windows, it was everywhere. The dust storm went on for three days. When it was over there dust drifts a foot deep or more around stationary objects. I'm not sure, but I think Bakersfield, California had bad one the same year.

[Cliche Guevara]

I'd be fascinated by that too, liv. Mainly because of how little we have learned from it.

Surviving the Dust Bowl | American Experience | PBS Video

A couple of years ago, I watched a doco on wind, desertification and disease that looked at how (for example) diseases in the dust in drought-stricken areas Europe/Asia were getting carried across on the wind to people of the Carribean and giving them sicknesses that they had previously not known there. There was more to the doco and it's environmental message, but that's what I remember the most. I'll try to find it (even though it's not specifically related to the Dust Bowl in the '30s, it is related to the larger topic of conservation and farming techniques).

[Dingfod]

http://www.univie.ac.at/Anglistik/aa...a/dust002.mpeg

[livius drusus]

Originally Posted by Dingfod

I got to experience what it was like first hand in 1977 out in northwestern Oklahoma. The wind whipped red dirt up into the air in advance of an approaching cold front.

One of the witnesses in the documentary said it got so they could tell where the dust cloud originated by looking at the color of it. Red from Oklahoma, white from Texas, brown from Nebraska etc.

The wind howled, the dirt blew. It got so dark out during the dust storm the street lights were still on at noon. You literally could not see across the street. Air filters on cars clogged up. Dirt blew through closed windows, it was everywhere. The dust storm went on for three days. When it was over there dust drifts a foot deep or more around stationary objects. I'm not sure, but I think Bakersfield, California had bad one the same year.

That's fucked up. The historians and soil specialists said that the dust was fine like talcum powder, which is why no cloth, mask, filter, could stop it from going wherever the wind took it. What did you do? Stay indoors the three days?

[Garnet]

Editing, poked the wrong button too soon.

Uh...editing took so long I just made a new post out of it.

[Qingdai]

I think we were in California during the dust storm in 1977 (was it in winter?) All I remember is being in the car and it raining mud. Every car had to pull over until it passed, you can't wipe that stuff away.

[livius drusus]

Originally Posted by Cliche Guevara

I'd be fascinated by that too, liv. Mainly because of how little we have learned from it.

Surviving the Dust Bowl | American Experience | PBS Video

I'll watch that asap, thank you.

A couple of years ago, I watched a doco on wind, desertification and disease that looked at how (for example) diseases in the dust in drought-stricken areas Europe/Asia were getting carried across on the wind to people of the Carribean and giving them sicknesses that they had previously not known there. There was more to the doco and it's environmental message, but that's what I remember the most. I'll try to find it (even though it's not specifically related to the Dust Bowl in the '30s, it is related to the larger topic of conservation and farming techniques).

Actual pathogens were being carried in the wind? Not dust inhalation-related illness? That's scary as hell.

[Dingfod]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

One of the witnesses in the documentary said it got so they could tell where the dust cloud originated by looking at the color of it. Red from Oklahoma, white from Texas, brown from Nebraska etc.

Oklahoma does have a lot of red dirt.

Originally Posted by liv

That's fucked up. The historians and soil specialists said that the dust was fine like talcum powder, which is why no cloth, mask, filter, could stop it from going wherever the wind took it. What did you do? Stay indoors the three days?

Yeah, pretty much. I had to get to and from work, and I did, but it wasn't fun. The dust being as fine as talcum powder is about right.

[livius drusus]

Damn, you're hardcore. I would have called in inclement weather for sure. Did you have goggles and masks or did you just tough it out?

[godfry n. glad]

My father was born in South Dakota, but the family lost the tractor and, consequently, the acreage they worked with the tractor in the post-war agricultural gluts, and had moved on to 'ranching' for hire in Montana. When my father left home to go to college in Indiana, he crossed back through South Dakota, where he saw land that had seen as fertile farmland stripped down to the point that it looked like a bleak gravel moonscape, where the topsoil had been stripped off by winds. That would have been 1939.

I don't know about you, but when we vote, we have an elected official who is elected to serve on the local soil and water conservation board. That is a result, in part, of the poor water and soil practices which led to the debacle of the Dust Bowl. There was also the delusion sold to those who farmed the region that "rain follows the plow" (actually promoted by railroad companies in the previous generation). It seemed that way, until there was an extended drought after having denuded large portions of the native grasses. Then came the winds...but there were no grasses to anchor the the soil, so it went east with the prevailing winds.

[Angakuk]

I watched the program that liv mentioned just this morning. It was really quite good. I have been in a couple of sandstorms in Arizona. That experience just barely allows me to almost imagine what a black blizzard must have been like.

[Cliche Guevara]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

Actual pathogens were being carried in the wind? Not dust inhalation-related illness? That's scary as hell.

Yup, actual pathogens. From Africa more than Europe and Asia, though - my mistake.

Here's something - not what I'm looking for, but I do remember coral reefs etc been discussed regarding wind/dust borne pathogens and nutrients from Africa to the Carribean. JSTOR: An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie

More: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Dust/

[Dingfod]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

Damn, you're hardcore. I would have called in inclement weather for sure. Did you have goggles and masks or did you just tough it out?

I seem to recall using wetted bandanas to breathe though. I worked in a laboratory at that time so didn't have to be out in it but for the brief time it took to walk a few hundred yards from the parking lot.

[livius drusus]

Originally Posted by godfry n. glad

When my father left home to go to college in Indiana, he crossed back through South Dakota, where he saw land that had seen as fertile farmland stripped down to the point that it looked like a bleak gravel moonscape, where the topsoil had been stripped off by winds. That would have been 1939.

You could see that moonscape look in some of the pictures in the documentary. It looked like the Somme ca 1917. Some areas lost all their topsoil and never recovered, even once soil conservation practices became common.

I don't know about you, but when we vote, we have an elected official who is elected to serve on the local soil and water conservation board.

Water yes, since we were drinking sludge from the bottom of lakes until this past rainy summer. I don't recall any soil conservation officials, but tbh I might not have paid close attention to that part of the ballot.

That is a result, in part, of the poor water and soil practices which led to the debacle of the Dust Bowl. There was also the delusion sold to those who farmed the region that "rain follows the plow" (actually promoted by railroad companies in the previous generation). It seemed that way, until there was an extended drought after having denuded large portions of the native grasses. Then came the winds...but there were no grasses to anchor the the soil, so it went east with the prevailing winds.

Yup. Sadly, the fiction of endless fertility was sold by the US government too. They were completely clueless about the cycle of rain in the semi-arid environment of the Great Plains.

[Garnet]

I'm originally from Oklahoma. Both sets of grand parents, my great aunts, my great uncles, two of my aunts, two of my uncles, my mother and my father lived through the dust bowl. I've heard a lot of the stories and reminiscing about those times although, sadly, I didn't write them down and I don't remember them all.

There are some things that I do remember. It was really terrible for country people. People got lost, and some died getting caught in the dust storms doing mundane things like going to the privy or trying to get to some other out building. People got caught sometimes out in the fields and all they could do was hunker down. Sometimes the storms were so strong that people caught out in them would get scoured to bleeding. Some people tied ropes from their houses to the privies and the barns so that if a storm came up a sudden, they could grab onto one of those ropes and get into some kind of shelter. Sometimes, people suffocated inside their own houses. Many of the women in my family talked about the children being sick all the time. My paternal grandmother, who was a granny woman, talked about babies having a constant "sick cough" and some of the dying of "dust in the lungs" and how the poor things were just coughing up red dirt. They also talked about how when the "storms were stirrin'" you couldn't keep a house or clothes clean and that their food was often gritty with dirt. When a storm was on them, they'd wrap their faces with damp rags and kitchen towels to try to keep from breathing the dust.

The dust storms had seasons. I don't recall when they were but at least there was some break from them. But when the storms were on, it was a misery for everyone. There's a story that my eldest aunt used to tell about a man suffocating in his privy. It wasn't a story that anyone laughed about; it was a story told in soft tones that clearly showed her lingering horror over it even though it had happened a long time ago. She was one of the people who helped bath the body and sat up with family.

There is one thing that every person in my family that lived through the dust bowl shared. Their houses were never dusty. Every single one of my family members vacuumed and dusted and mopped as often as it took to keep dust from accumulating. My aunts were fanatical about it. My mother and father, not so much, but our regular house cleaning routines included dusting two to three times a week and washing the walls and baseboards every two weeks. When someone who had lived through the dust bowl got too sick to clean, other family members would step in. To this day in my family when someone is sick or grieving, it is not the least bit unusual for someone sitting vigil with them to get up and start dusting, mopping or vacuuming.

Well, OK. That was one long babble.

[livius drusus]

Originally Posted by Dingfod

I seem to recall using wetted bandanas to breathe though. I worked in a laboratory at that time so didn't have to be out in it but for the brief time it took to walk a few hundred yards from the parking lot.

Ah, a classic. The historian in the house during the recreation used a wet cloth to breathe through, which is what most people had at the time. He said he felt desperate for air within 5 minutes.

[livius drusus]

That was a deep babble, Garnet. Thank you very much for it. It's amazing how profound the experience of living in the Dust Bowl was, so much so that keeping the house clean of dust has become a ritual of mourning as well as a routine of greater significance than just keeping stuff lean.

Have you considered taping your relatives to preserve their oral histories? It's so important to keep these memories alive.

[Garnet]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

That was a deep babble, Garnet. Thank you very much for it. Have you considered taping your relatives to preserve their oral histories? It's so important to keep these memories alive.

It's too late now. The last of the family that lived through that time was my mother and she died in 2006. I really regret that I didn't write down or tape all the stories I was told and not just the ones about the dust bowl. I'm hesitant to try to recreate them now as I don't think I can do them justice.

[Angakuk]

I remember one sandstorm in Monument Valley. My buddy bet me I couldn't get a cigarette lit in that storm. I took off one of my cowboy boots, hunkered down and rolled the cigarette and struck the match inside the boot. It took me three tries, but I did get the cigarette lit.

The first sandstorm I can remember was when I was only about 5 years old or so. We were visiting an aunt and uncle who lived on the outskirts of Phoenix. What I recall most clearly was my mother and my aunt cleaning up the piles of sand that had accumulated in every corner of the house by the time the storm was past. This was in a fairly modern home, not some slat walled shack. That particular storm was followed by a heavy rain, which settled the dust down right quick. I remember my sister and cousin and I going out on the veranda during the rain storm. A gust of wind caught me and blew me clean off the veranda and out into the yard. I thought that was great fun.

I also recall driving through a sandstorm in Grapevine Pass (or maybe it was Cajon Pass) when I was about ten years old. The sand left the windshield pitted and perforated the radiator. We had to keep adding water to the radiator until we got to a place where we could get it fixed.

[Cliche Guevara]

Microbes and pathogens:

Researchers have since found a variety of live bacteria and fungus in dust hitting the Caribbean, defying conventional wisdom among microbiologists that microbes could not survive a five-day trip three miles up in the atmosphere. "Swarms of live locusts made it all the way across alive in 1988 and landed in the Windward Islands," Shinn says. "If one-inch grasshoppers can make it, I imagine almost anything can make it." A 2001 study by USGS researchers found that the number of viable fungus and bacteria in Caribbean air is two to three times higher during dust events than during normal weather conditions.

Although the vast majority of diseases afflicting coral have not been identified (beyond descriptions of the symptoms they cause), scientists have linked dust to at least one specific coral-killing microbe. Garriet Smith and colleagues at the University of South Carolina have identified the pathogen behind the mass die-offs of sea fans, the graceful soft corals of the Caribbean, as Aspergillus sydowii--a soil fungus that does not reproduce in salt water. In the very first sample of airborne dust from the Virgin Islands that Ginger Garrison sent to Smith, he found live Aspergillus sydowii in its pathogenic form, among many other microorganisms. The fungal disease may also enter the sea in local runoff from deforested areas, but dust studies have established African dust storms as its most plausible source on isolated reefs and near small islands with no forests and little runoff.

In addition to carrying living hitchhikers, clouds of African dust bring intense pulses of nutrients like iron and nitrates that may be stimulating harmful algal blooms and the rapid growth of both coral-smothering algae and microbes that cause coral diseases. Microbiologist Hans Paerl of the University of North Carolina calls the dust--composed of aluminum, silicon, iron, phosphates, nitrates, and sulfates--"Geritol for bugs."

The dust is not so healthy for humans, if only because the fine particles irritate the respiratory tract and can lodge themselves deep in lung tissue. Researchers have barely begun looking into the health effects of overseas African dust but already have some provocative findings. For example, they have found pesticides banned for use in the United States mixed in with dust particles too small for human lungs to expel. "When they have locust plagues in Africa, we get chlordane and DDT that we can't use here anymore, but it comes back to us on the wind," Shinn says.

There may be other unhealthy substances adhering to the particles as well: some studies suggest the dust carries high concentrations of beryllium-7, a radioactive isotope that appears to adhere to dust particles as they travel through the atmosphere. While seeking medical care for her respiratory tract infection in Mali's capital of Bamako, Ginger Garrison asked around and found that lung problems are terribly common in Mali during the dust season. After the seasonal floods of the Niger River recede and its banks dry, mud--mixed with raw sewage, human and animal waste, and miscellaneous garbage left behind--turns to dust. "Microbes, synthetic organics, pharmaceuticals, antibiotics, you name it," Garrison explains. "Then the winds come, and it's a perfect avenue to take those substances aloft, often north toward Europe or west toward the United States." She also observed the ubiquitous garbage burning and wonders what carcinogens, endocrine disrupters, or heavy metals from garbage burning might also find their way into the atmosphere with dust. She hopes to set up a second monitoring station near Bamako to look for heavy metals and synthetic chemicals like DDT, in addition to the station she set up in late 2000 for monitoring microbe levels in dust.

Africa is not the only source of dust that affects faraway places. Nutrients from the deserts of north-western China sustain Hawaiian rainforests growing on weathered soils. Chinese haze has long afflicted residents of Japan and Korea, where the yellow dust, laden with pollutants picked up from Chinese cities it passes over, is called "the gate-crasher of Spring." South Korean officials suspect that the dust may have been the source of a recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease among cattle along Korea's west coast. Last Spring, Korea suffered through 20 days of unhealthy haze from abroad, the longest yellow dust spell there in 40 years. Chinese dust even caused hazy sunsets around the western United States for several days in April 2000. The Chinese, Japanese, and South Korean governments have launched a program to revegetate dust-generating lands in China, and researchers from around the Pacific Rim have begun intensive studies of Chinese dust and its impacts.

To date, the dust blowing from Africa--unlike Chinese dust--has attracted little attention as a public health issue. The desertification (severe degradation of arid and semi-arid lands) that exacerbates dust formation also has serious economic and human consequences close to home: one in six people in Mali have become environmental refugees, forced to leave their land as it turns to dust. Despite the massive amount of land claimed by expanding desertification each year, the phenomenon receives only infrequent attention, perhaps because the effects seldom seem to transcend international borders. These new studies of well-traveled dust may turn that impression on its head.

Given all the locally generated pollution in the Caribbean, it's understandable that African dust is on few people's radar screens. But reversing the decline of the region's once flourishing underwater ecosystems may be impossible without investing more effort in stabilizing the wind-whipped lands of northern Africa.

"It's just another example of how small the Earth is...

Not the American Dust Bowl, but still relevant I think, as people on this planet suffer those dust bowl conditions today. And desertification is spreading. We need to look after our lovely, life-giving planet - whether it's the land we share with our closest friends and family, or a land we don't know and don't understand far, far away.

[livius drusus]

Originally Posted by Garnet

It's too late now. The last of the family that lived through that time was my mother and she died in 2006. I really regret that I didn't write down or tape all the stories I was told and not just the ones about the dust bowl. I'm hesitant to try to recreate them now as I don't think I can do them justice.

That's a shame. I think it would be worthwhile to write them down, though. Even if you just take some notes instead of attempt to recreate the stories in full, it's precious information. Once you get the ball rolling, other memories might come tumbling out.

[Cliche Guevara]

Gotta agree with liv, Garnet. Write some notes and stash 'em for the future. They are a part of your family and your country's very rich histories.