Shout Out to a Friend!

Duchess & Sadie's Spring Domain

Vol 12, Iss 18 Bayfield, Colorado - Sadie and I join you on this 3rd day of May from SW Colorado in the higher elevations of the San Juan mountains, North of Bayfield, Colorado, where we awoke to a thin cover of snow on the ground Sunday morning. They say the first half of this week should see temperatures in the 60's degrees around here during the day.

We hope your first week of May is good for you in your neck of the woods. It is still a bit on the chilly side for May flowers, but usually this is the time to put out those hummingbird feeders, isn't it?

We are asking if you all got one copy of The OkieLegacy Ezine last and this week?

We know of one person that did not receive his subscribed copy last week, but that was our "Bad." It seems there was a typo in his email submitted to our mailing list of subscribers. That has been corrected and fixed, though. If someone is having trouble receiving their subscription, please let us know. Thanks!

This week we bring you a group of old cast iron toys that NW Okie picked up at a moving sale this Saturday, May Day, 2010, in Bayfield, Colorado.

We asked around to some of our network connections, "How to preserve, clean these old rusty cast iron toys. Thanks to those who gave us advice. The consensus was, "To leave as is! If you decide to clean them someday, use a liquid/gel rust remover, not a wire brush."

Brian Wilson Notified us that he has some Old Oklahoma newspapers, old documents dating back to 1910 thru 1930. Brian is looking for someone who buys old newspapers & paperwork. For more information on Brian's old papers, see Old Oklahoma Papers in the features below.

We also bring you some history of the Great Depression and Drought that contributed to the Dust Bowl Days of 1930's.

I am going to sign-off now and curl up beside my NW Okie while she puts the finishes touches on this week's OkieLegacy Ezine. One reason is because every once in awhile she (NW Okie) reaches over, gently rubs and scratches me behind the ears. Aaaaahhhhhh! It is a Dog's life, isn't it!

Good Night and Good Luck!
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Chronicles of Oklahoma...

Vol 7, Iss 30 We were glancing through the Chronicles of Oklahoma over at the Oklahoma Historical Society website. We found an interesting article about "Old Beaver County" (No-Mans Land). Did most of you know that "Old Beaver County" was comprised of Beaver, Texas and Cimarron counties? AND... this Old Beaver county was included within the territory of Texas and incorporated within some early Land Grants made between the years of 1820 and 1840.

If you subscribe to the Oklahoma Historical Society's Chronicles of Oklahoma, check out Volume LXXXIII, No. 1, Spring, 2005. It has an article "Researching Tom Joad: John Steinbeck, Journalist, 1936." by Paul Bailey.

Steinbeck began his articles with a short history of California agriculture... its evolution from a livestock-based agricultural economy to one comprised predominantly of fruit and vegetable production. Steinbeck then presented a brief history of migrant labor in California, noting that Chinese, Japanese, Filipino and Mexican immigrants had all been employed in agriculture. The influx of migrant laborers known as the "Okies" during the 1930's were the poverty-stricken small farmers from the drought-ravaged midwestern and southwestern United States and could not be deported. The Dust Bowl refugees were Americans. They were not from a peon class, but were former landowners or hired hands with close cultural ties to their employers. They desired to buy land. After enduring drought and hardship, they were not easily intimidated. An Okie family arriving in California, usually netted less than $400 for a year's work and spent most of their income on food, gasoline required to travel to the next job. In terms of housing, there were federal government camps, private camps provided by the farmer or squatters' camps.

The private camps on large farms provided a place to pitch a tent or rented tiny huts for four to eight dollars per month and provided one toilet and shower for every 200 to 300 campers.

A squatters' camp consisted of an irrigation ditch or riverbank around which several hundred people were crowded and sanitation was nonexistent and disease was epidemic. The migrants were tolerated only until the crop was harvested, then urged to move on, sometimes forcibly.

The Arvin was a Federal Security Administration (FSA) camp on the outskirts of Bakersfield, California. This camp was popularly known as Weedpatch and the camp's manager was Tom Collins. Collins was a dedicated humanitarian and efficient administrator. Collins knew that the migrants coming into the FSA camps had been intimidated and insulted, and he tactfully worked to restore their dignity. The FSA depended on Collins to establish the camps and to train managers to maintain them.

The Okies realized that they should organize for their own safety, they had encountered stiff resistance from the Assoicated Farmers who accused those desiring a fair wage of being communists. The Okie migrants were intimidated by deputy sheriffs and vigilantes, as well as by rumors of poison gas being used on picketers and water supplies being infected with typhoid germs. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

1937-38 Catching the Train - Woodward To Alva

Vol 12, Iss 22 Woodward, Oklahoma - We received a fabulous photo of our mother, Vada Eileen (PARIS) McGill this week from a family that Vada stayed with back in the 1930s. Ylova Jean Jaquith Mayes daughter and son-in-law sent us this following message with the photo attached, "Here is a photo of Vada and Ylova Jaquith taken in Woodward, Oklahoma. Ylova sent us this photo. She lives in Arizona and is 78 years old. She said they had taken Vada to the train station in Woodward to catch a train to Alva to go to College. Hope you like the photo. The photo was not dated, but Ylova was born in 1932. She looks like she is maybe 4-5 in the photo? So, 1937-1938 time frame would be about right. Her name now is Ylova Jean (Jaquith) Mayes."

The photo shows a young Vada Paris (left) in her flowery, Spring dress, hat and white sandal heels holding the hand of a young girl (Ylova Jean Jaquith) while standing in front of passenger train in Woodward, Oklahoma. The Jaquith had brought Vada to Woodward from Seiling to catch the train to Alva, Oklahoma, where Vada was attending NSTC (Northwestern State Teachers College). We know that Vada was a sophomore at NSTC in Alva. We believe she attended in 1937 as a freshman.

Let us take you back to April 18, 1932 (as written down in Vada's 1938 diary as an anniversary) when a sixteen year-old-girl named Vada Eileen Paris came to live with the Ray and Eithel Jaquith family who lived in Seiling, Oklahoma. Also, it was during the Depression, Dust Bowl era. Besides the anniversary of when Vada went to live with Jaquith's in Seiling, Vada had made a notation in her diary May 25th for Ray and Eithel Jaquith anniversary, May 25, 1926.

While living with the Jaquith family, Vada graduated from Seiling High School with the Class of 1936 Seniors whose motto was "Hitch Your Wagon to a Star." For reasons unknown to this writer, Vada laid out a year or so before graduating high school during the Depression, Dust Bowl days. She should have graduated in 1934, but graduated in 1936, instead.

We know that Black Sunday was April 14, 1935 when day was turned into night during the Dust Bowl era. About a month and a few weeks before that day, Northwest State Normal school's Castle on the Hill had burned down, March 1, 1935, in Alva, Oklahoma.

We are trying to piece together bits and pieces of Vada's life between 1932 thru 1937 before she attended college in Alva. We have been told that Vada's mother did not think Vada needed education after the eighth grade and should stay home and help take care of her younger siblings. We have also been told that Eithel Jaquith influenced Vada to graduate Seiling High School and continue her education at NSTC in Alva, Oklahoma.

Reading through Vada's diary, we know in 1938 she received a government grant to attend Northwestern State Teacher College (NSTC) where she was noted as a sophomore in the 1938 Ranger Yearbook. Vada also worked at Warrick's Shoe Store; did heavy housekeeping to make ends meet while attending NSTC. We believe Vada was a Freshman at NSTC (1937 Ranger Yearbook) in 1937.

Vada's older brother (Alvin Riley Paris) and his wife, Naomi (Warren) Paris, were living in Alva while Vada was attending Northwestern. Besides staying with her older brother, Vada did housekeeping for Naomi and Alvin while Naomi was expecting their first Child (Stan born February 25, 1938).

There were lots of entries in Vada's 1938 diary where she mentioned with enthusiasm of getting to go home to Seiling and seeing the Jaquith family (Ray & Eithel and their children: Kenneth and Ylova).

On one entry dated February 13, 1938, Sunday, Vada writes, "Saw Mrs. Jaquith. I'll tough it out where I am before borrowing money. Grand of her to offer to help." Times in the 1930s were tough on everyone back then.

Vada wrote about enjoying receiving letters from Eithel Jaquith. The Jaquith family was like a second family for this young woman, Vada Eileen Paris. Eithel being the one that encouraged Vada to continue her education and go to College at Alva, Oklahoma. We wonder sometimes what would Vada's life been like IF Vada had not been influenced by the Jaquith family? View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Boise City - Cimarron County, No Mans Land

Vol 8, Iss 36 Have you ever heard the story of how Boise City, Oklahoma came about? Do you have any No Mans Land stories to share? How does this version stack up to what you have been told so far to date?

According to Timothy Egan's book, The Worst Hard Time, Boise City was founded in 1908 on fraud by promoters of the Southwest Immigration & Development Company (J. E. Stanley and A. J. Line). They pronounced it "Boy-City" from the French words "le bois" meaning trees. BUT... there was not a single tree in Boise City -- not even a city.

The developers didn't even own the land, but they sold lots at $45 per lot, anyway. Flyers were sent all over the country showing a town as "ripe as a peach two days into its blush." It was a phantom town in the far west edge of No Mans Land, Cimarron County.

The brochures sketched Boise City as a city of elegant aged trees lining the streets -- a tower of cold, clean water gushing from an artesian well in the center of town (which was only a stock tank and windmill) -- businesses on main streets -- 3 railroads building lines to Boise city with a fourth on the way -- homes a banker would be proud to call home. It was not limited to town developers. According to Timothy Egan's research, "Railroads, banks, politicians and newspaper editors all played a variation of the scheme -- selling a windlblown piece of ground that was supposed to increase in value as more people saw a fledgling town emerging from a larva of forlorn dirt."

The developers (J. E. Stanley and A. J. Kline) were arrested for fraud with a two week trial and found guilty -- sent to Leavenworth Federal Prison. Kline died in his cell.

After that, settlement was a dare to some to see if they could defy common sense and the odds of developing this far reaching town on the farthest edge of "No Mans Land" into a city. By 1920 the population of Boise City was 250 with Cimarron County boasting 3,500 population. The depression and dust bowl went up through No Mans Land from Texas to the South to Kansas, Nebraska and southeast Colorado to the North. And parts of the northeast corner of New Mexico.

Have you ever heard this story before -- especially, some of your ancestors who might have settled in Cimarron County of No Mans Land, in the panhandle of Oklahoma? We would like to hear your stories about Boise City, Oklahoma and how its settlers survived the depression; dust bowl day of the 1930's and how the town of Boise City came about.
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Black Sunday Blizzard 1935

Vol 11, Iss 26 Online at History.com I did a search for a show that was on this Sunday, June 28, 2009, concerning the "Black Sunday Blizzard of '35" that blew millions of tons of topsoil through the high plains and heartlands.

April 14, 1935, the day of "The Black Sunday Blizzard" blew millions of tons of topsoil eastward towards the east coast. Soil Conservation techniques were soon to follow to perserve the "Dust Bowl" years of the 1930s. Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico and South Dakota feeling the "worst hard times" of that era.

According to HISTORY.COM's Major Dust Bowl Storm Strikes, It was one of the most devastating storms of the 1930s Dust Bowl era that swept through the heartland and the over-grazed, over-farmed plains bringing millions of tons of dirt and dust so dense, dark that some eyewitnesses believed the world was coming to an end.

By the early 1930s, the grassy plains of the plains of western Kansas, southeastern Colorado, panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, and northeastern New Mexico had been over plowed by farmers and overgrazed by cattle and sheep. Soil erosion, combined with an 8-year drought that began in 1931, created a a dire situation for farmers and ranchers.

With the failure of crops and businesses failing and dust storms making people sick, many residents fled westward in search of work in other states such as California. Those who remained behind struggled to support themselves and their families.

By the mid-1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration introduced programs to help alleviate the farming crisis, such as the establishment of the "Soil Conservation Service (SCS) in the Department of Agriculture. The SCS promoted improved farming and land management techniques and farmers were paid to utilize these safer practices. For many Dust Bowl farmers, this federal aid was their only source of income at the time."

By 1939, a year before my folks, Gene McGill and Vada Paris, were married (March 1940), the Dust Bowl era came to an end when the welcome rains returned as the drought ended. We only hope that the improved farming techniques of that "Dust Bowl" has reduced the problem of soil erosion and prevented a repeat of the 1930's Dust Bowl devastation. -- Maps of the Dust Bowl 1935-40.
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Remembering some NW Okie Legacies...

Vol 6, Iss 12

A few of our readers (including this writer) have sent us memories of the April, 1938 snowstorm that blocked the streets of Alva and the Northwest corner of the state. After re-reading Vada's 1938 Diary, we found where this writer's mother wrote... "April 7, 1938, Thursday - Snowed all day, cold and the wind is strong.   April 8, 1938,  Friday - Gosh, but is terrible outside.  A real blizzard.  Roads and streets are blocked.  Cut all my morning classes. Didn't go to work.   April 9, 1938,  Saturday - Went to work early today.  Sun is shining.  Snow is melting almost.  Need a boat to get downtown.  Roads are still blocked."

In the Mailbag Corner you can read some other memories of the 1930's Blizzard and Dust storm stories. Alfalfa County Museum, in Cherokee, Oklahoma has stories, memories about the dust bowl days on file at the Museum for the public to read. Next time your in Cherokee, Oklahoma stop by and check them over.

It is that time to head out of here and get ready for another weekend of exploring in NW Oklahoma. We shall see you all next weekend with hopefully some undiscovered memories, legacies. Also... Congratulations goes out to Northwestern Oklahoma State University marching band... The 13th of March 2004, they traveled to Washington, DC to march in the St. Patrick's Day parade and won a large trophy for "Best Visiting Band." "A Ride Rangers Ride" and "Way to Go, Rangers" ... goes out to the Ranger Band of the Castle on the Hill (now NWOSU). See Y'all next weekend.

Dust Bowl Memories...

Vol 6, Iss 11

The "Dust Bowl" website link that we put in last week's newsletter had some interesting information. Do you have any similar legacies to share of your ancestor's "Dust Bowl Memories?" Did they ever mention "Black Sunday, April 14, 1935?" Here is some of what the 1930's Dust Bowl Stories - Excerpts from "The Dust Bowl, Men,  Dirt and Depression" by Paul Bonnifield had to say about that...

     "On Sunday, April 14, 1935, the sun came up in a clear sky. The day was warm and pleasant, a gentle breeze whimpered out of the southwest. Suddenly a cloud appeared on the horizon. Birds flew swiftly ahead of it, but not swift enough for the cloud traveling at sixty miles per hour. This day, which many people of the area readily remember, was named Black Sunday.
     By May, it seemed like the wind and dirt had been blowing for an eternity. Rain was an event occurring only in dreams. It was a year of intensive dirt storms, gales, rollers and floods mixed with economic depression, sickness and disaster. It was a year of extreme hardship, but surprisingly the vast majority of the people stayed. By 1935, the unusual had become the usual, the extreme became the normal, the exception became the routine.
     During 1936, the number of dirt storms increased and the temperature broke the 1934 record high by soaring above 120 degrees. On one pleasant June day in 1936, the ground began to tremble. A sharp earthquake shook the land from Kenton to Perryton and from Liberal to Stratford. By the fall of 1936, the rains began to return and the heat wave was broken. The following year, 1937 was another year of unprecedented dirt storms. Day after day, Dust Bowl farmers unwillingly traded farms as the land moved back and forth between Texas and Kansas. And of course there were the usual floods. 1938 was the year of the Snuster. The snuster was a mixture of dirt and snow reaching blizzard proportions. The storm cause a tremendous amount of damage and suffering.".

Grapes of Wrath & Okies

Vol 7, Iss 6 Since the talk of "Okie's," we have been browsing the web to refresh our memories of John Steinbeck's book (Grapes of Wrath) that was first published in the United States of America by the Viking Penguin, Inc., 1939. Steinbeck's idea for the book came to him on his first journalistic assignment in the Fall of 1936.  A liberal San Francisco Newspaper sent Steinbeck to cover the migrant situation in California. He went to the Arvin Encampment in Bakersfield, California to talk to Tom Collins, manager of one of the first of the government camps set up in California to alleviate housing problems for the Southwest migrants pouring into the state from the Dust Bowl regions.  Steinbeck interviewed Collins and the migrants. Steinbeck studied the situation first hand, after which he wrote a series of articles on the migrants' plight, published as "The Harvest Gypsies ."  By December 1936 Steinbeck knew that his next "big book" would be the migrants' story.

The Grapes of Wrath is said to be Steinbeck's masterpiece.  It was a portrait of "Dust Bowl" poverty -- an historical tract about homelessness in the 1930s -- the story of the migration of a people forced from their land for drought, economical conditions. The story begins as a conflict between man and nature, but soon the conflict is between man and man. The ecological disaster that had transformed Oklahoma into the "dust bowl" is only part of the tragedy, though.

When the migrants arrived in the blooming abundance of California, they were kept from the bounty of the land. The devastation of the land was as serious as the economic disaster of the stock market crash. Those tenant farm workers that worked the lands were finding themselves forced from the very land that they toiled, sacrificed their blood, sweat, tears, dreams and hopes in all those years.

They packed their families, belongings into their automobiles with hopes, dreams of finding jobs and a renewed dignity in California. All because of an ad in a "flyer" from California that promised jobs for migrant farm workers. Only to find out that the promise of jobs was fraudulent.   It was a story of a family unit disintegrating -- of how power shifts from patriarchy to matriarchy -- Equally important is the relationship between Ma Joad and her self-absorbed daughter, Rose of Sharon.  Like Tom, she must learn to look beyond herself and her needs to embrace the needs of others.  The novel is thus a plea for empathy and understanding, as well as an indictment of a system that left so many destitute in a land where excess oranges were dumped in rivers in order to keep prices inflated.

There was a practice of passing on the blame for the misery that was occuring during the depression. The farmers had no one against whom to protest, for they find only figureheads dispossessing them, each a representative of a system against which all were powerless. All the people in the story are caught in the grip of forces larger than themselves and beyond their control. There is no traceable human will behind the evictions, merely an inhuman monster created by big business, and characterized by a dehumanizing greed and opportunism. The system plants cotton, knowing that it will devastate the land; the system uses tractors, knowing that they will dispossess the farmers. It is a time when men had created the monster, but could not control it. The farmers gave their blood to keep, work with the land, only for some to be driven from it in search of a renewed dignity and hope for a better life.

It has been brought to our attention that our grandparents, great-grandparents remained behind. Some may have even benefited to some extent from the drought, depression of the '20s and '30s. So... Do we really qualify ourselves being called "Okie" when our ancestors remained on, with the land? Whatever the case, does it really matter? Aren't we all in this together? What's in a name or label anyway? Why not learn from the past so we are not condemned to repeat it! We would love to share and pay tribute to some of those families drought, depression stories of the '20s and '30s. If you know of anyone, please give them our Email address. Thanks! View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

April Blizzard of the 1930's...

Vol 6, Iss 10 Another reader would like some information concerning a blizzard snow storm that hit Northwest Woods County (Oklahoma) sometime in April, in the 1930's. Has your ancestors ever spoken, written in a journal about a big snow storm in Woods county in the 1930's around March or April? We went back to look at some notes Grandpa Bill McGill kept in his journal during the 1930's and his notes mentions something around, "27 & 29 March 1931 -- That night there was snow in and around Alva, Oklahoma. Altogether there was 12 inches of snow that year." 

Could this be the 1930's, April snow that the reader speaks about?  If you go to Grandpa's 1930's Notes, you can read more of his journal he kept in the '30s. If any of this jogs some memories, drop us a note and share it with us. Do you remember the "Black Blizzard" of the Dust Bowl Days around 1930's? Do you have some ancestral journals of Okie Legacies that you would like to share with us? Send us a copy by snail-mail (Linda Wagner, P.O. Box 18998, OKC, OK 73154) or email (paristimes@earthlink.net). Thanks!

NW Okie's Thoughts

Vol 12, Iss 18 Alva, Oklahoma - Someone wrote us this week, "We are not OKIES. They went to Califonia (California) during dust bowl. We are Oklahomans & insulted. signed all Oklahomans"

First of all -- I know it was not signed by ALL Oklahomans, because I know some Oklahomans that do not mind being called an "Okie" and are not insulted by the use of the term.

Second -- I have a question and wonder why some Oklahomans would be insulted? The only thing Oklahomans should be insulted about is the black-eye that the State Legislature has given Oklahoma globally by recently passing legislation that discriminates against Women Rights to choose.

The Great Depression / Dust Bowl Days

The Great Depression and Dust Bowl of the 1930's is a part of our Great Plains history that we should all remember, least we be condemned to repeat it!

I did a YouTube.com search for original video clips of the Dust Bowl era of the 1930's so we could pay homage to the "Worst of Hard Times" and to the Dust Bowl Refugees. We found a few videos to share with you all.





I have and shall always consider myself an "Okie" in a proud sense. I am a Northwest Oklahoma Okie, born and raised. I choose to remember our past history, looking and learning from those "Worst of Hard Times." This NW Okie shall not look upon those who left in the 1930's as quitters as some still do today.

If you know your history, it was not only Oklahoma that was affected by the drought / depression of the 1930's. The Texas panhandle, Western Kansas, Eastern Colorado, and Nebraska also felt the "Worst of Hard Times" back in the 1920's and 1930's. They were forced to leave their homes looking for any kind of work. Many headed West towards migrant jobs in California.

Yes! I shall always consider myself an "Okie" in the proudest of sense.

Good Night and Good Luck!

-- A NW Okie
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The Dust Bowl Storms 1932-40

Vol 11, Iss 28 Remembering the 1930's Dust Bowl days of NE New Mexico, SE Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. It was on February 21, that a severe duster struck western Kansas from the north and rolled southward into Oklahoma and Texas.

The dust boiled up from the tinder dry fields, downed telephone lines, and brought traffic to a standstill. At Alva, Oklahoma, the storm sifted dust into the college gymnasium to such a degree that a basketball game in progress had to be stopped.

It was during March and April 1935, that Amarillo, Texas and Dodge city Kansas had 28 and 26 dust laden days respectively. March was a dirty month in eastern Colorado, where dust storms occurred frequently from March 12 to March 25. Dust formed drifts like snow from a few inches to more than six feet deep.

March, 1935, a black blizzard turned day into night in the Texas Panhandle, breaking glass windows, damaged railroad communication. At Alva, Oklahoma, city police blocked the highways and prohibited motorists from leaving town.

Four days before the notorious black blizzard of April 14, 1935, a severe dust storm rolled across the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles and into Kansas. It was reported to have paralyzed traffic for more than 24 hours and set a record for the intensity and duration of a daytime storm.

In Boise City, Oklahoma, 49 mph winds accompanied the dust. At Guymon, the storm lasted 48 hours. In the heart of the Texas Panhandle at Amarillo, airport officials estimated that the dust cloud reached 15 thousand feet.

Absolute darkness lasted 15 minutes, May 22, 1937, in Boise City, Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Panhandle had only 12 dusty days from March to May of that year. It was reported that the Dust Bowl received subnormal rainfall in April 1938, but all of the severe dust storms occurred before the 15th. The dust storms that began in 1932 and peaked in 1935 continued intermittently during the spring months of the next 4 years, but by 1940 a return of the wet cycle ended them. -- An AGricultural & Social History - The Dust Bowl, by R. Douglas Hurt.

There is an Oklahoma Panhandle saying goes something like this, "Don't let this year make a damned fool of you next year."
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Living History Farm History of 1930's

Vol 12, Iss 18 The Living History Farm website states, "Farming in the 1930s on the Great Plains was perhaps the most difficult occupation in the world. Farmers not only faced a global economic slow down of historic proportions, but they also faced one of the worst, longest droughts in America's history."

"People around the world had no money to buy the crops and animals that farmers produced, and the drought made it almost impossible to plant and harvest the crops in the first place. As a result, many farmers lost their farms. Many moved West out of the Great Plains of the United States, looking for any kind of work they could find. Many became migrant farm laborers on the West Coast."

Things were not easy with the drought and depression that deepened on the Great Plains. Let us not forget the bank failures, stock market crash and how all of this affected the farmers / ranchers and others during the 1930's. People were forced off their lands looking for work and a better life for their families.

Farming In the 1930s gives this interesting insight/history of the 1930s Dust Bowl / Depression, "As the 'double whammy' of drought and depression deepened on the Great Plains, more and more farmers gave up or were forced off of their land and lost their land to foreclosures. There was the relentless march of new tractors, which meant that the farmers who were able to scrape together enough money to buy a tractor could buy out their neighbors. Fewer farmers farmed more land."

This website continues to say, "Some went to cities. But many decided to head west. In fact, during the 30s hundreds of thousands left the plains for the West Coast. So many migrated from Oklahoma that they were dubbed "Okies" in the popular press. For years, California, Oregon and Washington had been growing. Many who were pushed off of the plains were pulled west because they had relatives who had moved to the coastal areas. And the boosters of California had advertised that the state offered a perfect climate and an abundance of work in the agricultural industry."

BUT -- When the Dust Bowl Refugees arrived on the West Coast, they were not given the welcome and hope many were searching.

Black Sunday - 14 april 1935

I doubt that the young people will remember the "Black Sunday" of 14 April 1935, when the most visible evidence of how the Dust Bowl days struck the Great Plains and blew its top soil all the way to the East coast.

This NW Okie did not experience it either, but my parents and grandparents stayed and lived through it. I have read, heard stories of that day when tons of topsoil were blown off barren fields and carried in dusty storm clouds for hundreds of miles. Even as far as the East Coast. Day became night.

The driest regions of the plains were found around Southeastern Colorado, Southwest Kansas and the Panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas.

It affected the entire region and the entire country. In 1932, 14 dust storms were recorded on the Plains. In 1933, there were 38 storms. By 1934, it was estimated that 100 million acres of farmland had lost all or most of the topsoil to the winds. It was April, 1935 that saw weeks of dust storms. The cloud that appeared on the horizon Sunday, 14 April 1935 was said to be the worst. Winds were reportedly clocked at 60mph just before it hit.

The livinghistoryfarm.org quoted Avis D. Carlson, who wrote in a New Republic article, "The impact is like a shovelful of fine sand flung against the face. People caught in their own yards grope for the doorstep. Cars come to a standstill, for no light in the world can penetrate that swirling murk... We live with the dust, eat it, sleep with it, watch it strip us of possessions and the hope of possessions. It is becoming Real."

The impact of "Black Sunday" was felt all over the united States. The dust storm arrived in Washington, DC all the way from the Great Plains. The dusty gloom spread over the nation's capital and blotted out the sun. Congress passed the Soil Conservation Act to help this from happening again.

I know that the label "Okie" came about during the depression and dust bowl days when residents of Nebraska, the Panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas, Arkansas, Western Kansas, eastern New Mexico, Southeastern Colorado headed west toward California. BUT -- That doesn't mean that we have to accept and look at the word "Okie" as something degrading.

What is so wrong with re-defining the term "Okie" and remembering the reasons for so many heading West? They were not all Oklahomans. Texas, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska and surrounding States were lumped into that term of "Okie."
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Great Plains Dust Bowl of 1930's & Dust Bowl Blues

Vol 12, Iss 18 This next video is a segment from Discovery Channel's, Making of A Continent (1989-90) about the Dust Bowl wind erosion of the 1930's.



Dust Bowl Blues - Part 1

memchip - February 26, 2007 - Memories of the West - Images and Music of the post-depression era when poor land management practices and drought brought dust storms, displacement and the great western migration and the rebirth of hope.



SEE ALSO Dust Bowl Blues - Part 2
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The Great Dust Storms Videos

Vol 12, Iss 18 Photos and narratives of the dust storms of the 1930's, created by guerillabill - September 24, 2007 - on YouTube.com.



The Dust Bowl - Okies, Kansas, California & Route 66

amliterature - March 06, 2008 - This is an educational video of the Dust Bowl of the 1920's. Super to use in American History classes, but some use it with the Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. Photos are either freeware or from the Finney County Historical Museum in Kansas."


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1930s Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC)

Vol 12, Iss 23 United States - The Depression and Dust Bowl era of the 1930s had the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) that gave young men guidance, hope and pride. Many of those CCC workers went into the armed forces during WWII. The CCC workers and their families brought about a pride in our environment and preserving it. Do we need something of this sort of Corp today?

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public work relief program for unemployed, single men age 18-24, providing unskilled manual labor related to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural areas of the United States from 1933 to 1942. As part of the New Deal legislation proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), the CCC was designed to provide relief for unemployed youth who had a very hard time finding jobs during the Great Depression while implementing a general natural resource conservation program on public lands in every U.S. state, including the territories of Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The CCC became the most popular New Deal program among the general public, providing jobs for a total of 3 million young men from families on relief. Implicitly the CCC also led to awareness and appreciation of the outdoors and the nation's natural resources, especially for city youth. The CCC was never considered a permanent program and depended on emergency and temporary legislation for its existence. On June 30, 1942 Congress voted to eliminate funding for the CCC, formally ceasing active operation of the program.

During the time of the CCC, volunteers planted nearly 3 billion trees to help reforest America, constructed more than 800 parks nationwide that would become the start of most state parks, developed forest fire fighting methods and a network of thousands of miles of public roadways, and constructed buildings connecting the nation's public lands.

The legislation and mobilization of the program occurred quite rapidly. Within ten days after being introduced to Congress the ECW Act was signed on 31 March 1933; on 5 April Director Fechner was appointed and War Department corps area commanders were given task to commence enrollment; the first CCC enrollee was selected 7 April and subsequent lists of unemployed men were supplied by state and local welfare and relief agencies for immediate enrollment.

The typical enrollee was a U.S. citizen, unmarried, unemployed male, 18–20 years of age. Normally the family was on local relief. Each enrollee volunteered, and upon passing a physical exam and/or a period of conditioning, was required to serve a minimum six month period with the option to serve as many as four periods, or up to two years if employment outside the Corps was not possible. Enrollees worked 40 hours a week over five days, sometimes including Saturdays if poor weather dictated. In return he received $30 a month with a compulsory allotment $22–25 sent to a family dependent, as well as food, clothing and medical care.

Decline and Disbandment 1941-1942 - Although the CCC was probably the most popular New Deal program, it never became a permanent agency. The program had been reduced in operations as the Depression waned and employment opportunities improved. Fewer eligible young men were available after conscription commenced in 1940.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 all federal programs were revised to emphasize the war effort. Most CCC work, except for wildland firefighting, was shifted onto U.S. military bases to help with construction. The CCC disbanded one year earlier than planned, as the 77th United States Congress ceased funding, causing it to conclude operations formally at the end of the federal fiscal year on June 30, 1942.

Some former CCC sites in good condition were reactivated from 1941 to 1947 as Civilian Public Service camps where conscientious objectors performed work of national importance as an alternative to military service. Other camps were used to hold Japanese internees or German prisoners of war. After the CCC disbanded, the federal agencies responsible for administration of public lands organized their own seasonal fire crews, modeled after the CCC, which performed a firefighting function formerly done by the CCC and provided the same sort of outdoor work experience for young people. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Dust Bowl - Black Blizzard (14 April 1935)

Vol 12, Iss 18 windmill1947 put together, May 12, 2009, this documentary was shown on the History Channel. This took place in America's heartland from 1930-'40. Dust Bowl Alternately Called Black Blizzard Clip

Dust Bowl Memories

This video was found on pikespeaklibrary, August 29, 2008, Oliver Clibon, Harry Collier, and Chuck Bowman recollect their time spent in the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression.


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Air Castles & Dreamers

Vol 11, Iss 26 This NW Okie comes from a long line of dreamers with roots in Oklahoma. My grandmother, Constance Estella Warwick McGill, wrote in letters from a friend, John C. McClure, of the places she wanted to go and see when she was younger in the early 1900s. John accused Constance of building "air castles."

One of those places was San Francisco, Philippines, and other places around the world. It was not until the late 1930s thru 1950s that she saw some of her "air castles" developed into reality. She never made it to the Philippines, but did travel to England and back to New England.

Grandma mainly stayed around Northwestern Oklahoma Territory and saw it through it Drought, Depression and Dust Bowl days, raising a family of two sons and acquiring ranch and farm land. Marrying William J. McGill in March, 1910 and divorcing in the 1940s.

Grandma's younger son, Bob McGill, fought overseas in World War II and died at an early age in February, 1954 of lung cancer.

Constance's oldest son stayed around Northwest Oklahoma after his graduation from Oklahoma University in December, 1937, instead of going off to Washington, DC. His grandfather, John Robert Warwick made Gene and offer he could not refuse, "All this would be yours if you stayed and work the farm and ranching business."

Little did Gene know at that time that his mother would control everything and use young Gene as a hired hand. By-passing her remaining son in her Will & Trusts when she died in 1969 -- leaving mineral interests and the majority of landholdings to her four granddaughters, equally.
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Dust Bowl Disaster Slideshow & Refugees

Vol 12, Iss 18 gmbudt put this together September 20, 2009. They say, "This is a revised version of the slideshow so many of you have already watched (thank you!). I am discovering / learning new technology, hence the new version. Images of the 1930's Great Plains Dust Bowl, and the Black Sunday Dust Storm in particular, provide a chilling visual backdrop for Woody Guthrie's song Dust Storm Disaster."



Dust Bowl Refugees

dalecaruso - December 19, 2008 - Photos: The Dorothea Lange Collection, The Library of Congress, Hard Time Killing Floor Blues, Chris Thomas King, Can't Find My Way Home, Down to the River to Pray, Alison Krause.

(www.alisonkrauss.com, Presbyterian Guitar, Soggy Bottom Boys, This Land is Your Land, Woody Guthrie, conceived and produced by Dale Caruso.


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Man who invented 'Okie'

Vol 9, Iss 50 "I received this reply from Richard Reddick, Ben Reddick's son and thought it might be of interest to you." -- Lois

Email to Lois: "Probably truth to all points on the issue... but Dad was credited when, as a young journalist doing features on the Great Depression and the dust bowl emigrants to California's San Joaquin Valley. He was early to discover and point out in his photographic coverage, beginning in mid-1930s all those dust bowl refugees arriving here with Oklahoma license plates were not from Oklahoma, but in passing thru many obtained gasoline and licensing compliments of your state. The news folks and some Oklahomans credited him with creation of the moniker "Okie." My mother being one (Sapulpa born) probably helped or confused things." -- Dick - Man Who Invented "Okie" Dies
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Knowles (Sands City), Beaver Co., OK

Vol 10, Iss 20 Knowles (Sands City), was located in Beaver County, Sec. 25-5N-26E, Cimarron Meridian, 4 miles north, 17-1/2 miles east of Beaver, Oklahoma. The post office began March 16, 1907. The Newspaper was the Farmers News and the railroad was the Wichita Falls & Northwestern railway (Katy), abandoned 1972.

Knowles moved its location and changed its name, like many other towns in Oklahoma. It incorporated as Sands City in 1906, it moved about a half mile eastward in 1912 at the time the Wichita Falls & Northwestern Railroad laid its tracks through eastern Beaver County. The post office, Knowles, was established in Sands City before the founding of Knowles.

The new city of Knowles soon became a trading, marketing, and shipping center for eastern Beaver and western Harper counties.

In 1909 Sands City had nine business establishments. In 1913 Knowles had thirty businesses. In the four-year period the population increased from 25 to 254 persons. In addition to the various stores, the town had a good bank, an excellent grade school and high school system. active churches, and the widely read Farmers News.

Around the town was some of the best farming land in the state. Between September 1, 1928, and September 1, 1929, some 273 train cars of wheat, 43 cars of kafir corn and milo, 18 cars of broomcorn, 49 cars of cattle, 5 cars of hogs, and 14,480 gallons of milk were shipped. Turkeys, chickens, and eggs were sent to market by trucks. Most farms had small orchards, and all had gardens. Knowles was a growing agricultural center.

The 1930s changed all that. The depression ruined many farmers economically, and during the Dust Bowl period many saw their farms blown away. A long period of below average rainfall, dry topsoil, and strong winds dominated the weather of the mid-1930s just as it did other small farm towns in Oklahoma.

The most severe dust storm in the area started on sunday, April 14, 1935. On that date a reddish brown cloud moved over Knowles from the northwest. It was a large dust cloud carried eastward by a slowly advancing cold front. Light from the sun was blotted out, and visibility was reduced to a few feet. Even though houses were shut as tight as possible, and wet cloths were wedged around windows and doors, the fine silt covered furniture and floors. The storm continued the following day. Stores were closed, school was canceled, driving ceased, and meetings were postponed. Those who had to go outside wore masks to protect their mouth and nose and goggles to protect their eyes.

When the wind was not strong, such a storm could last two or three days. If the wind was strong the storm would move on quickly but often would have the effect of a sand blaster on a painted building or car. In the mid-1950s such dust storms again developed.

The town of Knowles struggled for existnece, bgut that struggle appeared to be a losing cause. So many people had moved from teh community that the schools were closed, railroad had been abandoned and the tracks removed, and only on grocery store and the post office continued to operate. US Highway 64 borders the eastern edge of the town, and cars sped by to larger towns and cities. Knowles was a victim of farm consolidation and the return to ranching, advancing agricultural technology, improved highway transportation, and the weather. The town was almost surrounded by a single ranch.
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1930's Dust Bowl Stories...

Vol 6, Iss 10 1930's Dust Bowl Stories... "Excerpts from "The Dust Bowl, Men,  Dirt and Depression" by Paul Bonnifield. The 1930's Dust Bowl -- 'Dust Bowl' was a term born in the hard times from the people who lived in the drought-stricken region during the great depression. The term was first used in a dispatch from Robert Geiger, an AP correspondent in Guymon, and within a few short hours the term was used all over the nation. The "Dust Bowl Days", also known as the "Dirty Thirties", took its toll on Cimarron County. The decade was full of extremes: blizzards, tornadoes, floods, droughts, and dirt storms. Early Thirties Economy -- In 1930 and 1931, the decade opened with unparalleled prosperity and growth. NATION'S BUSINESS magazine labeled the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas as the most prosperous region. The Panhandle was a marked contrast to the long soup lines of the Eastern United States....." View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe