Dustland to Grassland

this episode of the history guide brought to you by magellan tv and their newly released documentary dust storm the dust bowl that period of time when the great american west essentially became a snow globe of blowing dirt is famous shoot the dust clouds are almost as well remembered as the great depression itself as if the dreams of the many thousands of americans would be farmers who had gone west in hopes of a better life had literally blown away like dust in the wind the stories of the great storms of the dust bowl are legendary epitomized by that august 14 1935 duster that became known as black sunday but while the storms of the dust bowl are relatively well remembered much less well known is the nation's response a massive undertaking that redefined the relationship between americans and vast swathes of land it is an inspiring story of a dynamic nation who refused to be cowed by the worst of times who took on disasters caused by man and nature by redefining the relationship between the two an inspiring story of land stewardship and understanding the importance of appropriate use of land history that deserves to be remembered but the dust bowl isn't just history it is a terrifying reality for millions of people as violent dust storms have become much more common in the world today a phenomenon that is detailed in the magellan tv documentary dust storm i know that many of you are already magellan's subscribers and great documentaries like dust storm are the reason fans of history appreciate their subscription to magellan tv dust storm represents an example of how a challenge of the future is reminiscent of the challenges of the past the documentary details the growing number of massive dust storms striking parts of the world today and details the science being used to better predict understand and prevent these massive clouds engulfing cities around the world it is a thoroughly compelling story of scientific inquiry to address real world problems if you love the history guy then you'll probably enjoy the documentary dust storm and the extraordinary thing is that magellan tv which already has more than 3 000 documentaries continues to add new documentaries every week it is a compelling reason to continue subscribing to magellan tv to show their appreciation for history guide viewers magellan tv is offering dust storm for free view for the next seven days this means that if you don't currently have a magellan tv membership you can still stream dust storm from today november 18th until november 25th for free so if you haven't signed up for magellan tv gosh you really should and bring along a friend because history guy viewers can take advantage of a special limited time holiday offer of a buy one get one free gift card for an annual membership and remember that you can watch that documentary dust storm for the next week for free sign up using the link in the description the lands of the great plains were widely settled following the passage of the 1862 homestead act which offered 160 acres of land to homesteaders who would work the land and the process was accelerated by railroads which soon crossed the country and made it easier both for the homesteaders to reach land and to ship crops especially wheat to the densely populated eastern states and even international markets before this time and the advent of deep plowing the semi-airplanes were not considered useful for european style agriculture stephen long dubbed it on a government expedition in 1823 the great american desert wholly unfit for cultivation and of course uninhabitable by a people depending upon agriculture over the decades steadily more and more people moved west and established homesteads pledging to work the land and make a living off their 160 acres as the 20th century came around the most desirable areas of the plains were homesteaded and steadily more marginal land was claimed most of these farmers came from the traditions of farming in older forming regions of the united states which had farming strategies unfit for the plane's climate but several things happened at the same time that began to give hoped to the would-be farmers first after decades of declining the land is uncultivatable thanks to sparse surface water the ogallala aquifer was discovered along from methods of irrigation farming and a favorable stretch of climate in the region led to homesteaders believing that weather in the region had changed for good promoters often use the line rain follows the plow to argue that cultivation itself was responsible for increased rainfall actually the planes are prone to periods of wetter weather that alternate with long periods of drought during the wet year farmers could make good money growing bumper crops of cultivates another important aspect of farming in the prairie came from john deere who was able to perfect the creation and mass production of steel plows these piles were necessary as they significantly reduced the difficulty of plying up the thick rooted prayer grass native to the plains earlier iron plows struggled to plow the land wave after wave of migrants seeking freedom in a farm quickly and dramatically increased the amount of land under the plow and hundreds of thousands of acres of grass were overturned in favor of wheat the difficulty of making a living on more marginal land also led to revisions of the original homestead act the kincaid act of 1904 offered 640 acres to people willing to farm land in western nebraska while the 1909 enlarged homestead act doubled the acreage to 320 acres in other parts of the plains the teens and 20s of the 20th century also brought a period of greater rainfall which to many prove that the region was no longer semi-arid improving technology and mechanization led to greater and greater cultivation abroad the market for wheat grew as well giving farmers of those years record profits thanks to countries recovering from the devastation of world war one around 100 million acres were plowed in the plains but these methods would also set the stage for the coming disaster the native grasses thrived in the great plains because their thick root systems held moisture for the dry years by the 1930s the grasses were rare or completely eliminated in huge stretches of land cotton farmers left the fields completely bare in winter even burning the leftover stubble of plants to control weeds this combined with the region's propensity for high winds would lead directly to the dust bowl in the 30s when economies around the world were tanking the plane saw some of their driest years on record the 1934 yearbook of agriculture concluded that approximately 35 million acres of formerly cultivated land have essentially been destroyed for crop production 100 million acres now and crops have lost all or most of the topsoil farmers could make no money and often couldn't sell what they did grow the loss of native grasses led to the large-scale erosion which was picked up by the winds and dumped all over in 1934 dust from the plains rained down on even the east coast this was exacerbated further by the record heat waves in years like 1936. as much as 75 of the topsoil was blown away in some of the worst hit regions today is just common hell death and destruction to every growing thing wrote one nebraska farmer the catastrophe of the 30s led to the famous photos of destitute migrants abandoning their homes and traveling west or anywhere to make a living around 3.5 million people left the planes during those years becoming okies and arkies who lost everything these people were focused on franklin delano roosevelt's new deal policies first elected in 1932 in his first 100 days fdr's administration moved quickly to deal with the problems of soil erosion and human displacement the soil erosion service was established in august of 1933 and in 1935 it was reorganized under the department of agriculture as the soil conservation service largely thanks to efforts by hugh hammond bennett the director of the service the law recognized the wastage of soil and moisture resources on farm grazing and forest lands as a menace to the national welfare the public works administration established a national planning board which issued a report in 1934 concerning the causes and possible prevention or remediation of the dust bowl it also inventoried land resources an estimated future requirements and recommended that the government begin acquiring land ultimately advocating for the acquisition of 75 million acres to supplement the assistance to private forestry and erosion control work the goal is to identify land for repurchase and then to develop it for uses to which it was better suited than agricultural production much of it would eventually be used as public range land the resettlement administration said the effort included the most comprehensive provisions for wildlife conservation that had ever been made by the nation beginning in 1934 the federal government began to buy back the land which had been given to homesteaders eventually purchasing 11 million acres at about 4.40 cents an acre under the land utilization program for transition to pasture forests range park recreation wildlife refuge and similar uses this effort was codified in the 1937 bankhead jones farm tenant act other acts provided loans to small farmers and purchase cattle and other goods at decent prices to stave off financial ruin for struggling farmers while the goal had been to purchase cultivated lands and rehabilitated much of the land that was bought had never been cultivated only about a third of the land purchased in the northern great plains had been cropland the rest was mostly rangeland the program also dispatched scientists to study the soil creating soil survey maps to better understand the region's ecology another enormous project that roosevelt's administration took on for the dust bowl region was the prairie states forestry program which planted over 18 000 miles of wind breaks using 200 million trees that would help to hold the soil in place in the face of dry conditions and wind although it was not as successful as proponents of hope never accomplished the 100 mile wall of trees from north to south that had been envisioned to provide work for these projects congress formed the civilian conservation corps for unmarried men provide work for the conservation and natural resources formed in 1933 roosevelt envisioned as a workforce that could help in the prevention of soil erosion flood control and similar projects by september 161 soil erosion camps have been established the program provided work and pay for many young men with few options in addition to erosion prevention they also help build trails bridges fire lookout towers plant trees develop picnic grounds stock ponds of fish and more three million men would participate between 1933 and the program's end in 1942. these government workers also established education programs that top farmers ways to better manage their farms in the semi-arid plains in 1937 this included a major push to adopt new planting methods that would help conserve the soil paying farmers a dollar an acre to adopt the new methods new practices included strip cropping terracing crop rotation and contour planting by 1938 the government reported that they had reduced blowing soil by 65 percent by 1939 rated begun to return to the region with record rainfalls returning by 1941. the new deal agencies chronically underfunded face difficulties in the 30s as receding dry and eroded land isn't easy in the middle of a drought the land however remained in the public's hands administered by the soil conservation service for which my late grandfather harold bradford a good man worked for 35 years in 1953 this land was transferred to the forest service and a large study conducted to determine what should become of the land while some was sold much of it was retained in federal hands thirteen of the land use projects became national forests while others were transferred to other federal management however more than 3.8 million acres was on june 20th given a new designation national grasslands 18 national grasslands were declared most of them under the direction of nearby national forest ranger districts worked to keep this land both usable by the public and in ways that prevented soil erosion continued at least 500 dugout ponds were dug on the south dakota buffalo gap national grassland during my late father's george henry geiger the good man's tenure there as the district ranger though there are few trees on much of the grassland the vision of its use or public in various ways makes the land very similar to national forests which are also maintained with various uses in mind while the enormous work of the various agencies reclaiming land and changing land use among the largest ecological efforts in world history had an effect on the dust storms the greatest change in practice actually came from technology specifically machinery that allowed farmers to irrigate fields through use of the ogallala aquifer using the aquifer as a water source allowed farmers in the region to continue to produce crops and survive other drought periods such as that in the 1960s the soil did not become dust and could not be blown like it was in the 1930s the 4 million acres of the national grasslands become centers of recreational activity such as hiking hunting and fishing in addition to their uses grazing land for cattle the great storms of the dust bowl and the dirty 30s coalesced around a number of circumstances a poor understanding of climate and drought economic demands booms and then busts and finally crashes but the story of the recovery is one of resiliency and ingenuity with an incredible dedication and despite a struggle for resources the dust bowl ended not only because of increased rains but because of concerted effort to better utilize the land millions of acres of land that had fed the black blizzards have once again been turned towards useful purpose and millions more shepherded by the forest service so they can continue to be enjoyed for generations but perhaps the greatest lesson to be learned is that disasters can be overcome that dreams that had literally turned to dust and blown away can be returned to fertile ground evidence from the past that we can face the challenges of the present in the future and succeed a good reason that history deserves to be remembered i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guide short snippets of forgotten history and if you did enjoy feed the algorithm by making a comment or clicking that like button if you have suggestions for future episodes please send those to our suggestions email box check out our webpage at thehistoryguy.net and of course we're on facebook instagram and twitter you can book a special message from the history guy on cameo and check out our merchandise 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Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 136,257

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, great depression, dustbowl

Id: zwoge0F1VCw

Length: 14min 15sec (855 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 19 2021