The Dust Bowl

[gh]

no, not a BCS game; the historic thing from the '30s.

After a fall with a couple of long road trips, finally catching up on the DVRed material, and, no shock, Ken Burns hits another home run.

His "Dust Bowl" 2-parter is mind-boggling.

I'm sure appreciated more by lone wolf more than anyone else.

Stunning photography and dialogue, as always with a KB production. And what I assume is decent analysis of history. I had no idea how much of the Dust Bowl was man-made. And then exacerbated by the Crash of '29.

Some amazing reminders of how cause & effect works (particularly the Law Of Unintended Consequences).

[lonewolf]

I certainly do remember the drought years of the 30s and travelling through the stricken areas on visits to relatives. Fortunately my grandfathers 1902 homestead in Kiowa County,Oklahoma was about thirty miles south of the southern edge of the area most affected, which was the over plowed, predominantly wheat growing areas of NW Oklahoma, Texas Panhandle, SE Colorado and SW Kansas.
We grew rotated crops of wheat, oats, cotton, alfalfa and sorghums which was less susceptible to wind erosion and there are still two pastures of native buffalo grass which, 110 years later, has never been plowed.
I visit the place about once a year. Most of the out buildings have long since collapsed and I was disheartened to discover this summer that the original homestead house had burned sometime since my visit the previous year.
I did have dusted out relatives who joined the exodus to California. I don't think any of them ever returned... or got rich..