INTRODUCTION
The quotes and descriptions of Dalhart, Boise City, and Baca County come from interviews conducted by the author and reporting trips to the High Plains. Ike Osteen was interviewed at his house in Springfield, Colorado, on April 25, 2002. Jeanne Clark was interviewed in Lamar, Colorado, on April 22, 2002, with follow-up phone conversations on April 3, 2003, and June 1, 2003. Melt White was interviewed at his home in Dalhart on November 21, 2002, with follow-up phone conversations on August 3, 2003, and September 12, 2003.
The figure on percentage of the population that left the Dust Bowl versus the number who stayed is from the U.S. Census Bureau population surveys, 1930 and 1940, www.census.gov.
Donald Worster is quoted from his book Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1979).
1: THE WANDERER
The story of the White family migration comes from Melt White, as told to the author, November 21, 2002, Dalhart, Texas.
Descriptions of the XIT ranch from the author's visit to the XIT Museum, Dalhart, Texas, and Six Thousand Miles of Fence: Life on the XIT Ranch of Texas, Cordia Sloan Duke and Joe B. Frantz (Austin: Univ. of Texas Press, 1961).
Early years in Dalhart and the Dawson family story from High Plains Yesterdays: From XIT Days Through Drouth and Depression, John C. Dawson (Austin, Texas: Eakin Press, 1985).
John McCarty's story is from the Amarillo Public Library John C. McCarty Collection, Introduction to the collection, no title, Amarillo Public Library, Amarillo, Texas.
Quotes from the newspaper are from the Dalhart Texan, May 1, 1930.
Property records and civil cases came from the public records on file in the Dallam County Courthouse, Dalhart, Texas.
The early history of Dalhart from The Book of Years: A History of Dallam and Hartley Counties, Lillie Mae Hunter (Hereford, Texas: Pioneer Book Publisher, 1969).
Comanche tribal history came from a variety of sources:
Author interviews with Comanche tribal elders, among them Lucille Cable of Lawton, Oklahoma, and Ray Niedo of Indianola, Oklahoma, conducted on October 2 and 5, 2003.
Being Comanche: A Social History of an American Indian Community, Morris W. Foster (Tucson: Univ. of Arizona Press, 1991).
Comanches: The Destruction of a People, T. R. Fehrenbach (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974).
The New Encyclopedia of the American West, Howard R. Lamar, ed. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 1998).
Museum of the Great Plains, Lawton, Oklahoma, author visit May 15, 2003.
Comanche Nation, Comanche Tribal Home Page, www.comanchenation.com.
Grasslands and ranches, in part from United States Forest Service files on history of the national grasslands, La Junta, Colorado, provided to the author by the Forest Service. Also, "The Panhandle of Texas," Frederick W. Rathjen, Handbook of Texas online at www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook; Rathjen's The Texas Panhandle Frontier (Austin: Univ. of Texas Press, 1973); and The Grasses of Texas, Frank W. Gould (College Station: Texas A&M Univ. Press, 1975).
Wesley L. Hockett's quotes are from his oral history on file in the Special Collections of the Amarillo Public Library, Amarillo, Texas.
2: NO MAN'S LAND
Descriptions of Boise City from author trips to the town and from interviews, notably Norma Gene Butterbaugh Young, interviewed at her home in Boise City, Oklahoma, on September 8, 2003.
Early description of fraud from the Cimarron News, various editions, and records provided by the Cimarron Heritage Center, Boise City, Oklahoma, September 9, 2003.
How people lived in part from Commerce of the Prairies, Josiah Gregg, Max W. Moorhead, eds. (Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1990).
Early Boise City descriptions and family histories from The Tracks We Followed, Norma Gene Butterbaugh Young, ed. (Amarillo, Texas: Southwestern Publications, 1991).
Early Panhandle homestead stories in part from author visit to Oklahoma Historical Society, Oral History Program, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, September 9, 2003.
Anecdote on preacher and postal worker from Young, The Tracks We Followed, previously cited.
The Hazel Lucas Shaw story and larger story of the Lucas family from author interview with Charles Shaw, Hazel's son, on September 21, 2003, and from Sunshine and Shadows (1984), a self-published family history written by Hazel Shaw, given to the author by Mr. Shaw in 2002, as well as personal correspondence from Mr. Shaw to author, September 22, 2003.
The Folkers family story from author interviews with Faye Folkers Gardner, on April 30, 2002, and Gordon Folkers, on May 2, 2002, as well as Mrs. Gardner's self-published family history, So Long, Old Timer! (1979), given to the author by Mrs. Gardner in 2002.
Descriptions of mid-1920s life in No Man's Land from author interview with Imogen Glover at her home in Guymon, Oklahoma, on April 29, 2002.
Farming statistics from the annual Yearbook of Agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929).
Oklahoma settlement in part from It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own: A New History of the American West, Richard White (Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1991).
Information on windmills, dugouts, and first homes in No Man's Land from author interview with Janie Harland of Texhoma, Oklahoma, on September 3, 2003, and her oral history on windmills in Panhandle Pioneers, compiled and edited by the Texhoma Genealogical and Historical Society, vol. 7.
The Government Bureau of Soils and John Wesley Powell's Report on the Arid Lands (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Geological Survey, 1878) provided early description of aridity and potential for agriculture in the High Plains.
3: CREATING DALHART
The White family travails from author interviews with Melt White on November 21, 2002, at home in Dalhart, Texas.
Town-building years from the Dalhart Texan, various editions on file at the XIT Museum in Dalhart, Texas, and from previously cited Hunter, Book of Years.
Dawson family details are from Dawson's previously cited book, High Plains Yesterdays.
Kansas details are from Kansas: A Guide to the Sunflower State, Federal Writers Project of the WPA (New York: Viking, 1939).
Story of early southern plains town-builders from oral history, Federal Writers Project, 1936–1940, public records, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html.
4: HIGH PLAINS DEUTSCH
Ehrlich family history taken in part from author interview with Juanita Ehrlich Thompson of Albuquerque, New Mexico, on July 18, 2003, and from Willie Ehrlich's oral history audiotape on file at the Oklahoma Historical Society, Oral History Program, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, recorded July 17, 1986, as well as from an unpublished family history, Seventy-Eight First Cousins (1990), compiled by Yvonne Fortney Jones and Georgia Ehrlich Fortney and given to the author.
Borth family story from author interview with Rosa Borth Becker, of Shattuck, Oklahoma, on September 12, 2003.
Information about early German settlement in the High Plains from author interview with Mildred Becker, curator, Wolf Creek Heritage Museum, Lipscomb, Texas, and from exhibits at the museum during author visit September 10, 2003.
Details on home life, food, and routine of Russian Germans in High Plains in part from oral history archive of tape recording with George Hofferber, Oral History Program, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
The story of the Volga Germans is drawn from several sources:
Conquering the Wind: An Epic Migration from the Rhine to the Volga to the Plains of Kansas, Amy Brungardt Toepfer and Agnes Dreiling (Lincoln, Neb.: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1966).
The Czar's Germans, Hattie Plum Williams (Lincoln, Neb.: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1975).
Displays at the Wolf Creek Heritage Museum, Lipscomb, Texas, author visit September 7, 2003.
American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, Lincoln, Nebraska, author visit June 22, 2003.
"The Migration of Russian-Germans to Kansas," Norman E. Saul, Kansas Historical Quarterly, Spring 1974, vol. 40, no. 1.
Population gains in the High Plains from the United States Census, 1870, 1890, 1900, 1910, and 1920, www.census.gov.
Story of Scandinavians from Oslo on the High Plains, Peter L. Petersen, Norwegian American Historical Association, vol. 28, [>], 1979.
5: LAST OF THE GREAT PLOWUP
Early tree-planting from Plains Folk, Jim Hoy and Tom Isern (Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1987).
Homesteading details in part from Homestead National Monument of America, Beatrice, Nebraska, author visit April 10, 2003.
Kansas details from previously cited WPA guide, Kansas: A Guide to the Sunflower State.
Size of the federal budget from The Great Depression: America in the 1930s, T. H. Watkins (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1993).
Dawson family details from previously cited Dawson book, High Plains Yesterdays.
Folkers details from author interview with Faye Folkers Gardner, April 30, 2002, and her previously cited book, So Long, Old Timer!
Osteen family narrative from author interview with Ike Osteen, April 25, 2002, and his previously cited book, A Place Called Baca.
Description of Boise City at the time from the Cimarron News, various editions, 1930.
Early twentieth-century American life in general, in part from America in Mid-passage, Vol. III: The Real Rise of American Civilization, Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard (New York: MacMillan Co., 1939), and This Fabulous Century: Sixty Years of American Life, Volume III, 1920–1930 (New York: Time-Life Books, 1969).
6: FIRST WAVE
Bank closure from the Dalhart Texan, various issues, 1931, on file at the XIT Museum, Dalhart, Texas.
Depression details in general, in part from several books:
The Great Depression, Robert S. McElvaine (New York: Times Books, 1984).
Watkins, The Great Depression, previously cited.
The Great Crash: 1929, John Kenneth Galbraith (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1954).
Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression, Studs Terkel (New York: Random House, 1970).
White family troubles from author interview with Melt White, November 21, 2002.
Dalhart details from previously cited Hunter, Book of Years.
Dalhart collapse from letters, archives, and newspapers on file at the XIT Museum, Dalhart, Texas.
Information on the Herzstein family came from a variety of sources:
Author visit to the Herzstein Museum in Clayton, New Mexico, June 4, 2003.
Author interview with Mortimer H. Herzstein on October 2, 2003.
Herzstein family archives, on file at the Zimmerman Library, Lerzstein Latin American Reading Room, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Author interview with Isabel Lord, daughter of Simon Herzstein, on February 20, 2002.
7: A DARKENING
Weather records are from federal weather bureau records, available online, www.nws.noaa.gov/, and from archives at the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, author visit June 22, 2003.
Hazel Shaw story from author interview with her son, Charles Shaw, September 21, 2003.
Folkers details from Faye Folkers Gardner's previously cited book, So Long, Old Timer!
Information on William Murray in part from Alfalfa Bill Murray, Keith L. Bryant Jr. (Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1968) and William H. Murray Collection at Oklahoma University, Carl Albert Center archives, author visit, September 9, 2003.
Sheriff Hi Barrick and his story from oral history interview with Barrick, recorded January 7, 1983, on file at the Oklahoma Historical Society, Oral History Program, author visit September 6, 2003.
First dust storm details from federal government's Monthly Weather Review, January 1932, www.history.noaa.gov.
Approaching storms and social conditions from The Dust Bowl: An Agricultural and Social History, R. Douglas Hurt (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1981).
White family details from author interview with Melt White, November 21, 2002.
Reaction in Boise City from Boise City News, various editions, 1932 and 1933.
Farming troubles from An Empire of Dust, Lawrence Svobida (Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, 1940).
8: IN A DRY LAND
Dawson family descriptions of bugs from Dawson's book, High Plains Yesterdays, previously cited.
White family from author interview with Melt White, November 21, 2002.
Story of Blackjack's grave in part from pages of the Dalhart Texan, various editions, 1932, and from author interviews with Herzstein family members, February 20, 2002, and October 2, 2003.
Weather bureau reaction to early storms in part from The Dust Bowl: Men, Dirt and the Depression, Paul Bonnifield (Albuquerque: Univ. of New Mexico Press, 1979).
Information on Oklahoma Panhandle reaction from author interview with Gerald Dixon at his home in Guymon, Oklahoma, on November 21, 2002.
Details of drought, social, and agricultural life from author interview with Dr. Ken Turner, curator, No Man's Land Historical Museum, Guymon, Oklahoma, on November 20, 2002.
Lujan family details from family history on file at Boise City Public Library, Boise City, Oklahoma, and from Young, The Tracks We Followed, previously cited.
County agricultural agent, William Baker, and his actions in part from Boise City News, various editions, 1932–1934.
Hispanics and how they lived in part from oral history of Joe Garza, on file at Oklahoma Historical Society, Oral History Program, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Hugh Bennett from United States Department of Agriculture official biography, www.nrcs.usda.gov/about/history/bennett.html, and Big Hugh: The Father of Soil Conservation, Wellington Brink (New York: MacMillan, 1951).
Farming troubles from Svobida, An Empire of Dust, previously cited.
9: NEW LEADER, NEW DEAL
White family details from author interview with Melt White, November 21, 2002.
Bill Murray decline from Murray archives, William H. Murray Collection at Oklahoma University.
Depression information in general from previously cited McElvaine, Great Depression, and The Age of Roosevelt: The Crisis of the Old Order, 1919–1933, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957), as well as Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Rendezvous with Destiny, Frank Freidel (Boston: Little, Brown, 1990).
Details of Boise City from Boise City News, various editions, 1933–1934.
Farm income from Yearbook of Agriculture 1934, United States Department of Agriculture (Washington, D.C: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1934).
General plains details from Heaven's Tableland: The Dust Bowl Story, Vance Johnson (New York: Farrar, Straus, 1947).
Bennett quotes from previously cited USDA biography and Brink, Big Hugh.
10: BIG BLOWS
Weather details from Boise City News, April 1 and 14, 1933, and from No Man's Land Historical Museum, Guymon, Oklahoma, author visit November 20, 2002.
Weather history from History of United States Weather Bureau, Donald R. Whitnah (Champaign: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1961).
Dalhart details from the Dalhart Texan, various editions, 1933.
Hazel Shaw information from her previously cited book, Sunshine and Shadows, and from author interview with her son, Charles Shaw, September 21, 2003.
Lindbergh landing from Dalhart Texan and Boise City News, various editions, 1933.
Eyewitness accounts of early storms from Oral History Program, Oklahoma Historical Society, author visit September 6, 2003.
Cable sent to Washington from Boise City News, various editions, 1933.
Hazel Shaw's pregnancy from her book, Sunshine and Shadows, previously cited.
11: TRIAGE
Government checks and government plans in Boise City from Boise City News, various editions, 1934.
Hazel Shaw details from author interviews with son Charles Shaw, September 21, 2003, and her previously cited book, Sunshine and Shadows.
Description of area, as quoted, from New Outlook magazine, May 1934.
McCarty writings from his column, Dalhart Texan, various editions, 1934.
Information on the Kohler ranch and how the Kohler family coped from Robert Kohler interview, recorded March 14, 1983, on file at Oral History Program, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, author visit September 5, 2003.
Description of storms from "The Dust Bowl," Michael Parfit, Smithsonian, June 1989.
Big dust storm hits New York, from the New York Times, various editions, 1934.
Caroline Henderson writings from "Letters of Two Women Farmers," Atlantic Monthly, August 1933, and collected in Letters from the Dust Bowl, Caroline Henderson, Alvin O. Turner, eds. (Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2001).
12: THE LONG DARKNESS
Birth of Shaw child and travails from Hazel Shaw's previously cited book, Sunshine and Shadows. More Shaw details from author interview with Charles Shaw, September 21, 2003.
Hi Barrick from oral history recorded January 7, 1983, on file at Oral History Program, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, author visit September 5, 2003.
Depression era birthrate from U.S. Census, www.census.gov.
Government plans and payouts from Boise City News, various editions, January 1935.
Kohler ranch from oral history, Oral History Program, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, author visit September 6, 2003.
Lowery family canning and eating Russian thistles from Odalee Lowery Bohn's story in Footsteps: Family Histories of Cimarron County, Oklahoma, Norma Gene Butterbaugh Young, ed. (Amarillo, Texas: Southwestern Publications, 1989).
Ehrlich family details from Willie Ehrlich oral history at Oral History Program, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, recorded July 17, 1986.
Borth family details from author interview with Rosa Borth Becker, Shattuck, Oklahoma, September 12, 2003.
13: THE STRUGGLE FOR AIR
Osteen illnesses and life in dugout from author interview with Ike Osteen, April 25, 2002.
Osteen land and descriptions of family struggle from Osteen's previously cited book, A Place Called Baca.
Dr. Blue on dust pneumonia from Boise City News, April 1935.
Red Cross hospitals from Boise City News, April and May 1935, and Osteen recollections, author interview, April 25, 2002.
Stories of Baca County during 1930s from Baca histories on file at the Baca County Public Library, Springfield, Colorado.
Stories of Red Cross and other dust-related emergency measures in southeast Colorado from Prowers County Heritage, the county history, on file at the Lamar Public Library, Lamar, Colorado.
Weather history, From Weather Vanes to Satellites, Herbert J. Spiegel and Arnold Gruber (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1983).
14: SHOWDOWN IN DALHART
Arrest of blacks from Dalhart Texan, various issues, Spring 1935.
Lunacy trials from records on file in Dallam County Courthouse, Dalhart, Texas, and from previously cited Dawson, High Plains Yesterdays.
Details of Dalhart decline from previously cited Hunter, Book of Years.
White family chores and challenges, author interview with Melt White, November 21, 2002.
Big Dalhart meeting from Dalhart Texan, various issues, Spring 1935.
McCarty comments from his column in the Dalhart Texan, various issues, Spring 1935.
Rainmaking from Dalhart Texan, various issues, Spring 1935.
15: DUSTER'S EVE
Baby's illness and death, from Hazel Shaw's previously cited book, Sunshine and Shadows, and from Hi Barrick oral history, recorded January 7, 1983, on file at Oral History Program, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, author visit September 5, 2003.
Other details and family reaction to tragedy from author interview with Charles Shaw, September 21, 2003.
Folkers troubles from Faye Folkers Gardner's previously cited book, So Long, Old Timer! and from author interviews with Gordon Folkers, May 2, 2002, and Faye Gardner, April 30, 2002.
Boise City life just before Black Sunday from author interview with Norma Gene Butterbaugh Young, September 8, 2003, and her book, Footsteps, previously cited.
Kansas State professor's estimate of volume of dust, as reported by Amarillo Daily News, April 22, 1935.
Hi Barrick's duties from his oral history on file at Oral History Program, Oklahoma Historical Society, previously cited.
Descriptions of rabbit clubbings from Boise City News and oral history of Verdela Harriman Fry, on file at Oral History Program, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, author visit September 6, 2003.
16: BLACK SUNDAY
Description of weather that morning, author interviews with Ike Osteen, Melt White, and Norma Gene Butterbaugh Young, all previously cited, and newspaper accounts.
Osteen activities, from author interview with Ike Osteen, and Mr. Osteen's book, A Place Called Baca, previously cited.
Description of storm hitting Dodge City from Black Sunday: The Great Dust Storm of April 14, 1935, Frank L. Stallings, Jr. (Austin, Texas: Eakin Press, 2001).
Lucas funeral from Hazel Shaw's previously cited book, Sunshine and Shadows, and Boise City News, various editions, April 1935.
Trucks in ditch and sky black in Boise City from remembrance of Louise Fairchild, as told to Natalie Weaver and Andrew Randolph in Boise City Language Arts class, 1999, on file at Cimarron Heritage Center, Boise City, Oklahoma.
Folkers's experience from Faye Folkers Gardner's previously cited book, So Long, Old Timer!
Story of Joe Garza and saving the child from interview with Garza, recorded 1985 (no month), on file at Oral History Program, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, author visit September 8, 2003.
The Associated Press team, from AP dispatches, chiefly the one sent the day after Black Sunday, April 15, 1935, printed in the Amarillo Daily News, April 15, 1935.
When storm hit Denver from photos and records on file at Denver Public Library, Western History Department, Denver, Colorado, author visit May 12, 2004.
How the Germans fared from author interviews with Ehrlichs, July 18, 2003, and Borths, September 12, 2003.
What happened to Ehrlich, from Willie Ehrlich oral history, Oral History Program, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, recorded July 17, 1986.
Black as night from Berenice Jackson, Oral History Program, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, author visit September 6, 2003.
When the storm hit Texas Panhandle from Amarillo Daily News, April 15, 1935.
Woody Guthrie account from a recording made March 21, 1940, between Guthrie and Alan Lomax, as presented on "Woody Guthrie on Weekend Edition, Oct. 20, 1996," from the transcript.
17: A CALL TO ARMS
Bob Geiger dispatches from Associated Press filings, previously cited.
Hugh Bennett waiting for storms to call for aid from previously cited USDA biography and Brink, Big Hugh, and news accounts, as well as government booklet, "The National Grasslands Story," United States Department of Agriculture—Forest Service (Washington, D.C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1964).
Land "essentially destroyed," from USDA, Yearbook of Agriculture 1935, previously cited.
Beginnings of conservation plans from The Soil Conservation Service, D. Harper Simms (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970).
Odalee Bohn Lowery recollections, from oral history on file at Boise City Public Library, Boise City, Oklahoma, and from previously cited Young, Footsteps.
Dalhart stirrings from John L. McCarty Collection, Amarillo Public Library, Amarillo, Texas.
Formation of Last Man's Club from Dalhart Texan, April 22, 1935.
Rainmaking from the Dalhart Texan, April 29, 1935, and Dawson, High Plains Yesterdays, previously cited.
Roosevelt actions, in part, from Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, William E. Leuchtenburg (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), and The Age of Roosevelt, 3 vols., Arthur M. Schlesinger (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957–1960).
Harold Ickes, in part, from Righteous Pilgrim: The Life and Times of Harold L. Ickes, 1874–1952, T. H. Watkins (New York: Henry Holt, 1990).
Ickes quote on idealism from New York Times Magazine, May 27, 1934.
Bennett from previously cited USDA biography and Brink, Big Hugh.
McCarty quotes from his columns in the Dalhart Texan, April, May, June, 1935.
Cimarron County telegram from Boise City News, April 1935.
18: GOINGS
Osteen breakup, all from author interviews with Ike Osteen and Mr. Osteen's book, previously cited.
Resettlement activity in Baca, from records on file at Springfield Public Library, Baca County Library, Springfield, Colorado.
Osteen graduation, mother comments, from author interviews with Mr. Osteen, previously cited.
19: WITNESSES
Donald Hartwell's writings are from his unpublished diary, on file at the Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln, Nebraska, and provided to the author. Copyright holder unknown.
Rothstein information, from Farm Security Administration public records, www.loc.gov/ammem/fsahtml, and The Depression Year, Arthur Rothstein (New York: Dover Publications, 1978).
Pare Lorentz, "The Plow That Broke the Plains" from the film itself (U.S. Government short film, produced by Pare Lorentz, 1936), and from Pare Lorentz and the Documentary Film, Robert Snyder (Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1968).
Panhandle reaction to film from Amarillo Daily News, June 1, 1936.
Dorothea Lange from An American Exodus: A Record of Human Erosion, Dorothea Lange and Paul Schuster Taylor (New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1939).
Bam White watching film from author interviews with Melt White, previously cited.
20: THE SADDEST LAND
Hazel Shaw pregnant, from her previously cited Sunshine and Shadows.
Statistics on volume of dirt, from the New York Times, March 31, 1935.
Statistics on out-migration from United States Census Population Survey, www.census.gov, and American Exodus: The Dust Bowl Migration and Okie Culture in California, James N. Gregory (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1989).
Caroline Henderson letters from letters published in the Atlantic Monthly, previously cited.
Hazel Shaw details from author interview with son Charles Shaw, September 21, 2003, and her previously cited book, Sunshine and Shadows.
Weather statistics on Oklahoma, from a chart entitled "Oklahoma Weather Timelines," courtesy of the State of Oklahoma.
Ehrlich details from family history, Seventy-Eight First Cousins, and Willie Ehrlich oral history, both previously cited.
Borths from Rosa Borth Becker interview, September 12, 2003, and family history on file at Wolf Creek Heritage Museum, Lipscomb, Texas.
New York Times story from March 31, 1935, edition.
Another New York Times story, May 27, 1934, edition.
McCarty singing and Guymon visitors from Dalhart Texan, various editions, Spring 1936.
21: VERDICT
Quotes from report are direct from public file, "Report of the Great Plains Drought Area Committee, Aug., 1936," www.newdeal.feri.org.
Second report directly quoted from "The Future of the Great Plains," 1937, public record, www.newdeal.feri.org.
Roosevelt thoughts from Harold Ickes's diary, Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes: The First Thousand Days, 1933–1936, Harold L. Ickes (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1953).
22: CORNHUSKER II
Donald Hartwell's writings are from his unpublished diary, on file at the Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln, Nebraska, and provided to the author. Copyright holder unknown.
23: THE LAST MEN
White family details from interviews with Melt White, previously cited.
Dick Coon and the hundred-dollar bill, and the barbecue from Hunter, Book of Years, previously cited.
XIT reunion barbecue from displays at the XIT Museum, Dalhart, Texas.
McCarty leaving, from Dalhart Texan, 1936.
Migration statistics, from Gregory book, American Exodus: The Dust Bowl Migration and Okie Culture in California, previously cited.
Death of Bam White, from author interviews with son Melt, previously cited.
Dick Coon broke, from Hunter, Book of Years, previously cited.
Death of Doc Dawson from Dawson, High Plains Yesterdays, and from Hunter, Book of Years, both previously cited.
24: CORNHUSKER III
All of Hartwell's writings are from his unpublished diary, on file at the Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln, Nebraska, and provided to the author.
25: RAIN
FDR visit from Amarillo Daily News, various editions, July 1938, and from FDR archives, www.newdeal.feri.org.
Trees, "Forestry on the Great Plains, 1902–1942," R. Douglas Hurt, Kansas State University, archive, History Department, www-personal.ksu.edu/~jsherow/lesintro.htm.
EPILOGUE
Information on grasslands from author interview with Michelle Stevens, archaeologist with United States Forest Service grasslands division in La Junta, Colorado, on August 10, 2003, and Forest Service history of grasslands, previously cited.
Information on farm subsidies, and exporting of cotton, from USDA, author interviews, December 2, 2004, and subsidies list published at www.ewg.org.
Trees, from Hurt paper, previously cited, and author visit to southern plains, April 24–26, 2002.
Population crash from United States Census figures.
Ogallala Aquifer from variety of sources: Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America's Fresh Waters, Robert Glennon (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2002); Kansas Geological Survey, report of the Ogallala, 2002; Kansas State Research Office, January 14, 2003.
Study on soil conservation districts and their impact on curbing future dust storms, from 2004 study by Zeynep K. Hansen and Gary D. Libecap, "Small Farms, Externalities, and the Dust Bowl of the 1930s," Journal of Political Economy, June 2004, vol. 112, no. 3.
Other Bennett information from previously cited USDA biography and Brink, Big Hugh, and Soil Conservation Service records, provided by U.S. Forest Service, La Junta, Colorado.
Folkers family details from author interviews with Faye Gardner, April 30, 2002, and Gordon Folkers, May 2, 2002.
Hazel Shaw's last years from author interview with her son, Charles Shaw, September 21, 2003.
Osteen epilogue from author visit to Ike Osteen's house, April 25, 2002.