OT Ken Burn's The Dust Bowl

GBCMAN · Apr 24, 2013

Hi
Wonder if anyone has seen this show on PBS?
Amazing to see what farmers went through in the 30's.
There are first hand accounts from children of that era that are now in their 80's.
It has segments showing tractors plowing to plant wheat. One of the tractors looked as large as a house.
Anyone have family that went through this?

PS: miss-posted in tool talk, so double post

Mark W. · Apr 24, 2013

Watched it twice. The misery is unfathomable.

Anonymous-0 · Apr 24, 2013

I saw the Walter Kronkite version on his Twentieth Century show when I was a kid.
Later Bob

Bruce from Can. · Apr 24, 2013

My mother was born in 1916 in south Sask. 20 mile north of the USA boarder. The stories she used to tell me of the dust storms , and the "hard times", of the depression,sounded very much like what has been told in that show. The second world war, did help lift the US and Canada out of the depression. My mama left the west, and came to Ontario, to work in an amunition plant.

Frank 41 · Apr 24, 2013

The last couple on the show were there from the begining. The lady was not married when she bought the ground. There were very few NORMAL crops off the ground over their life span. They did not want it irrigated and put it back in prairie grass when they died.

A very brutal life style. Farmers are like lemmings in the spring. Whenever the grass greens up, we think we have to plant another crop. What other business buys retail and sells wholesale? At least we have AC cabs and GPS now.

Don S. · Apr 24, 2013

The thing I always wondered about is how and where did all the dirt go afterwards? Snow melts but dirt doesn"t

Goose · Apr 24, 2013

I recently read a book on it.

There were 12 year old kids making $100 a day by borrowing a tractor and plow and plowing up native prairie. All because the price of wheat went up.

I'm starting to see a parallel between that situation and the current land prices going up because corn prices are 'way up.

HughB · Apr 24, 2013

Yes, I was born in 1937 in Pratt Kansas. Every one of we 6 children had dust pneumonia as kids.
Dust storms continued up into the 1940s. I have no memory of it but I was there as a baby. The ones who stayed where tough people. You had to be just to survive.

Ken 46 · Apr 24, 2013

I live in one of the main areas of the dust bowl --- The film talks about Guymon Ok and the far SW corrner of Kansas. The museum in Elkhart Ks has a lot of things about the Dust Bowl --- Lot of Old Timers here Lived it.
I was raised in Garden City Ks and when I was in 1st Grade Mom woke me up to go to school --- it was dark outside - wind and dirt were blowing -- could NOT see the school across the street!!!! This was in the early 50's --- I would hate to think what the 30's were like!!!!!

John B. · Apr 24, 2013

This was on TV about 10 months or so ago. It was very interesting. Many died from what they called "Dust Pneumonia".
Dust Bowl

paul · Apr 24, 2013

There were a couple dry years here in mn in the 30s, dad said, but 1988 (and 1987 leading up to it) was far drier up here.
Its a pretty good series, it came out last year, this is a reply.

The first half is more informative on what was going on, second half seems to me to be a little more social or political, all good, but I prefer the info side of things.

Google some of the towns they mention, and look at all the irrigation pivots around there now. Amazing!

Also the PBS website has a lot of extra material and pictures and stuff about it, very interesting web site stuff about it.

Paul

Longmeadow farm · Apr 25, 2013

Ken Burns is a national treasure, I've been in awe of his productions for many years. The "Dust Bowl" is another example of his "Art" and penchant for informing and educating his audiences. The Dust Bowl production captures the extent of human suffering and uncovers why it happened, something High School History books won't tell you. Ken Burns is astute enough to keep the causes rather low key.. but if you listen attentively.. it's laid out rather graphically. The scary/sad takeaway for me is that conditions may be ripe for another dust bowl. Human nature being somewhat flawed, sets itself up to experience/repeat the calamities of the past. Why?... because of ignorance, greed and contempt for learning.

fixerupper · Apr 25, 2013

Did they mention John Kriss as being one of the farmers? I heard about a dust bowl movie being made by PBS following the Kriss family and I can't remember the other name. If it was mentioned I'd remember it. Anyway, we used to harvest the land the Kriss family had in western Kansas-eastern Colorado. It's out in the middle of nowhere. I knew Jack Kriss, very interesting, well educated man. Jim

swood043 · Apr 25, 2013

My mother was born in 1934 and her first memory is running for the house when a dust storm blew in. She only remembers the sand hitting the back of her legs as she got to the house. She was maybe four or five years old.

55 50 Ron · Apr 25, 2013

Jim,

The other person was Ray Garvey. The April 2013 issue of "Farm Collector" magazine had an article about the upcoming PBS special. Very interesting. The article is called "Harvesting the High Plains".

Ron

OT Ken Burn's The Dust Bowl

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