The Great Plow-Up

Narrator: TONIGHT, FROM DIRECTOR KEN BURNS...

THEY HAD COME TO THE FAR EDGE OF THE GREAT PLAINS IN SEARCH OF A NEW BEGINNING IN THE LAST PLACE IN AMERICA WHERE A FAMILY COULD CLAIM A HOMESTEAD AND BUILD A FUTURE.

Woman: WE HAD THE BEST CROP THAT WE HAD IN 192HA9, AND EVERYTHING WAS LOOKING UP.

Narrator: A SEA OF GRASS, ONCE THE DOMAIN OF INDIANS AND BUFFALO, DISAPPEARED BENEATH THE BLADE OF A PLOW.

Woman, voice-over: I SAW THE WHOLE COUNTRY TRANSFORMED IN THE SUNSET GLOW-- ALL THE BROWN PRAIRIE TURNED TO GOLD.

Narrator: BUT THEN IT WAS AS IF THE LAND REJECTED THEM.

THE RAINS STOPPED AND THE WINDS CAME.

Woman: WE SAW THIS CLOUD COMING IN.

BLACK, BLACK DIRT.

AND I'LL NEVER FORGET, MY GRANDMOTHER, SHE SAID, "YOU KIDS RUN AND GET TOGETHER.

THE END OF THE WORLD IS COMING."

Narrator: IT CAME LIKE A BLACK WALL, A TIDE OF DESTRUCTION THAT CRASHED OVER THE BROKEN PLAINS, CHOKING THE LIFE OUT OF EVERYTHING IN ITS PATH.

Man: YOU NEVER REALLY ESCAPED THE DUST.

IT ALWAYS FOUND ITS WAY IN.

AND THAT'S, I THINK, WHAT DROVE PEOPLE CRAZY.

Narrator: SOME WOULD PULL UP STAKES AND MOVE ON.

BUT MOST STAYED, ALWAYS LOOKING TO THE PROMISE THAT NEXT YEAR WOULD BE BETTER.

Man: WE WERE JUST TOO SELFISH AND WE WERE TRYING TO MAKE MONEY.

AND IT DIDN'T WORK OUT.

Narrator: KEN BURNS TELLS THE STORY OF A GENERATION THAT WAS BURIED, AND WHAT IT TOOK TO DIG OUT.

"THE DUST BOWL" COMING UP NEXT ON PBS.

Announcer: FUNDING FOR THIS PROGRAM IS PROVIDED BY: MEMBERS OF THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY, DEDICATED TO HELPING KEN BURNS TELL AMERICA'S STORIES, INCLUDING THE DANA A. HAMEL FAMILY CHARITABLE TRUST, AND ROBERT AND BEVERLY GRAPPONE; THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS FOUNDATIONS, DEDICATED TO STRENGTHENING AMERICA'S FUTURE THROUGH EDUCATION; THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES, EXPLORING THE HUMAN ENDEAVOR; THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION; THE WALLACE GENETIC FOUNDATION; THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING AND BY CONTRIBUTIONS TO YOUR PBS STATION FROM VIEWERS LIKE YOU.

THANK YOU.

[WIND BLOWING] Don Wells: LET ME TELL YOU HOW IT WAS.

I DON'T CARE WHO DESCRIBES THAT TO YOU, NOBODY CAN TELL IT ANY WORSE THAN WHAT IT WAS.

NO ONE EXAGGERATES THAT.

THERE IS NO WAY FOR IT TO BE EXAGGERATED.

IT WAS THAT BAD.

Pauline Robertson: IT WAS JUST UNBELIEVABLE.

IT'D BLISTER YOUR FACE.

IT WOULD PUT YOUR EYES OUT.

WELL, I GUESS I CAN'T DESCRIBE IT.

IT WAS JUST...

IT WAS JUST CONSTANT, JUST THAT STEADY BLOW OF DIRT.

Floyd Coen: AS FAR AS YOU COULD SEE, THERE WAS A DUST STORM COMING RIGHT TOWARDS YOU.

THIS GIANT WALL JUST COMING TOWARDS YOU.

AND YOU STILL HAD THE FEELING, WHETHER YOU WOULD ADMIT IT, THAT SOMETHING WAS GOING TO RUN OVER YOU AND JUST CRUSH YOU.

Dorothy Williamson: IT WAS ALMOST SURREAL, THE DUST.

THERE'S NOWHERE YOU CAN RUN.

YOU CAN TRY TO GET OUT OF IT BUT IT'S AS IF IT FOLLOWS YOU, FOLLOWS YOU, FOLLOWS YOU.

YOU CAN'T ESCAPE IT.

LOOKING BACK ON IT, I THINK IT CARRIED WITH IT A FEELING OF...

I DON'T KNOW THE WORD EXACTLY, OF... WELL, BEING UNREAL, BUT ALMOST BEING, UM...

EVIL.

Narrator: IT WAS A DECADE-LONG NATURAL CATASTROPHE OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS-- WHEN THE SKIES REFUSED THEIR RAINS; WHEN PLAGUES OF GRASSHOPPERS AND SWARMS OF RABBITS DESCENDED ON PARCHED FIELDS; WHEN BEWILDERED FAMILIES HUDDLED IN DARKENED ROOMS WHILE ANGRY WINDS SHOOK THEIR HOMES, PILLARS OF DUST CHOKED OUT THE MID-DAY SUN, AND THE LAND ITSELF-- THE SOIL THEY HAD DEPENDED UPON FOR THEIR SURVIVAL AND COUNTED ON FOR THEIR PROSPERITY-- TURNED AGAINST THEM WITH A LETHAL VENGEANCE.

IT WAS THE WORST MAN-MADE ECOLOGICAL DISASTER IN AMERICAN HISTORY, WHEN THE IRRESISTIBLE PROMISE OF EASY MONEY AND THE HEEDLESS ACTIONS OF THOUSANDS OF FARMERS, ENCOURAGED BY THEIR GOVERNMENT, RESULTED IN A COLLECTIVE TRAGEDY THAT NEARLY SWEPT AWAY THE BREADBASKET OF THE NATION.

IT'S A CLASSIC TALE OF HUMAN BEINGS PUSHING TOO HARD AGAINST NATURE AND NATURE PUSHING BACK.

AND THEN IT'S AN AMERICAN BUBBLE STORY, TOO, LIKE STOCKS AND LIKE REAL ESTATE.

WE THINK THAT EVERYTHING THAT GOES UP WILL NOT COME DOWN, THAT WE CAN DEFY GRAVITY, AND THAT'S WHAT WE DID HERE.

Donald Worster: THE DUST BOWL BELONGS ON THE LIST OF THE TOP 3, 4, 5 ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHES IN WORLD HISTORY.

BUT THOSE CATASTROPHES TOOK PLACE OVER HUNDREDS AND EVEN THOUSANDS OF YEARS OF DEFORESTATION.

WE CREATED A WORLD-CLASS ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER IN A MATTER OF 40 OR 50 YEARS.

Narrator: IT WAS AN EPIC OF HUMAN PAIN AND SUFFERING, WHEN NORMALLY SELF-RELIANT FATHERS FOUND THEMSELVES UNABLE TO PROVIDE FOR THEIR FAMILIES, WHEN EVEN THE VIGILANTMOTHERS WERE RE UNABLE TO STOP THE DIRT THAT INVADED THEIR HOUSES FROM KILLING THEIR CHILDREN, WHEN THOUSANDS OF DESPERATE AMERICANS WERE TORN FROM THEIR HOMES AND FORCED ON THE ROAD IN AN EXODUS UNLIKE ANYTHING THE UNITED STATES HAS EVER SEEN.

BUT IT IS ALSO THE STORY OF HEROIC PERSEVERANCE, OF A RESILIENT PEOPLE WHO SOMEHOW MANAGED TO ENDURE ONE UNIMAGINABLE HARDSHIP AFTER ANOTHER TO HOLD ONTO THEIR LIVES, THEIR LAND, AND THE ONES THEY LOVED.

Egan: WHAT KIND OF PLACE WAS THIS WHERE CHILDREN COULDN'T GO OUTSIDE, WHERE THE AIR ITSELF COULD KILL YOU, WHERE THE SKY SHOWERED DOWN THIS SUFFOCATING BLACKNESS THAT COULD ERASE THE SUN AT MIDDAY?

WHO COULD DO THAT?

AND WE DIDN'T PLAN THIS.

WE DIDN'T SET OUT AND SAY, "LET'S RUIN THE SECOND-GREATEST ECOSYSTEM IN NORTH AMERICA."

IT WAS A RESULT OF A WHOLE BUNCH OF THINGS THAT ARE JUST INNATE TO HUMAN BEINGS.

[BIRD SINGING] Woman: "APRIL 28, 1908.

"HERE I AM, AWAY OUT IN THAT NARROW STRIP OF OKLAHOMA "BETWEEN KANSAS AND THE PANHANDLE OF TEXAS.

"I WISH YOU COULD SEE THIS WIDE, FREE, WESTERN COUNTRY, "WITH ITS REAL STRETCHES OF ALMOST LEVEL PRAIRIE, "COVERED WITH THE THICK, SHORT BUFFALO GRASS, "THE MARVELOUS GLORY OF ITS SUNRISES AND SUNSETS, THE BRILLIANCY OF ITS STAR-LIT SKY AT NIGHT."

CAROLINE HENDERSON.

Narrator: FROM THE TIME SHE WAS A YOUNG GIRL GROWING UP IN IOWA, CAROLINE BOA HENDERSON DREAMED OF HAVING A PIECE OF LAND SHE COULD CALL HER OWN.

EVEN WHEN SHE WENT EAST TO MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE, WHERE SHE STUDIED LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE, HER SENIOR CLASS PROPHECY PREDICTED THAT HER FUTURE WOULD BE FOUND "SOMEWHERE ON A WESTERN RANCH."

IN 1907, THE YEAR OF OKLAHOMA'S STATEHOOD, SHE FOLLOWED THAT DREAM TO THE NEWLY CREATED TEXAS COUNTY, WHERE SHE STAKED OUT A HOMESTEAD CLAIM AND MOVED INTO A ONE-ROOM SHACK, 14 FEET BY 16, WHICH SHE CALLED HER "CASTLE."

A YEAR LATER, SHE MARRIED WILL HENDERSON, A LANKY KANSAS COWBOY SHE HAD HIRED TO DIG HER WELL.

THEY SOON HAD A DAUGHTER, ELEANOR, AND WILL BUILT AN ADDITION TO THEIR HOME.

NOW THEY WERE CLOSE TO GAINING TITLE TO THE FARM, WHERE THEY RAISED BROOM CORN, MILLET, AND MAIZE, TURKEYS, CHICKENS, AND A FEW CATTLE, PUTTING WHAT LITTLE CASH THEY EARNED INTO IMPROVEMENTS, PARTICULARLY A NEW WINDMILL TO DRAW UP WATER FOR THEIR ANIMALS, HOUSE, AND HALF-ACRE GARDEN.

TO BRING IN EXTRA MONEY, CAROLINE BEGAN SUBMITTING ARTICLES ABOUT LIFE ON THE PLAINS TO MAGAZINES IN THE EAST.

SHE WROTE FOR "LADIES' WORLD," WHERE HER COLUMN ENTITLED "THE HOMESTEAD LADY" BECAME A POPULAR FEATURE, AND EVENTUALLY CONTRIBUTED TO THE "ATLANTIC MONTHLY," THE NATION'S MOST PRESTIGIOUS PUBLICATION.

Henderson portrayer: OUT HERE IN THIS WILDERNESS HAS COME TO ME THE VERY GREATEST AND SWEETEST AND MOST HOPEFUL HAPPINESS OF ALL MY LIFE.

Charles Shaw: YOU LIVE WITH THE WIND WHEN YOU'RE OUT THERE.

IT'S NOT SOMETHING THAT'S CONSTANT, BUT IT BLOWS MORE THAN IT DOESN'T BLOW.

THE TIMES THAT IT BLOWS REALLY HARD MAY NOT BE THAT OFTEN, BUT THERE'S JUST A CONSTANT BREEZE, A LITTLE MURMUR OF THE WIND ACROSS THE FIELDS AND IN THE WHEAT AND IN WHAT TREES ARE THERE.

YOU FEEL IT, YOU SENSE IT MORE THAN YOU HEAR IT.

THAT COUNTRY WAS SO FLAT.

YOU COULD SEE FOR JUST MILES.

THEY USED TO SAY THAT WASN'T A FENCE BETWEEN THERE AND THE NORTH POLE.

BUT GOD, IT WAS GOOD GRASS COUNTRY.

MAN, IT WAS PERFECT.

Calvin Crabill: IT'S SAID THAT BUFFALO GRASS WOULD HOLD THE MOISTURE SO IF YOU WENT DOWN 12 INCHES, YOU WOULD FIND MOIST EARTH.

AND I REMEMBER US DIGGING DOWN, AND THE EARTH WAS MOIST DOWN THERE.

IT WAS BEAUTIFUL SOIL.

IT WAS BEAUTIFUL SOIL.

Worster: NATURE TOOK SEVERAL MILLION YEARS TO FIND A SOLUTION TO THESE UNSTABLE SOILS, THESE HIGH WINDS, THESE TURBULENT WEATHER CONDITIONS, WHICH WAS THE GRASSES.

THEY ARE AN EVOLUTIONARY ADAPTATION.

THEY WORKED PRETTY WELL, FOR THE MOST PART.

THEY HAVE SURVIVED HERE FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS.

OUR AGRICULTURE HASN'T BEEN HERE FOR MUCH MORE THAN A CENTURY.

Narrator: THE GREAT PLAINS STRETCH FROM CANADA TO SOUTHERN TEXAS, FROM THE MISSOURI RIVER TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS-- A LAND OF FEW TREES, INFREQUENT RAINS, AND CONSTANT WINDS.

ONE OF THE EARLIEST AMERICAN EXPLORERS CALLED IT "ALMOST WHOLLY UNFIT FOR CULTIVATION, AND UNINHABITABLE BY A PEOPLE DEPENDING UPON AGRICULTURE."

THE PLAINS INDIANS CONSIDERED IT HOME.

THE SHORT GRASSES THAT COVERED THE TREELESS EXPANSE SENT TANGLED ROOTS 5 FEET BELOW THE GROUND, FORMING A DENSE SOD THAT COULD WITHSTAND THE REGION'S PERIODIC DROUGHTS AND VIOLENT WEATHER EXTREMES, NURTURING THE VAST HERDS OF BUFFALO WHO GRAZED IN NUMBERS BEYOND COUNTING.

AFTER THE BISON WERE ELIMINATED AND THE NATIVE AMERICANS HAD BEEN DRIVEN ONTO RESERVATIONS, CATTLEMEN TOOK OVER IN WHAT WAS CALLED THE BEEF BONANZA.

BUT SEVERE WINTERS IN THE 1880s KILLED OFF THEIR HERDS, AND THE BONANZA WENT BUST.

HOMESTEADERS CAME NEXT, SWARMING ONTO LAND ONCE CONSIDERED UNSUITABLE FOR CROPS BECAUSE IT AVERAGED LESS THAN 20 INCHES OF RAIN A YEAR.

UNSCRUPULOUS PROMOTERS PROMISED THAT THE VERY ACT OF FARMING WOULD INCREASE THE PRECIPITATION-- "RAIN FOLLOWS THE PLOW,"THEY SAID.

A SEVERE DROUGHT IN THE 1890s PROVED THEM WRONG, AND COUNTIES THAT HAD TRIPLED AND QUADRUPLED IN POPULATION IN LESS THAN A DECADE EMPTIED JUST AS QUICKLY.

THEN, IN THE EARLY PART OF THE 20th CENTURY, CONGRESS ENLARGED THE ORIGINAL HOMESTEAD ACT, ENTICING FARMERS TO SETTLE ON SOME OF THE LAST UNCLAIMED AND MOST MARGINAL SECTIONS OF PUBLIC LAND IN THE NATION.

THE NEWCOMERS, NEARLY ALL OF THEM WHITE, CAME FROM EUROPE, WHERE LAND WAS UNAVAILABLE, AND PAOF THE UNITE IN THE SOUTHERN PLAINS, MANY OF THEM CONVERGED ON A NARROW STRIP OF OKLAHOMA THAT BORDERED 4 OTHER STATES-- KANSAS, TEXAS, NEW MEXICO, AND COLORADO-- A FORMERLY LAWLESS AND UNGOVERNABLE PLACE CALLED NO MAN'S LAND, THE PLACE WHERE CAROLINE HENDERSON WOULD STAKE HER FUTURE.

Henderson portrayer: FARMING HERE OFTEN REMINDS ME OF THE MAN WHO, WHEN ASKED TO EMBARK UPON SOME RATHER DOUBTFUL BUSINESS VENTURE, REPLIED THAT IF HE WANTED TO GAMBLE, HE WOULD PREFER ROULETTE, WHERE THE CHANCES WERE ONLY 32-1 AGAINST HIM.

Worster: THE SOUTHERN PLAINS ARE A HIGH-RISK AREA BECAUSE THEY'RE NEITHER DESERT NOR HUMID FOREST OR HUMID GRASSLAND, EVEN.

THEY'RE ON THE EDGES OF VULNERABILITY.

YOU'VE GOT AN AREA THAT THE RAINFALL IS LESS THAN 20 INCHES A YEAR.

IN SOME YEARS, YOU GET ENOUGH RAINFALL YOU CAN MAKE A GOOD CROP; THE NEXT YEAR, YOU GET HALF THAT AMOUNT OF RAINFALL.

IT IS ONE OF THE RISKIEST AREAS IN THE WORLD FOR AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION.

R. Douglas Hurt: THE FARM MEN AND WOMEN OF THE SOUTHERN GREAT PLAINS ARE THE GREATEST "NEXT YEAR" PEOPLE IN THE WORLD.

THEY REALLY LIVE THEIR LIVES WITH 3 LITTLE WORDS-- "IF IT RAINS."

IF IT RAINS, THE DUST WOULD SETTLE.

IF IT RAINED, THE DROUGHT WOULD BE BROKEN.

IF IT RAINED, THE WHEAT CROP WOULD GROW.

IF IT RAINED, THINGS WERE GOOD.

IF IT DIDN'T, THEY WERE A "NEXT YEAR"PEOPLE.

Narrator: NOT LONG AFTER CAROLINE HENDERSON MOVED TO NO MAN'S LAND IN 1907, THE SOUTHERN PLAINS ENTERED A WET PERIOD, AND THE PACE OF SETTLEMENT QUICKENED.

REAL-ESTATE SYNDICATES BEGAN BUYING BIG RANCHES FOR $5.00 AN ACRE AND CARVED THEM UP INTO SMALLER PARCELS FOR SALE AT 3 TIMES THE PRICE.

RAILROAD COMPANIES DID THE SAME THING WITH THE VAST TRACTS THEY HAD BEEN GIVEN BY THE GOVERNMENT.

SPECIAL EXCURSION TRAINS BROUGHT PROSPECTIVE BUYERS TO THE REGION BY THE THOUSANDS.

SALESMEN ASSURED THEM THAT NONE OTHER THAN THE FORMER CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS HAD DETERMINED THAT THE CLIMATE WAS UNDERGOING A PERMANENT SHIFT-- PRECIPITATION WAS INCREASING, WHILE THE WINDS WERE SLOWING DOWN.

ANOTHER EXPERT DECLARED THAT REMOVING THE COVER OF PRAIRIE GRASSES ALLOWED MORE RAINFALL TO PENETRATE THE SOIL.

TOWNS SPRANG UP OVERNIGHT.

IN CIMARRON COUNTY, OKLAHOMA, THE DEVELOPERS OF BOISE CITY SOLD HOUSE LOTS TO BUYERS WHO DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO COME FOR AN INSPECTION.

Egan: BOISE CITY IS NAMED FOR THE FRENCH WORD "LES BOIS"--TREE.

THERE WERE NO TREES.

THIS IS IN THE PANHANDLE OF OKLAHOMA.

THERE WERE NO TREES.

THEY ADVERTISED IT AS HAVING ARTESIAN WELLS, BIG MAIN STREETS WHERE BANKERS COULD LIVE, AND STATELY ELMS AND MAPLES.

THERE WERE NO TREES, THERE WAS NO WATER, THERE WERE NO HOUSES, BUT THEY SOLD LOTS HERE.

THIS IS ONE OF THE FEW TIMES IN AMERICAN REAL ESTATE WHERE REAL-ESTATE PROMOTERS HAVE ACTUALLY BEEN CONVICTED, SENT TO FEDERAL PENITENTIARY, AND ONE OF THEM ROTTED AND DIED IN THAT PENITENTIARY AFTER THE REAL-ESTATE SCAM THAT WAS BOISE CITY.

Narrator: "OKLAHOMA,"ONE RAILROAD BROCHURE BRAGGED, "GROWS BETTER CATTLE THAN TEXAS, "BETTER CORN THAN KANSAS OR MINNESOTA, "BETTER COTTON THAN MISSISSIPPI OR ALABAMA, AND BETTER SWINE THAN ANYWHERE."

BUT INCREASINGLY, IN WESTERN OKLAHOMA AND THROUGHOUT THE SOUTHERN PLAINS, THE FOCUS WAS ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY ON WHEAT.

WHEN THE GREAT WAR BROKE OUT IN EUROPE, GERMAN BLOCKADES CUT OFF ACCESS TO RUSSIAN WHEAT.

IN THE UNITED STATES, FARMERS MOBILIZED TO FEED THE ALLIES.

UNDER THE SLOGAN, "WHEAT WILL WIN THE WAR," PRICES WERE SET AT $2.00 A BUSHEL, TWICE THE PREVIOUS RATE.

IN 5 YEARS, MORE THAN 11 MILLION ACRES OF VIRGIN SOIL WERE PLOWED FOR THE FIRST TIME-- AN AREA TWICE THE SIZE OF NEW JERSEY CONVERTED FROM GRASSLANDS TO WHEAT FIELDS.

WHEN THE WAR ENDED, WHEAT PRICES DROPPED, BUT THE PLOWING AND PLANTING ONLY INCREASED.

IT WOULD COME TO BE CALLED "THE GREAT PLOW UP."

Pamela Riney-Kehrberg: IF YOU HAD BEEN A WHEAT FARMER IN THE 1920s, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN RELATIVELY EASY TO MAKE MONEY.

YOU NEEDED LESS LAND TO GROW WHEAT THAN YOU NEEDED TO RUN CATTLE.

SO THE INVESTMENT WAS LESS.

I HAD A FARMER TELL ME THAT YOU JUST PUT SEED IN THE GROUND AND BOOM, YOU HAD A CROP.

Imogene Glover: IT WAS REALLY ADVERTISED ALL OVER THE NATION AS THE PLACE TO COME AND LIVE IN THE TWENTIES.

OH, IT WAS GREEN, LEVEL, AND PRETTY, AND THE GRASS WAS BEAUTIFUL.

WE HAD TALL GRASS, AND I REMEMBER RUNNING BAREFOOTED ALONG IN THIS DITCH, WHICH WAS BIG CLODS OF COOL, DAMP GROUND.

Narrator: IMOGENE GLOVER'S FAMILY HAD MOVED TO A 3-ROOM HOUSE ON LAND IN TEXAS COUNTY, OKLAHOMA, NOT FAR FROM CAROLINE AND WILL HENDERSON.

HER FATHER RAISED CATTLE, TURKEYS, AND ESPECIALLY WHEAT.

Glover: HE WAS A GAMBLER, BUT I THINK EVERY FARMER'S A GAMBLER.

THEY HAVE TO GAMBLE THAT WHAT THEY'RE PUTTING INTO THE GROUND IS GOING TO GROW AND PRODUCE, AND THEY'LL GET BETTER OFF.

THEY ALWAYS FEEL THAT WAY IF THEY'RE A FARMER.

Narrator: IN THE SOUTHWESTERN CORNER OF KANSAS, EDGAR COEN HAD TAKEN OVER 160 ACRES FROM A FAILED HOMESTEADER.

AT FIRST, HE MOVED HIS WIFE RENA AND THEIR CHILDREN INTO A ONE-ROOM 10-BY-12-FOOT DUGOUT THAT EXTENDED ONLY 2 1/2 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND, WITH SMALL WINDOWS TO LET IN A LITTLE LIGHT.

AS THE FAMILY GREW, EDGAR ADDED MORE ROOMS, THEN AN ABOVE-GROUND ENTRANCE BIG ENOUGH TO DOUBLE AS A KITCHEN.

BY SCRIMPING AND SAVING, HE WAS ABLE TO ACQUIRE 160 MORE ACRES AND BUILD A BARN FOR HIS LIVESTOCK.

Dale Coen: OH, IT WAS REAL NICE.

SUMMERTIME WAS PRETTY BALMY-- ALWAYS COOLED OFF GOOD AT NIGHT.

A LOT OF TIMES, WE WOULD SLEEP OUT UNDERNEATH THE TREES OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT.

IT WAS A REALLY GOOD ATMOSPHERE.

OF COURSE, IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN AN ARID COUNTRY.

IT NEVER HAS BEEN LOTS OF RAIN.

BUT IT WAS A REALLY IDEAL PLACE TOSE A FAMILIL Egan: FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THEIR FAMILY HISTORY, MOST OF THESE PEOPLE OWNED A PIECE OF DIRT.

THEY WERE SCOTS-IRISH WHO'D BEEN KICKED AROUND, THE OLD CONFEDERACY.

THEY WERE SO-CALLED POOR WHITE TRASH.

THEY WERE THESE GERMANS FROM THE RUSSIAN STEPPE.

THEY WERE LATINOS WHO CAME UP FROM THE SOUTH.

THEY WERE FOLKS THAT NEVER OWNED ANYTHING.

AND THEY HAD WONDERFUL YEARS, 10, 12, 15, WHERE EVERYTHING WAS RIGHT.

Narrator: MODERN MACHINERY MADE WHEAT FARMING MORE EFFICIENT AND STILL PROFITABLE EVEN AT PRICES OF $1.00 PER BUSHEL.

POWERFUL GASOLINE TRACTORS PULLING BROAD ARRAYS OF DISC PLOWS TURNED THE SOD WITH EASE.

Worster: IN THE 1920s, THERE WAS A CONCERTED MOVEMENT AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF AMERICAN SOCIETY TO TURN AGRICULTURE INTO AN INDUSTRIAL MODEL, TO MAKE EVERY FARM INTO A FACTORY.

WELL, YOU COULD NEVER HAVE PLOWED UP 30-SOME MILLION ACRES OF LAND WITH HORSE AND A WOODEN PLOW OR EVEN A STEEL PLOW.

TRACTORS WERE GOING ALL NIGHT LONG WITH HEADLIGHTS BURNING TO PLOW UP THIS LAND, TO GET IT INTO PRODUCTION.

Narrator: IN SOUTHEASTERN COLORADO, CALVIN CRABILL'S FATHER HOPED TO MAKE A LIFE FOR HIMSELF AND HIS FAMILY RAISING HORSES AND CATTLE.

BUT TO GET AHEAD, HE TOOK A JOB DRIVING A TRACTOR ON OTHER PEOPLE'S LAND.

Calvin Crabill: HE WORKED NIGHTS.

SOMEBODY ELSE WORKED DAYS, AND SO HE WORKED NIGHTS.

HE KNEW THAT BUFFALO GRASS WAS THE NATURAL TURF OF THAT COUNTRY, AND IT WAS GRAZING COUNTRY.

HE DIDN'T STAY WITH THE TRACTORING THING TOO LONG BECAUSE I THINK IT JUST GOT HIS HEART.

HE COULDN'T STAND IT.

EVEN THOUGH HE NEEDED THE MONEY, HE QUIT DOING IT.

HE JUST COULDN'T STAND TO DO IT.

HE WAS REALLY A STOCKMAN, AND HE KNEW IT WAS ALL WRONG, AND HE PAID THE PRICE FOR IT LATER.

Narrator: IN PREVIOUS YEARS, FARMERS HAD USED A PLOW CALLED A LISTER THAT SPLIT THE SOIL IN TWO DIRECTIONS AND DUG A DEEP FURROW THAT CAUGHT AND HELD BLOWING SOIL.

NOW THE MOST COMMONLY USED PLOW WAS CALLED A ONE-WAY, WHICH WAS CHEAPER AND TORE THROUGH THE SOD AT A FASTER RATE.

Wayne Lewis: IN THE LATE TWENTIES, THE CROPS WERE GOOD, THE PRICES WERE GOOD, AND SO EVERYBODY-- THE THING TO DO WAS TO BREAK OUT EVERYTHING AND GET IT IN WHEAT.

AND PRACTICALLY EVERYBODY DID THAT.

Egan: THIS BOOM WAS ONE OF THE GREAT CLASSIC AMERICAN BUBBLES.

WE'VE HAD A LOT OF THEM IN OUR HISTORY, AND THIS WAS ONE.

THEY HAD THESE SUITCASE FARMERS WHO WOULD GET OFF THE TRAIN, AND THEY CALLED THEM SUITCASE FARMERS BECAUSE THEY WERE JUST DANDIES FROM THE CITY.

THEY WEREN'T FARMERS.

THEY HAD THEIR SUITCASES, AND THEY'D GO OUT AND THEY'D CLAIM THEIR SQUARE MILE BECAUSE THEY ENLARGED THE HOMESTEAD ACT.

THEN THEY'D GET SOMEONE TO PLOW UP THE GRASS, THROW SOME AND THEN GO BACK TO TOWN AND COME BACK IN THE SPRING AND HARVEST THIS THING.

AND IT WAS A FOOL'S GAME.

YOU COULD MAKE A LOT OF MONEY.

Henderson portrayer: THE SUITCASE FARMERS HAVE HIRED THE PREPARATION OF LARGE AREAS OF LAND ALL AROUND US WHICH NO LONGER REPRESENT THE IDEA OF HOMES AT ALL, BUT JUST PARTS OF A POTENTIAL FACTORY FOR THE LOW-COST PRODUCTION OF WHEAT.

Narrator: DURING THE LAST 5 YEARS OF THE 1920s ALONE, ANOTHER 5,260,000 ACRES OF NATIVE SOD-- AN AREA THE SIZE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE-- WAS TURNED OVER ON THE SOUTHERN PLAINS.

"THE SOIL,"A FEDERAL AGENCY CONFIDENTLY PROCLAIMED, "IS THE ONE INDESTRUCTIBLE, IMMUTABLE ASSET "THAT THE NATION POSSESSES.

"IT IS THE ONE RESOURCE THAT CANNOT BE EXHAUSTED, THAT CANNOT BE USED UP."

Worster: THE GREAT PLOW UP HAD GOING FOR IT AMPLE RAINFALL FOR A PERIOD OF 10 OR 15 YEARS, AND IT JUST KEPT ENCOURAGING MORE AND MORE.

PEOPLE THOUGHT, AS THEY THINK AGAIN AND AGAIN, THAT WE HAVE TURNED THE CORNER ON CLIMATE HERE.

WE CAN SEE FAR INTO THE FUTURE, AND IT'S ALL WET.

THEY KNEW THAT THERE'D BEEN SEVERE DROUGHTS IN THE 1890s, BUT PEOPLE FORGOT ABOUT THOSE.

THEY THOUGHT THAT WAS THE PAST, THIS IS NOW, AND THIS WILL BE THE FUTURE.

Narrator: A HANDFUL OF OLD-TIMERS, ESPECIALLY THE CATTLEMEN, WHO HAD BEEN THROUGH THOSE DROUGHTS, WEREN'T SO SURE.

TO THEM, THE SOUTHERN PLAINS WERE A GRASSLAND, AND THE SOD SHOULD NEVER BE TURNED.

BAM WHITE, WHO WAS A HALF-APACHE, HALF-ANGLO COWBOY LIVING IN THE TEXAS PANHANDLE, SAID TO HIS SON WHO ASKED HIM WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM, HE SAID, "LOOK AT IT.

WRONG SIDE UP.

IT'S WRONG SIDE UP."

Henderson portrayer: A FEW DAYS AGO, I RODE TO THE STORE FOR THE MAIL.

COMING HOME, I SAW THE WHOLE COUNTRY TRANSFORMED IN THE SUNSET GLOW-- ALL THE BROWN PRAIRIE TURNED TO GOLD.

I COULD FEEL ONCE MORE THE LURE OF THIS GREAT, LONELY LAND, WAITING WITH ITS STORES OF FERTILITY ALL UNTOUCHED FOR THOSE WHO SHALL ONE DAY LEARN TO MEET ITS DEMANDS, TO GIVE TO IT THEIR PATIENT THOUGHT AND LABOR.

Narrator: AMONG CAROLINE HENDERSON'S NEIGHBORS IN TEXAS COUNTY WAS THE FAMILY OF HARRY FORESTER.

HE HAD GROWN UP IN ARKANSAS AND EASTERN TEXAS BEFORE FILING ON A HOMESTEAD IN NO MAN'S LAND, WHERE HE AND HIS WIFE RAISED 9 CHILDREN.

AS TIMES IMPROVED, HIS DREAMS HAD EXPANDED, ESPECIALLY FOR HIS 5 SONS.

ONE OF HIS GOALS WAS TO LEAVE AS A BEQUEST TO EACH OF HIS SONS A SECTION-- THAT, IS A SQUARE MILE-- OF GOOD, ARABLE, WHEAT PRODUCTION LAND, WHICH WAS SOMETHING THAT HE FELT WOULD GUARANTEE THEIR HAVING A GOOD LIVING AND A GOOD LIFE.

THAT WAS HIS GOAL.

Narrator: IN 1928, TO FULFILL HIS DREAM, FORESTER LEVERAGED THE HOMESTEAD HE ALREADY OWNED WITH A MORTGAGE TO BUY EVEN MORE WHEAT-GROWING LAND NEAR BOISE CITY.

Forester: HE HAD USED ALL HIS PROPERTY AND ALL HIS LANDS AND ALL HE HAD ACCRUED FROM 1906 TO 1928.

BECAUSE OF HIS DREAM, HE ESSENTIALLY PUT IT ALL AT RISK, AND ULTIMATELY, IT PROVED TO BE A BAD TIME TO MAKE A MOVE.

Narrator: ON OCTOBER 29, 1929-- THE DAY THAT WOULD BE REMEMBERED AS "BLACK TUESDAY," THE STOCK MARKET CRASHED ON WALL STREET, PUNCTURING A SPECULATIVE BUBBLE THAT HAD BEEN BUILDING THROUGHOUT THE 1920s.

BY THE END OF THE YEAR, THE FINANCIAL PANIC BEGAN TO SPREAD TO OTHER PARTS OF THE ECONOMY, THROWING ONE AND A HALF MILLION AMERICANS OUT OF WORK.

A YEAR LATER, THAT NUMBER WOULD TRIPLE, AND THE NATION DESCENDED INTO THE GREAT DEPRESSION.

BUT BACK IN NO MAN'S LAND, THE FUTURE STILL LOOKED BRIGHT.

THE U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PRONOUNCED THE SOUTHERN PLAINS AS ONE OF THE MOST PROSPEROUS AREAS IN THE ENTIRE NATION.

AN ADVERTISEMENT IN THE "BOISE CITY NEWS"IMAGINED A MANHATTAN-STYLE SKYLINE, WITH THE PREDICTION, "SOON YOU AVE YOUR OWN EMPIRE SWI O STATE BUILDING, RIGHT ACROSS FROM KIRBY'S KASH GROCERY."

Pauline Hodges: THE FIRST TWO YEARS, THEY THOUGHT IT DIDN'T AFFECT THEM, THAT IT WAS BACK EAST-- "OH, WELL, YOU KNOW, THAT WAS CHICAGO.

"THAT WAS NEW YORK.

IT WASN'T HERE.

THIS WON'T HAPPEN TO US."

Glover: WE HAD THE BEST CROP THAT WE HAD HAD IN 1929.

THAT'S WHEN THE MARKET WAS GREAT, AND THE PEOPLE THAT DID PLANT WHEAT HAD A BETTER YEAR THAN THEY'D EVER HAD, AND THEY JUST THOUGHT THEY'D GET WEALTHY.

IT WAS A GREAT TIME, AND EVERYTHING WAS LOOKING UP.

Narrator: IN THE PANHANDLE TOWN OF FOLLETT, TEXAS, TRIXIE TRAVIS BROWN'S FATHER DECIDED TIMES WERE RIGHT TO START A NEW BUSINESS AND BUILD A NEW HOUSE.

Trixie Travis Brown: HE AND HIS DAD AND BROTHER OPENED A HARDWARE STORE IN FOLLETT.

FOLLETT WAS A THRIVING LITTLE TOWN.

WE HAD A MAIN STREET THAT HAD BUSINESSES ON BOTH SIDES OF THE STREET.

AFTER MY SISTER WAS BORN IN '29, WE MOVED INTO THE NEW HOUSE.

IT WAS GREAT.

THINGS SEEMED TO BE GOING WELL FOR MY DAD, FOR GRANDPA.

Narrator: MOST OF WHAT PEOPLE KNEW ABOUT THE MISERY GRIPPING THE REST OF AMERICA THEY LEARNED FROM READING NEWSPAPERS AND WATCHING NEWSREELS AT THE PALACE THEATER IN BOISE CITY OR THE MISSION THEATRE IN DALHART, TEXAS.

BUT AS THE DEPRESSION DEEPENED ELSEWHERE, PRICES OF FARM COMMODITIES COLLAPSED, PLUNGING ALL OF RURAL AMERICA INTO CRISIS.

IN 1930, WHEAT DROPPED FROM A DOLLAR TO 70 CENTS A BUSHEL.

NOW THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BEGGED FARMERS TO REDUCE THEIR ACREAGE.

INSTEAD, FARMERS DECIDED IF THEY COULDN'T MAKE AS MUCH MONEY PER BUSHEL, THEY WOULD SIMPLY HARVEST MORE BUSHELS.

SO THEY PLOWED UP MORE LAND-- HALF A MILLION MORE ACRES IN THE COUNTIES AROUND NO MAN'S LAND.

THE WHOLE AREA, ONE AGRICULTURAL AGENT SAID, HAD GONE "WHEAT MAD."

Worster: THE ANSWER TO FARMERS' PROBLEMS ON THE GREAT PLAINS IS BASICALLY ALWAYS MORE-- MORE PRODUCTION.

IF YOU'RE HURTING FINANCIALLY, IF YOUR CROP PRICES ARE LOW, YOU PRODUCE MORE TO MAKE UP.

IF YOU'RE DOING WELL, THE BUSHEL PRICES ARE HIGH, YOU PRODUCE MORE.

IT'S ALWAYS "MORE PRODUCTION" IS THE ANSWER TO THE PROBLEM.

SO IN 1930, DESPITE LOW PRICES, FARMERS WERE PRODUCING MORE WHEAT THAN EVER BEFORE.

Egan: THIS BIG PLOW UP WAS THE FINAL SURGE THAT CAME AFTER WHEAT HAD CRASHED.

IF YOU HAD 10,000 ACRES AND YOU HAD TAKEN OUT A BANK LOAN TO SERVICE YOUR 10,000 ACRES, SUDDENLY YOU'RE GETTING ONLY HALF WHAT YOU GOT THAT YEAR BEFORE.

THE ONLY WAY YOU COULD COVER YOUR NUT WAS TO DOUBLE THE AMOUNT OF LAND YOU PLOWED UP.

SO, IT SENT THEM INTO THE FIELDS FOR THIS FRANTIC LAST-MINUTE EFFORT TO TURN THE LAND.

Worster: IT WAS A RECIPE FOR ECONOMIC DISASTER IN THE SENSE THAT THEY WERE PRODUCING AN ENORMOUS GLUT OF WHEAT THAT DIDN'T HAVE A MARKET.

IT WAS A RECIPE FOR DISASTER IN THAT IF A DROUGHT COMES ALONG, THEY ARE LYING THERE VULNERABLE WITH SO MUCH LAND THAT HAS BEEN EXPOSED.

Narrator: IT SNOWED AND RAINED THAT WINTER, AND THE SPRING OF 1931 BROUGHT ADEQUATE MOISTURE.

BY HARVEST TIME, THE WINTER WHEAT WAS SHOULDER HIGH, AND FARMERS REALIZED THEY HAD A BONANZA ON THEIR HANDS.

Henderson portrayer: I HAVE NEVER SEEN A MORE BEAUTIFUL HARVEST-- ONE OF THE BEST WHEAT CROPS THIS COUNTRY HAS EVER PRODUCED IN OUR 24 YEARS OF FARMING.

Narrator: OVER THE YEARS, CAROLINE AND WILL HENDERSON HAD INCREASED THEIR HOLDINGS TO 640 ACRES--A SQUARE MILE.

THEY HAD PURCHASED MECHANIZED EQUIPMENT TO REPLACE THEIR HORSES AND MADE STEADY IMPROVEMENTS TO THEIR PROPERTY.

THEY NOW HAD A REAL HOUSE, WITH A FULL BASEMENT, 5 ROOMS ON THE FIRST FLOOR, AND A BIG UNFINISHED ROOM ON THE SECOND.

THEY HAD AN INDOOR BATHROOM-- BUT AS YET, NO RUNNING WATER INSIDE THE HOUSE-- AND HAD PURCHASED A TELEPHONE.

BUT WHEN THE BUMPER CROP OF 1931 WAS HARVESTED, THERE WAS NO ONE TO BUY IT.

GRAIN ELEVATORS OVERFLOWED, AND GIANT DUNES OF WHEAT WERE PILED OUT ON THE OPEN GROUND.

PRICES HAD ALREADY COLLAPSED TO 25 CENTS A BUSHEL OR LOWER-- ROUGHLY HALF OF WHAT IT COST THE FARMERS TO GROW IT.

"WE ARE TOO BIG TO CRY ABOUT IT,"CAROLINE WROTE, "AND IT HURTS US TOO MUCH TO LAUGH."

Hodges: I REMEMBER MY FATHER SAYING THAT HIS BANKER HAD TOLD HIM THAT PRICES CERTAINLY WOULDN'T GO ANY LOWER THAN 95 CENTS A BUSHEL, WHICH, COMPARED TO WHAT IT HAD BEEN IN THE 1920s, WAS REALLY LOW.

AND MY DAD USED TO LAUGH IRONICALLY AND SAY THE NEXT DAY IT DROPPED TO 23 CENTS A BUSHEL-- 60 CENTS IN ONE DAY.

IT WASN'T UNTIL THE PRICE OF WHEAT DROPPED SO DRASTICALLY THAT WE REALLY FELT THE DEPRESSION OUT HERE.

Narrator: LIKE SO MANY OF THEIR NEIGHBORS, PAULINE HODGES' PARENTS BELIEVED THE SITUATION WOULD NOT LAST FOR LONG.

THEY WERE, AFTER ALL, "NEXT YEAR"PEOPLE.

[WIND BLOWING] A LITTLE AFTER NOONTIME ON JANUARY 21, 1932, A DUST CLOUD APPEARED OUTSIDE OF AMARILLO, TEXAS.

DUST STORMS WEREN'T UNCOMMON IN THE AREA, BUT THIS ONE ROSE 10,000 FEET INTO THE AIR, CARRIED WINDS OF 60 MILES PER HOUR.

THE LOCAL WEATHER BUREAU DIDN'T QUITE KNOW WHAT TO MAKE OF IT, CALLING IT "AWE-INSPIRING" AND "MOST SPECTACULAR."

EVEN OLD-TIMERS SAID THEY'D NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT IN THEIR LIVES.

Robert "Boots"McCoy: SCARED US TO DEATH.

WE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO THINK.

WE WAS AT HOME.

DAD WAS GONE, LOOKING FOR CATTLE.

MOM AND SISTER AND I, WE WAS OUTSIDE.

WE LOOKED AT THAT, AND WE JUST DIDN'T KNOW WHAT IT WAS GONNA BE.

FIRST STARTED WAY OFF, IT WAS REAL DARK.

THE CLOSER IT GOT, IT GOT BROWN, AND WHEN IT HIT IN 30 MINUTES, YOU COULDN'T-- IT'S JUST LIKE MIDNIGHT.

MIDDLE OF DAY WAS JUST LIKE MIDNIGHT WITH NO STARS--JUST DARK.

Narrator: BOOTS McCOY'S FAMILY LIVED IN TEXAS COUNTY, 6 MILES WEST OF THE HENDERSONS.

HE AND HIS BIG SISTER, RUBY PAULINE, HUDDLED WITH THEIR MOTHER, WHO WAS PREGNANT.

IT'D BE STILL, BE JUST CALM AS IT COULD BE, AND THEN WHEN THAT DUST GOT THERE, WHAM!

IT WOULD HIT YOU.

IT WAS JUST A-ROLLIN'.

IT WAS SCARY.

IT SCARED THE HECK OUT OF US.

MOTHER WOULD PRAY ABOUT IT, YOU KNOW.

US KIDS, OF COURSE, WE WAS LITTLE, AND WE STAYED PRETTY CLOSE TO MA, I GUARANTEE YOU.

Narrator: THE STORM PASSED QUICKLY, BUT THAT WINTER OF 1931-32 WAS UNCOMMONLY DRY.

SO WAS THE SPRING THAT FOLLOWED.

THE FIERCE WINDS COMMON TO THE SEASON BEGAN PICKING UP SAND AND SOIL FROM THE BARE FIELDS AGAIN AND MOVING IT ACROSS THE LANDSCAPE.

THE WEATHER BUREAU BEGAN CLASSIFYING THE STORMS BY THEIR SEVERITY.

SOME STORMS, TAKING THE COARSER, SANDIER SOILS, MOVED ALONG THE GROUND FOR A FEW MILES BEFORE DISAPPEARING; OTHERS CREATED A LIGHT HAZE IN THE SKY.

THE WORST ONES REDUCED VISIBILITY TO LESS THAN A QUARTER MILE.

NO MAN'S LAND HAD 14 OF THOSE IN 1932.

Floyd Coen: THE DUST STORMS WAS THE MOST FEARSOME LOOKING, BUT AS FAR AS DAMAGE, I WOULD SAY THE SAND STORMS DID MORE DAMAGE TO OUR LAND AND OUR CATTLE AND SO FORTH.

YOU DON'T HEAR MUCH ABOUT THE SAND STORMS, BUT WE HAD A LOT OF THOSE.

IT WOULDN'T GET VERY DARK, BUT THEY WERE A NUISANCE TO BE OUT IN, AND IT'D JUST PEPPER YOU, LIKE SAND A-HITTIN' YOU.

IT'D BE VERY ABRASIVE.

AND THEY MIGHT LAST TWO OR THREE DAYS.

ONE TIME, MY MOTHER MARKED 21 DAYS ON THE CALENDAR THAT WE HAD SAND STORMS EVERY DAY.

Glover: I HAD TO RUN GET THE CHICKENS IN WHEN WE'D SEE THEM A-COMIN', AND IF I DIDN'T GET BACK TO THE HOUSE OR TO THE CELLAR IN TIME, MY BARE LEGS WOULD REALLY FEEL THAT SAND AND GRIT.

BUT I KNEW THE WAY.

I THINK I COULD RUN BLINDFOLDED FROM THE CHICKEN HOUSE TO THE HOUSE AND INTO THE CELLAR.

BY 8:00, THAT WIND WOULD BE HITTING, AND DIRT, AND BY THE TIME I WOULD WALK FROM THAT HOUSE TO THAT ROAD, WHICH WAS AS FAR AS FROM HERE ACROSS THE STREET OUT THERE, MY LEGS WOULD BE BLISTERED, THAT DIRT WOULD BE COMING AND HITTING THERE SO HARD.

Narrator: IN THE MIDST OF THE RELENTLESS STORMS, BOOTS McCOY'S MOTHER WENT INTO LABOR.

IT TURNED OUT SHE WAS CARRYING TWINS.

SHE NAMED THEM ROY AND TROY, BUT THEY WERE IN TROUBLE FROM THE VERY BEGINNING.

McCoy: THEY LASTED, BEST I COULD REMEMBER, ABOUT 12 HOURS.

AND, THE DOCTOR JUST COULDN'T SAVE THEM.

AND WHEN WE BURIED THEM, THE NEIGHBORS BUILT A COFFIN, AND ONE OF THEM WENT TO JC PENNEY STORE AND GOT SOME NUMBER 12 SHOE BOXES, AND WE PUT SOME COTTON AND PUT THEM BOYS IN THAT-- PUT THEM IN THAT COFFIN.

THAT'S THE WAY THEY WAS BURIED.

Henderson portrayer: MANY A TIME, I HAVE FOUND MYSELF TIRED OUT FROM HAVING TRIED, UNCONSCIOUSLY AND WITHOUT SUCCESS, TO BRING THE DISTANT RAIN CLOUDS NEARER TO WATER OUR FIELDS.

I AM BEGINNING TO SEE HOW WORSE THAN USELESS IS THIS EXAGGERATED FEELING OF ONE'S OWN RESPONSIBILITY, TO UNDERSTAND A LITTLE THE THOUGHT OF SOMEONE WHO WROTE LONG AGO, "HE THAT OBSERVETH THE WIND SHALL NOT SOW, AND HE THAT REGARDETH THE CLOUDS SHALL NOT REAP."

Narrator: FOR CAROLINE AND WILL HENDERSON-- AND ALL THE OTHER FARMERS IN THE AREA-- THE HARVEST OF 1932 WAS A DOUBLE DISASTER.

PRICES FOR WHEAT PLUMMETED EVEN LOWER THAN THE PREVIOUS YEAR, AND THERE WASN'T MUCH OF A CROP TO HARVEST ANYWAY.

Henderson portrayer: JUDGING BY ANY STANDARDS THAT THE WORLD WOULD RECOGNIZE, WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN FURTHER AHEAD IF WE COULD HAVE SPENT THE YEAR IN SLEEP.

Narrator: THAT FALL, FARMERS WENT BACK TO THE FIELDS AND PLANTED WINTER WHEAT FOR NEXT YEAR.

Henderson portrayer: PEOPLE STILL TOIL AMAZINGLY AND MAKE A CONSCIOUS EFFORT TO KEEP CHEERFUL, BUT IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THE EFFORT GROWS MORE APPARENT.

BEHIND THE CHARACTERISTIC AMERICAN NONCHALANCE, ONE DETECTS A GROWING ANXIETY, ESPECIALLY ABOUT THE COMING WINTER.

Clarence Beck: YOU KEPT THINKING THAT TOMORROW THINGS WILL CHANGE, SO YOU KEPT DOING WHAT YOU WERE DOING.

YOU THOUGHT, MAYBE THERE ARE SOME THINGS THAT WE CAN DO THAT WILL BE A LITTLE BETTER THAN THE WAY THEY ARE.

WE COULDN'T LIVE WITHOUT HOPING THAT THINGS WERE GONNA CHANGE FOR THE BETTE Lewis: WE ALWAYS HAD HOPE.

NEXT YEAR WAS GONNA BE BETTER, AND EVEN THIS YEAR WAS GONNA BE BETTER.

WE LEARNED SLOWLY, AND WHAT DIDN'T WORK, YOU TRIED IT HARDER THE NEXT TIME.

YOU DIDN'T TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT; YOU JUST TRIED HARDER THE SAME THING THAT DIDN'T WORK.

Henderson portrayer: BY SACRIFICING THE SMALL RESERVES WE HAD HELD AGAINST THE DAYS OF DROUGHT AND DISASTER, WE HAVE SUCCEEDED SO FAR IN KEEPING ON A CASH BASIS.

WE HAVE DISCONNECTED THE TELEPHONE, STOPPED THE DAILY PAPER, SUBSTITUTED CHEAP LYE FOR WASHING POWDER, SO THAT MY HANDS ARE ROUGH AND UNCOMFORTABLE, BUT OF ALL OUR LOSSES, THE MOST DISTRESSING IS THE LOSS OF OUR SELF-RESPECT.

HOW CAN WE FEEL THAT OUR WORK HAS ANY DIGNITY OR IMPORTANCE WHEN THE WORLD PLACES SO LOW A VALUE ON THE PRODUCTS OF OUR TOIL?

Narrator: THINGS WERE EVEN WORSE FOR CAROLINE'S NEIGHBORS, THE FORESTERS.

HARRY FORESTER'S CROP HAD WITHERED IN THE DROUGHT, AND WHAT LITTLE WHEAT HE HAD MANAGED TO HARVEST BROUGHT IN ONLY 17 CENTS A BUSHEL.

THE LAND HE HAD PURCHASED NEAR BOISE CITY TURNED OUT TO HAVE A PRIOR CLAIM ON ITS TITLE AND WAS TAKEN FROM HIM.

THE MORTGAGE ON HIS ORIGINAL HOMESTEAD, WHICH HE HAD USED TO BUY THE EXTRA LAND, COULD NOT BE PAID, AND HE LOST IT, TOO.

HE WAS FORCED TO MOVE HIS WIFE AND 9 CHILDREN TO RENTED LAND.

HARRY FORESTER'S DREAM OF AMASSING ENOUGH PROPERTY TO GIVE EACH OF HIS 5 SONS 640 ACRES WAS IN SHAMBLES.

NOW HE WOULD STRUGGLE SIMPLY TO KEEP HIS LARGE FAMILY FED AND WARM THROUGH THE WINTER.

Robert Forester: ONE THING, WE WOULD DO CHORES.

OF COURSE, DOING CHORES FOR A YOUNGSTER LIKE ME WAS RIDING ALONG ON THE WAGON AND PICKING UP COW CHIPS AND COMING IN AND PILING THEM BEHIND THE HOUSE SO THAT WE WOULD HAVE FUEL FOR THE FIRES.

OF COURSE, THEY DON'T SMELL AT THAT POINT IN TIME, UNLESS YOU HAPPEN TO GET ONE THAT'S A LITTLE BIT FRESH.

Riney-Kehrberg: AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS WHOLE SITUATION, MOST PEOPLE ARE THINKING THIS IS A SHORT-TERM PROBLEM.

WE'VE SEEN DROUGHTS BEFORE, WE'VE SEEN DUST STORMS BEFORE, WE'VE HAD HIGH WINDS BEFORE, AND YOU WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR.

AND EVERYONE ASSUMED THAT NEXT YEAR THINGS WOULD BE BETTER.

AND THEN...THE NEXT YEAR, THEY ASSUME THINGS WILL BE BETTER, AND IT DOESN'T GET BETTER.

Narrator: THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES, THINGS WERE GETTING WORSE.

TENS OF THOUSANDS OF BANKS AND BUSINESSES HAD FAILED.

IN JUST ONE DAY, ONE QUARTER OF THE ENTIRE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI WENT UNDER THE AUCTIONEER'S HAMMER.

FROM SAN FRANCISCO TO NEW YORK, THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS WERE REDUCED TO LIVING IN SHANTYTOWNS CALLED "HOOVERVILLES" AFTER THE PRESIDENT THEY HAD COME TO BLAME FOR EVERYTHING.

THAT NOVEMBER, VOTERS TOOK OUT THEIR DESPAIR AND ANGER ON HERBERT HOOVER AND ELECTED FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT TO LEAD THE NATION THROUGH THE CRISIS.

THE NORMALLY REPUBLICAN COUNTIES OF THE SOUTHERN PLAINS WENT DEMOCRATIC.

ROOSEVELT, THEY HOPED, WOULD AT LEAST TRY TO HELP THEM.

BUT EVEN A PRESIDENT COULDN'T CONTROL THE WEATHER.

THERE WAS NO RAIN AT ALL IN CIMARRON COUNTY, OKLAHOMA, IN MARCH OF 1933.

THE AGRICULTURAL AGENT THERE PREDICTED THAT, AT BEST, FARMERS MIGHT HARVEST 4 BUSHELS OF WINTER WHEAT PER ACRE, VERSUS THE PREVIOUS YIELDS OF NEARLY 30.

AND NOW THE DUST STORMS WERE BECOMING MORE FREQUENT.

INSTEAD OF THE 14 STORMS OF 1932 CLASSIFIED AS THE WORST, THERE WERE 38 IN 1933.

ONE STORM IN APRIL LASTED 24 HOURS.

Shirley Forester McKenzie: YOU COULD HARDLY AVOID LOOKING TO THE WEST TO SEE IF YOU COULD SEE THIS RIM OF DUST THAT WAS RISING ON THE HORIZON.

IT WAS EARTH COLORED.

WAY FAR AWAY, BEGINNING TO RISE, AND THE NEXT DAY, PERHAPS IT WOULD BE BIGGER AND COME QUICKER AND HIGHER, AND THEN SUDDENLY, YOU WERE JUST ENGULFED.

IT WAS OVERHEAD, AND YOU COULDN'T SEE THE SUN.

AND THAT'S WHEN IT WAS A REALLY BAD DAY.

AND DAY AFTER DAY, IT WOULD BE THAT WAY-- DARK, BLACK, SCARY.

Robertson: THE EXPERTS COULD TELL WHERE THE DUST CAME FROM BY THE COLOR.

NEW MEXICO HAD ONE COLOR, AND OKLAHOMA, COMING FROM THE OTHER DIRECTION, HAD ANOTHER COLOR.

AND THEY WOULD SAY, "WELL, WE'RE ENJOYING OKLAHOMA TODAY.

"WELL, WE'RE GETTING VISITED BY ALL THE NEW MEXICANS TODAY,"AND SO FORTH.

Worster: THE BIG DUST STORMS WERE FINE PARTICLES OF SOIL.

OTHERS WERE SANDIER BLOWS THAT BLEW ALONG THE HIGHWAYS AT LOW ELEVATION, AND IT TOOK COULD TAKE THE PAINT OFF YOUR AUTOMOBILE OR YOUR HOUSE, LIKE SANDPAPER BEING RUBBED AGAINST IT.

BUT THE ONES THAT WERE THE MOST TERRIFYING WERE THE ONES THAT WERE BASED ON THESE VERY FINE PARTICLES THAT ROSE UP INTO THE AIR 7,000, 8,000 FEET IN THIS KIND OF BOILING WALL OF DIRT COMING AT YOU WITH GALE FORCE, 40-, 50-, 60-MILE-AN-HOUR WINDS.

THESE WERE THE BLACK BLIZZARDS THAT FRIGHTENED PEOPLE SO MUCH DURING THOSE PERIODS.

Egan: WHEN ONE OF THESE DUSTERS WOULD APPROACH FROM AFAR AND THEY WOULD SEE IT FOR THE FIRST TIME, IT WAS LIKE A MOUNTAIN RANGE, BECAUSE SOME CASES, THE STORMS WERE 100 MILES, 150 MILES, 200 MILES WIDE AND A MILE OR MORE HIGH.

SO IMAGINE DRIVING ON A FLAT LAND AND LOOKING OFF AND SEEING A MOUNTAIN RANGE ITSELF STARTING TO MOVE.

DAYLIGHT ITSELF WOULD BE OBLITERATED.

SOMEONE TOLD ME IT WAS LIKE "TWO MIDNIGHTS IN A JUG."

Dorothy Kleffman: ONE PARTICULARLY BAD STORM WE HAD, IT WAS IN THE DAYTIME, AND IT ROLLED IN, AND IT WAS SO BLACK THAT YOU COULDN'T SEE YOUR HAND IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE.

SO WE ALL GATHERED IN THE KITCHEN, THE WHOLE FAMILY.

WE LIT THE KEROSENE LAMP, AND THAT DIDN'T HELP VERY MUCH.

AND MOTHER HAD TEA TOWELS THAT WERE MADE OUT OF FLOUR SACKS BECAUSE WE WERE ALSO IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION.

WE JUST TOOK THEM AND DRAPED THEM OVER OUR HEAD, DOWN THE FACE--YOU KNOW, JUST THE WHOLE HEAD.

YOU COULDN'T SEE ANYTHING.

YOU SAT THERE, AND YOU COULDN'T TALK OR VISIT WITH ANYBODY VERY MUCH, BUT THAT WET TOWEL WOULD CATCH THE DUST.

AND SOMETIMES THOSE TOWELS WERE PRETTY BLACK BY THE TIME WE TOOK THEM OFF.

Ina Kay Labrier: IT'D GET SO BAD, YOU COULDN'T EVEN SEE TO DRIVE.

YOU COULDN'T SEE THE SIDES OF THE ROAD WITH YOUR LIGHTS ON.

YOU COULDN'T TELL WHETHER YOU WAS ON THE ROAD OR ON THE SIDES OR WHERE YOU WERE.

Glover: SOMETIMES WE WERE CAUGHT IN THE HOUSE OR IN THE CAR, AND WE'D JUST SAT THERE UNTIL IT ALL BLEW OVER.

IT JUST WAS OLD BROWN DIRT A-BLOWIN' ALL AROUND THE CAR, AND WE JUST SAT THERE UNTIL IT KIND OF CLEARED UP ENOUGH SO YOU COULD SEE THE ROAD TO GO ON TO GET TO THE HOUSE.

AND IT WAS GRITTY AND DIRTY, AND YOU HAD TO WASH YOUR MOUTH OFF WHENEVER YOU GOT IN THE HOUSE SO YOU WEREN'T EATING DIRT.

IF YOU'D GO OUT AND PICK UP A HANDFUL OF DIRT AND STICK IT IN YOUR MOUTH, THAT'S JUST THE WAY IT'D FEEL.

Egan: ONE OF THE THINGS THAT HAPPENED JUST BEFORE A DUSTER HIT WAS THERE WAS THIS AMAZING STATIC ELECTRICITY IN THE AIR.

PEOPLE USED TO CARRY A CHAIN IN THEIR CAR TO GROUND THE ELECTRICITY.

YOU DIDN'T DRIVE ANYWHERE WITHOUT HAVING THIS CHAIN THAT YOU'D THEN THROW OUT AND DRAG IT ALONG THE GROUND TO GROUND THE ELECTRICITY BECAUSE YOUR RADIO WOULD GO OUT, YOUR ELECTRICAL STUFF WOULD SHORT.

AND EVERY PERSON WOULD TALK ABOUT HOW YOU LITERALLY COULDN'T SHAKE ANOTHER PERSON'S HAND BEFORE ONE OF THESE DUSTERS BECAUSE THE STATIC WAS SO STRONG.

IT WAS THE KINETIC ENERGY THAT WAS IN THE AIR JUST BEFORE A DUSTER HIT.

I CAN REMEMBER FEELING IT IN MY HAIR.

IT WAS JUST KIND OF LIKE YOUR HEAD TINGLES OR SOMETHING, YOU KNOW.

YOUR HAIR GETS KIND OF WIRY.

Beck: MORE DUST AND THE LONGER THE RIDE, THE HIGHER THE CHARGE, UNTIL FINALLY IT'D GET SUCH A POWERFUL CHARGE THAT IF YOU REACH OUT TO TOUCH YOUR CAR, THE ELECTRICITY WILL JUMP OUT ABOUT 6 INCHES TO MEET YOU AND KNOCK YOU FLAT ON YOUR BUTT.

BUT IT WASN'T ALWAYS LIKE THAT.

DON'T FORGET, THIS IS A STORM, WHICH MEANS IT HAD A BEGINNING AND AN END.

AND IN BETWEEN STORMS, COULDN'T HAVE BEEN MORE BEAUTIFUL.

THE SKIES WERE CRYSTAL-BLUE, AND THE CLOUDS WERE THOSE PUFFY WHITE SUMMERTIME CLOUDS, WITHOUT A DROP OF WATER IN 50 OF THEM.

BUT I CAN STILL REMEMBER MY FATHER LOOKING UP AT THE SKY AND PRAYING THAT IT'D RAIN.

BUT NATURALLY, IT NEVER WOULD BECAUSE THOSE WEREN'T RAIN CLOUDS AND NEVER WOULD BE.

Narrator: IN THE TIMES BETWEEN STORMS, THE FARMERS AND TOWNSPEOPLE TRIED THEIR BEST TO CARRY ON WITH THEIR LIVES, BUT THE LAND THEY CALLED HOME WAS BEING REARRANGED BEFORE THEIR VERY EYES.

OH, JUST DIRT, PILES OF DIRT AROUND ANYTHING, LIKE THE FENCE ROWS OR SOMETHING LIKE A PLOW IMPLEMENT OR ANYTHING OUT IN THE YARD, IT MIGHT BE NEARLY COVERED UP WITH DIRT.

ANYTHING LOOSE BANKED UP AROUND SOMETHING OR BLEW AWAY.

Kleffman: IT WOULD DRIFT UP THE SIDE OF THE BARN.

SO YOU COULD WALK UP ON THE ROOF OF THE BARN, YOU KNOW?

YOU JUST WALK UP LIKE YOU HAD A LADDER THERE, BUT IT WOULD BE DIRT.

Narrator: THE STORMS HAD PUSHED DRIED-UP RUSSIAN THISTLES-- TUMBLEWEEDS-- ACROSS THE OPEN GROUND BY THE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS.

WHEREVER THEY PILED UP AGAINST BARBED WIRE FENCES, THEY CREATED EDDIES IN THE WIND, AND THE DIRT ACCUMULATED.

THISTLES GOT IN THE FENCE, AND THEN THE SAND GOT IN THE THISTLES, SO CONSEQUENTLY, WHAT CATTLE WAS STILL ALIVE WALKED OVER THE FENCE.

EVERY PLACE THERE WAS A FENCE, YOU COULD ALMOST WALK OVER MOST OF THEM.

Narrator: WHERE THE DIRT AND SAND HADN'T PILED UP, THE LAND HAD BEEN SWEPT CLEAN OF TOPSOIL.

Kleffman: IT WAS BARE.

IT WAS HARD.

YOU COULD TAKE A BROOM AND SWEEP IT JUST LIKE YOU COULD A WOOD FLOOR.

IT WAS HARD, JUST LIKE CEMENT.

Worster: SO YOU COULD WALK OUT ONTO YOUR FARM, AND INSTEAD OF FINE DIRT, YOU FOUND THIS HARDPAN LAYER ON THE TOP.

IMPOSSIBLE TO CULTIVATE.

YOUR DIRT WOULD BE IN SOMEBODY ELSE'S FARM OR A COUNTY AWAY.

Glover: YOU KNOW, THE DUST WAS SO BAD THAT THE CATTLE DIED.

THEY FOUND SMALL HERDS OF CATTLE THAT WERE JUST FILLED UP WITH DIRT IN THEIR LUNGS AND THEIR NOSES.

I CAN REMEMBER SEEING OUR COWS' NOSES THAT WERE JUST MUD ON THE END WHERE THEY TRIED TO BREATHE AND COULDN'T.

Worster: THEY DIED OF SUFFOCATION.

WHATEVER WILDLIFE WAS OUT THERE DIED OF SUFFOCATION.

BUT ANIMALS ALSO SIMPLY WANDERED AWAY NOT KNOWING WHERE THEY BELONGED AND WOULD CLIMB OVER THESE DUST DRIFTS AND BE LOST.

SO IT WAS REALLY DEVASTATING FOR LIVESTOCK IN TERMS OF LOSS OF LIFE.

Narrator: HOUSEWIVES NURTURED THEIR GARDENS WITH WELL WATER, BUT THE ABRASIVE WINDS, THE SHIFTING DIRT-- EVEN, SOMETIMES, THE CHARGE OF STATIC ELECTRICITY IN THE AIR-- OFTEN KILLED THE VEGETABLES THEIR FAMILIES WERE COUNTING ON.

Virginia Frantz: A STORM WOULD COME, AND THERE WOULD BE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LEFT OF IT.

AND MOTHER TRIED HER BEST TO KEEP THAT FROM HAPPENING.

SHE WOULD DIG POSTHOLES TO PLANT TOMATOES IN SO THAT THE WIND WOULDN'T CUT THEM OFF UNTIL THEY GOT BIGGER AND STRONGER TO WHERE THEY MIGHT HAVE SOME TOMATOES THEN.

AND SHE DUG DEEP ROWS TO PUT ANYTHING IN.

AND OF COURSE, SOMETIMES THEY WOULD FILL UP WITH DIRT.

Narrator: AFTER SURVEYING THE RESIDENTS OF MEADE, KANSAS, A REPORTER CALCULATED THAT THE AVERAGE DAMAGE FROM A SINGLE STORM WAS $25 PER HOME.

WHAT COULDN'T BE MEASURED, HE SAID, WAS "THE LOSS OF DISPOSITION OF THE HOUSEWIVES."

Kleffman: MY MOTHER WAS VERY CLEAN.

HER HOUSE WAS ALWAYS CLEAN, AND SHE TRIED TO KEEP US KIDS CLEAN.

SHE WOULD TAKE ALL HER CURTAINS DOWN ONE DAY AND WASH THEM AND HANG THEM BACK UP.

A DIRT STORM WOULD COME IN THAT NIGHT, AND THEY WERE JUST LIKE THEY WERE BEFORE SHE WASHED THEM.

AND THAT WENT ON DAY AFTER DAY AFTER DAY, AND ONCE IN A WHILE, YOU WOULD HEAR OF SOME WOMAN THAT JUST COULDN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE, AND SHE'D COMMIT SUICIDE.

Robertson: IT BLEW THAT DIRT INTO THE ATTIC OF THE HOUSE.

A LOT OF TIMES WHEN WE WOULD GET UP OF A MORNING, YOU COULD LOOK UP AT THE CEILING AND IF THERE WAS A SPLIT OR BETWEEN BOARDS OR WHATEVER, THAT DIRT WOULD JUST BE COMING RIGHT DOWN LIKE THIS ON THE TABLE.

AND WHEN WE'D GET UP IN THE MORNING, A LOT OF TIMES THERE WOULD BE, SAY, FROM AN INCH TO 5 INCHES OF DIRT JUST PILED LIKE THAT.

AND YOU CLEANED THAT OFF, AND YOU EAT, AND YOU EAT THE DIRT IF IT'S THERE.

IF IT ISN'T, WELL, YOU DO GOOD.

Floyd Coen: WHEN WE SET THE TABLE, WE ALWAYS SET THE PLATE UPSIDE-DOWN-- GLASSES OR CUPS, WHATEVER IT WAS, UPSIDE-DOWN.

AND STILL I THINK YOU'D TURN THEM OVER AND SHAKE THEM, LOOK AT THEM BEFORE YOU PUT ANYTHING IN THEM.

MY FAMILY THINKS THAT I'M KIND OF STUPID, AND I GUESS I AM, BUT I STILL--IF I GET A GLASS OUT OF A CABINET, I RINSE IT OUT BEFORE I DRINK OUT OF IT.

Kleffman: WHEN WE WOULD GO TO BED AT NIGHT, SOMETIMES A DUST STORM WOULD COME IN, AND WHEN WE GOT UP THE NEXT MORNING, OUR COVERS WOULD BE COMPLETELY COVERED WITH DUST, AND THE ONLY CLEAN PLACE ON OUR PILLOW WOULD BE WHERE OUR HEAD HAD LAID.

Henderson portrayer: DUST TO EAT, AND DUST TO BREATHE, AND DUST TO DRINK.

DUST IN THE BEDS AND IN THE FLOUR BIN, ON DISHES AND WALLS AND WINDOWS, IN HAIR AND EYES AND EARS AND TEETH AND THROATS, TO SAY NOTHING OF THE HEAPED-UP ACCUMULATION ON FLOORS AND WINDOW SILLS AFTER ONE OF THE BAD DAYS.

THIS WIND-DRIVEN DUST, FINE AS THE FINEST FLOUR, PENETRATES WHEREVER AIR CAN GO.

Narrator: AS IF THE WIND AND DUST WEREN'T ENOUGH TO DEAL WITH, HORDES OF JACKRABBITS, DRIVEN BY HUNGER, NOW INVADED WHAT PASTURES, CROPS, AND GARDENS WERE LEFT.

Kleffman: THEY ATE EVERYTHING GREEN THERE WAS.

THE FARMERS HAD KILLED OFF THE COYOTES, AND THAT UPSET THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS, AND THE RABBITS JUST EXPLODED, AND THEY WOULD EAT ANYTHING GREEN THEY FOUND, AND THEY WOULD EAT YOUR GARDEN UP.

McCoy: THERE'D BE THOUSANDS OF RABBITS.

THEY'D EAT EVERYTHING--EAT THE BARK OFF OF THE FENCE POSTS.

DAD PUT NEW POSTS UP ON OUR PLACE WHEN HE'D DONE IT, AND IT WAS CEDAR POST THAT HAD BARK ON IT, AND THEY ATE THAT BARK OFF OF IT.

Narrator: TO COMBAT THE INVASION, ENTIRE COMMUNITIES BEGAN ORGANIZING "RABBIT DRIVES."

YOU'D ADVERTISE IT WITH FLYERS ALL OVER THE PLACE IN ADVANCE-- "ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON ON THE FARM OF JOE SMITH "WOULD BE A RABBIT DRIVE.

PLEASE COME.

BRING THE FAMILY."

SO ON THAT AFTERNOON, THERE MIGHT BE 50 TO 100 FAMILIES SHOW UP.

Wells: THE PEOPLE WOULD GO OUT IN A SEMI-CIRCLE AND THEN BRING THEM IN.

AND THEY HAD CLUBS, AND THEY'D USE WAGON SPOKES FOR CLUBS.

WHAT STARTED OUT AS A PEACEFUL PICNIC SORT OF TURNED INTO A RIOT-- DOGS BARKING AND YIPPING, PEOPLE YELLING, KIDS SCREAMING, RABBITS HOPPING IN THE AIR.

AND THEY JUST--WE'D KILL THEM UNTIL WE JUST GIVE OUT.

THEN MORE KIDS WOULD GET IN AND GO FIGHTING THEM.

THEY'D KILL THEM BY THE THOUSANDS.

Dale Coen: YOU'D CLUB THE RABBITS TO DEATH, WHICH WAS AN UNSIGHTLY THING, AND IT WAS A HORRIBLE THING TO DO.

THEY WOULD SCREAM, AND I CAN STILL HEAR RABBITS, THE NOISE THEY'D MAKE.

I WENT ON ONE, AND THAT WAS ENOUGH FOR ME.

Narrator: IN THE EARLY SPRING OF 1934, A SNOWSTORM BLANKETED NO MAN'S LAND.

THE FLAKES, MIXED WITH AIRBORNE DIRT, WERE DARKENED-- LOCALS CALLED IT A "SNUSTER"-- BUT AT LEAST IT WAS A LITTLE MOISTURE.

IN THE TEXAS PANHANDLE, A LIGHT RAIN FELL.

MANY PEOPLE THOUGHT THE DROUGHT HAD BROKEN.

"THE GOOSE HANGS HIGH," A LOCAL NEWSPAPER REPORTED.

"FARMERS ARE GOING DOWN THE FURROW WITH BRIGHTER DAYS IN SIGHT AND A SONG IN THEIR HEARTS."

Robertson: AND I REMEMBER ONE TIME IT RAINED, AND WE WERE ALL JUST THRILLED, AND THE CHILDREN WENT OUT IN THE STREETS AND BAREFOOT AND DANCING IN THE RAIN AND LET THE RAIN FALL ON THEIR TONGUES.

WE WERE JUST ECSTATIC, AND THE MOTHERS CALLED THAT IT WAS TIME TO COME IN FOR SUPPER, AND NOBODY WOULD GO IN.

SO FINALLY THE NEIGHBORS ALL BROUGHT SUPPER TO THE FRONT PORCHES, AND WE HAD SUPPER ON THE FRONT PORCHES AND DANCING IN THE STREETS.

IT WAS WONDERFUL.

AND WE THOUGHT MAYBE THE TIDE HAD TURNED.

BUT, YOU KNOW, AFTER THAT, HERE CAME THE DUST AGAIN.

Narrator: 1934 WOULD TURN OUT TO BE EVEN DRIER AND HOTTER THAN THE YEARS BEFORE-- PART OF A NATIONWIDE DROUGHT THAT AFFECTED 46 OF THE 48 STATES.

IN MAY, THE TEMPERATURE HAD ALREADY REACHED 100 DEGREES IN NORTH DAKOTA, WHERE THE DROUGHT WAS A YEAR OLDER.

PARTS OF NEBRASKA, WHERE TEMPERATURES HIT 118, WERE ALREADY BLOWING.

THEN, ON MAY 9th, A MASSIVE WEATHER FRONT MOVING EASTWARD BEGAN PICKING UP LOOSE SOIL FROM WYOMING AND MONTANA, THEN NEBRASKA AND THE DAKOTAS-- ULTIMATELY 350 MILLION TONS OF IT, LIFTED TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FEET IN THE AIR.

CARRIED BY HIGH-LEVEL WINDS, IT CROSSED IOWA, MINNESOTA, AND WISCONSIN, AND AS IT PASSED OVER CHICAGO, IT DEPOSITED AN ESTIMATED 12 MILLION POUNDS OF DUST-- 4 POUNDS FOR EACH RESIDENT OF THE CITY.

ON MAY 10th, IT DARKENED THE SKIES OVER DETROIT, CLEVELAND, AND BUFFALO.

BY THE MORNING OF THE 11th, THE STORM ENVELOPED THE EASTERN SEABOARD FROM BOSTON TO SAVANNAH.

IN NEW YORK CITY, STREET LIGHTS WERE TURNED ON AT MID-DAY, THE THICK HAZE OBSCURED TOURISTS' VIEWS OF CENTRAL PARK FROM THE TOP OF THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING, AND A SHIP DELAYED ITS ENTRY INTO THE HARBOR BECAUSE THE CAPTAIN HAD TROUBLE SEEING THE STATUE OF LIBERTY.

IN WASHINGTON, DC, DUST DESCENDED ON THE NATIONAL MALL, EVEN SIFTED INTO THE WHITE HOUSE, WHERE PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT WAS HOLDING A PRESS CONFERENCE PROMISING RELIEF TO THE DROUGHT-STRICKEN GREAT PLAINS.

THE NEXT DAY, SHIPS 300 MILES FROM THE COAST REPORTED DIRT FALLING ONTO THEIR DECKS.

Worster: PEOPLE WERE SHOCKED IN THE EAST, AND THEY BEGAN, FOR THE FIRST TIME, TO ASK QUESTIONS-- WHAT IS HAPPENING OUT ON THE GREAT PLAINS?

Narrator: THOUGH IT ORIGINATED ON THE NORTHERN PLAINS, EASTERNERS REFERRED TO IT ALL AS "KANSAS DUST," AND MANY OF THEM QUICKLY HAD SUGGESTIONS ABOUT HOW TO STOP IT FROM BLOWING ACROSS THE CONTINENT.

ONE COMPANY PROPOSED COVERING THE PLAINS IN CONCRETE, WITH HOLES CAREFULLY PLACED FOR PLANTING SEEDS, WHILE A STEEL MANUFACTURER IN PITTSBURGH THOUGHT ITS WIRE NETTING MIGHT WORK BETTER.

THE BARBER ASPHALT COMPANY OF NEW JERSEY ESTIMATED IT COULD SPREAD ITS PRODUCT OVER THE LAND FOR $5.00 AN ACRE.

A WOMAN FROM NORTH CAROLINA SUGGESTED THAT SHIPPING JUNK AUTOS WEST WOULD SIMULTANEOUSLY BEAUTIFY HER STATE WHILE STOPPING THE WIND EROSION ON THE PLAINS.

WELL, EASTERNERS IN PARTICULAR, OR ANYONE WHO DIDN'T LIVE ON THE GREAT PLAINS, HAD NO IDEA OF THE SCALE OF THIS PROBLEM OR HOW TO GO ABOUT SOLVING IT.

SO THEIR FIRST IDEA WAS BASICALLY TO COVER THE GREAT PLAINS SOMEHOW, COVER THESE SOILS-- BRINGING ROCKS FROM THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, I GUESS ROLLING THEM DOWN THE MOUNTAINSIDE-- ANYTHING TO COVER THIS AREA.

THEY HAD NO IDEA THAT THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT A HUNDRED MILLION ACRES.

Narrator: PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT AND HIS SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE, HENRY WALLACE, HAD IDEAS OF THEIR OWN-- FROM ENCOURAGING FARMERS TO PLANT FEWER CROPS TO FINDING WAYS TO STABILIZE THE LOOSE SOILS THROUGH BETTER PLOWING TECHNIQUES-- BUT THOSE PROGRAMS WERE STILL IN THEIR INFANCY.

NO ONE KNEW IF THEY WOULD WORK.

DURING A STOP IN DROUGHT-RAVAGED NORTH DAKOTA THAT SUMMER, ROOSEVELT ADMITTED AS MUCH.

"I WOULD NOT TRY TO FOOL YOU BY SAYING WE KNOW THE SOLUTION"TO THE CRISIS, THE PRESIDENT SAID.

"WE DON'T.

BUT WHAT I CAN TELL YOU "FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART IS THIS-- "IF IT IS POSSIBLE FOR US TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM, WE ARE GOING TO DO IT."

SOME OF THE PEOPLE LINING THE ROUTE OF HIS MOTORCADE HELD UP SIGNS THAT NOTED HOW ROOSEVELT HAD ALREADY ENDED PROHIBITION.

"YOU GAVE US BEER,"THE PLACARDS SAID.

"NOW GIVE US WATER."

ROOSEVELT ACKNOWLEDGED THEIR MESSAGE, AND RESPONDED, "THAT BEER PART WAS EASY."

A SERIES OF RAINS FELL SHORTLY AFTER THE PRESIDENT'S VISIT AND HELPED EASE THE DROUGHT ON THE NORTHERN PLAINS.

PEOPLE THERE CALLED IT "ROOSEVELT WEATHER."

BUT FARTHER SOUTH, THERE WAS NO SUCH RELIEF.

WHILE THE OUTLINES OF THE WORST-HIT AREA WOULD SHIFT OVER THE YEARS, SOMETIMES BROADENING OR NARROWING, BY THE SUMMER OF 1934, THE GOVERNMENT HAD OFFICIALLY IDENTIFIED THE GEOGRAPHIC HEART OF THE DUST CRISIS.

IT WAS NEAR BOISE CITY IN CIMARRON COUNTY, THE WESTERN TIP OF OKLAHOMA-- IN NO MAN'S LAND.

ONE THIRD OF THE COUNTY'S LAND WAS BLOWING.

EVEN SOME PASTURES OF NATIVE BUFFALO GRASS THAT HAD NOT BEEN PLOWED HAD BEEN BURIED UNDER DRIFTS OF DIRT AND SAND, SOME 10 FEET HIGH.

A FEW OF ROOSEVELT'S OTHER NEW DEAL PROGRAMS, AIMED AT EASING THE HUNGER AND JOBLESSNESS OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION, HAD NOW REACHED THE SOUTHERN PLAINS.

IN CIMARRON COUNTY ALONE, NEEDY RESIDENTS RECEIVED 2 TONS OF SMOKED PORK, 16 TONS OF BEEF, 17 TONS OF FLOUR, AND 33 TONS OF COAL THROUGH A SURPLUS COMMODITIES PROGRAM.

ONE QUARTER OF THE COUNTY'S POPULATION NOW DEPENDED ON NEW DEAL JOBS.

BUT NONE OF THAT ADDRESSED THE MAIN CALAMITY.

"WE ARE GETTING DEEPER AND DEEPER IN DUST," THE "BOISE CITY NEWS" REPORTED.

THE SAME WAS TRUE IN ALL THE OTHER SURROUNDING COUNTIES IN TEXAS, NEW MEXICO, COLORADO, KANSAS, AND THE REST OF THE OKLAHOMA PANHANDLE.

Worster: BY 1934, THE ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE ON THE GREAT PLAINS WAS PRETTY CLEAR.

IT WOULD HAVE, AT THAT POINT, CLASSIFIED AS ONE OF THE WORST ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERS IN AMERICAN HISTORY ALREADY.

Henderson portrayer: WE ARE TRYING TO HOPE THAT THE WORST IS OVER, YET TODAY, AFTER WE THOUGHT THE DROUGHT HAD BEEN EFFECTIVELY BROKEN, WE HAD ANOTHER TERRIBLE DAY OF VIOLENT WIND, DRIFTING CLOUDS OF DUST, AND RUSSIAN THISTLES RACING LIKE MAD ACROSS THE PLAINS AND PILING UP IN HEAD-HIGH IMPASSABLE BANKS.

WE FEEL AS IF THE ADMINISTRATION IS REALLY MAKING A SINCERE EFFORT TO IMPROVE GENERAL CONDITIONS, BUT THEY HAVE A TREMENDOUS TASK, MADE HARDER, OF COURSE, BY ALL WHO CLING TENACIOUSLY TO SPECIAL PRIVILEGES OR OPPORTUNITIES OF THE PAST.

Narrator: THAT SUMMER, FARMERS GATHERED AT THE PALACE THEATER IN BOISE CITY TO HEAR DETAILS ON A NEW GOVERNMENT PROGRAM DESIGNED TO STABILIZE BEEF PRICES BY REDUCING THE SURPLUS OF CATTLE ACROSS THE COUNTRY.

IN THE GREAT PLAINS, IT WAS ALSO MEANT TO DEAL WITH THE PROBLEM OF ANIMALS WASTING AWAY FOR LACK OF ADEQUATE PASTURAGE.

ALREADY, HOMESTEADERS LIKE CAROLINE AND WILL HENDERSON HAD RESORTED TO HARVESTING RUSSIAN THISTLES TO FEED THEIR COWS.

SOME RANCHERS WERE GRINDING UP YUCCA CACTUS OR BURNING OFF THE NETTLES OF PRICKLY PEARS IN AN EFFORT TO GIVE THEIR CATTLE SOMETHING--ANYTHING--TO EAT.

Robertson: DADDY SAID, "WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY "TO BUY FOOD FOR THE CATTLE, "BUT IF WE CAN CUT THISTLES AND STACK THEM, THERE'S MORE FOOD VALUE IN THAT THAN NEARLY ANYTHING."

AND OUR JOB WAS TO TRAMP THOSE THISTLES DOWN.

NOW, IF YOU WANT A BAD JOB, THAT'S ONE.

THOSE THISTLES GET DOWN YOUR PANT LEGS INTO YOUR SHOES, THOSE LITTLE STICKERS, AND YOU CAN STAND IT ABOUT SO LONG, BUT PRETTY SOON YOU GOT TO STOP, GET OUT A STICKER.

Narrator: TO ENCOURAGE FARMERS AND RANCHERS TO CULL THEIR HERDS, THE NEW GOVERNMENT PROGRAM WOULD PAY THEM UP TO $16 A HEAD FOR A COW HEALTHY ENOUGH TO BE SHIPPED TO A PACKING HOUSE, WHERE IT WOULD BE SLAUGHTERED AND CANNED FOR DISTRIBUTION TO THE POOR.

CATTLE DEEMED UNFIT FOR CONSUMPTION WOULD BRING A MINIMUM OF $1.00 A HEAD BUT WOULD BE IMMEDIATELY KILLED AND BURIED.

GOVERNMENT AGENTS FANNED OUT ACROSS NO MAN'S LAND TO MAKE THE PURCHASES, OVERSEE THE SHIPMENTS, AND WHERE NECESSARY, PAY MEN TO PUT THEIR HERDS UNDER THE DRIFTING SOIL.

NATIONWIDE, THE PROGRAM WAS A SUCCESS.

$111 MILLION WAS SPENT TO PURCHASE 8.3 MILLION CATTLE, AND PRICES WERE STABILIZED.

IN CIMARRON COUNTY, THE GOVERNMENT PURCHASED 12,499 HEAD OF CATTLE IN 1934, PAYING $164,449 IN MUCH-NEEDED CASH TO LOCAL RANCHERS.

DESPERATE AS THEY WERE FOR SOME INCOME, IT WAS A BITTER PILL FOR MANY TO SWALLOW, HARDER STILL ON THEIR CHILDREN.

WHAT THEY DID WAS, THEY TOOK A BULLDOZER AND MADE A MAMMOTH DITCH, A MAMMOTH DITCH, AND DROVE ALL THE CATTLE DOWN IN THERE.

THEN THERE WERE MEN ABOVE WITH RIFLES, I WOULD SAY MAYBE 10 OR 20 MEN WITH RIFLES, AND THEY SHOT THE CATTLE.

MY FATHER, WHEN OUR CATTLE WAS DRIVEN INTO THIS DITCH TO BE SHOT, HE SAID, "THERE'S A LITTLE CALF.

CAN I BUTCHER THAT CALF FOR FOOD FOR US?"

THEY SAID, "NO.

THEY ALL HAVE TO BE DESTROYED."

I'LL NEVER FORGET TO MY DYING DAY STANDING THERE AS A LITTLE BOY, I WAS PROBABLY 8 OR 9 YEARS OLD, WHEN THEY STARTED SHOOTING THOSE CATTLE.

AND IT'S A SIGHT TO THIS DAY THAT, THE AVERAGE PERSON COULDN'T STAND IT, BUT AS A LITTLE KID, IT WAS VERY ROUGH BECAUSE THAT WAS OUR STOCK.

AND YOU GOT SOME MONEY FOR IT.

BUT THAT DIDN'T MATTER.

THEY KILLED THE STOCK.

Robertson: AND THEY SAID, "IF YOU CAN GET COWBOYS "TO GET THOSE CATTLE TOGETHER, WE'LL JUST RUSH THEM, "AND THEY'LL FALL IN THAT DITCH, AND THEN WE'LL KILL THEM AND COVER THEM UP."

AND...AND DADDY COULD HARDLY... [CHOKING UP] I'M SORRY.

BUT HE COULD HARDLY DO THAT.

AND I NEVER WILL FORGET MY BROTHER AND I STANDING THERE AND WATCHING THEM SHOOT THOSE LITTLE CALVES, AND WE COULD HARDLY STAND IT.

BUT THAT'S WHAT THEY DID.

Riney-Kehrberg: ANYBODY WHO HAD LIVED ON THE SOUTHERN PLAINS FOR ANY LENGTH OF TIME KNEW THAT THERE WERE PERIODIC DROUGHTS, KNEW THAT THE WIND BLEW IN THE SPRING, KNEW THAT THERE WERE GOING TO BE DUST STORMS.

WHAT'S DIFFERENT ABOUT THE 1930s IS HOW LONG THE DROUGHT LASTS.

THEY WERE ALWAYS BATTLING AGAINST HOPE BECAUSE YOU WOULD SEE THAT MAYBE THERE WAS SOME RAIN ON THE HORIZON, BUT IT WOULD FALL ON SOMEBODY ELSE'S FIELD AND NOT YOURS.

YOU WOULD SEE SOME CLOUDS GATHER, AND YOU WOULD HOPE THAT THIS WAS GOING TO BE GOOD NEWS, BUT INSTEAD IT WAS GOING TO BE DIRT.

HOPE KEPT THEM GOING, BUT HOPE ALSO MEANT THAT THEY WERE BEING CONSTANTLY DISAPPOINTED.

Brown: MY DAD COULD TELL IF IT WAS GONNA BE A REALLY BAD DAY BY LOOKING OUT THE BACK DOOR AT THE SUNRISE, AND IF THE SUN WAS RED, HE'D SAY, "OH, IT'S GONNA BE A BAD DAY."

THAT DISCOURAGED ME EVEN WHEN I WAS LITTLE IF I HEARD HIM SAY THAT.

Narrator: BY 1934, PROPERTY VALUES AROUND BOISE CITY HAD DECLINED BY 90%, AND MORE THAN HALF OF THE LANDOWNERS WERE DELINQUENT ON THEIR TAXES.

EACH WEEK, THE LOCAL PAPER CARRIED NOTICES OF UPCOMING SHERIFF'S SALES OF FARMS BEING PUT ON THE AUCTION BLOCK BECAUSE OF UNPAID MORTGAGES.

EVERY FAMILY, EVERY FARM, EVERY BUSINESS WAS AFFECTED.

THE TELEPHONE COMPANY THAT HAD OPENED IN THE RURAL PART OF NO MAN'S LAND WENT UNDER.

THE PALACE THEATER SHUT ITS DOORS-- UNTIL ENOUGH PEOPLE PERSUADED THE OWNER TO REOPEN.

THEY NEEDED MOVIES TO HELP THEM TAKE THEIR MINDS OFF THEIR TROUBLES.

NO ONE KNEW WHAT THE NEXT CALAMITY WOULD BE OR WHEN THE HARD TIMES MIGHT END.

WHEN HE LOST YET ANOTHER CROP TO THE DROUGHT, PAULINE HODGES' FATHER FOUND HIMSELF HARD UP AGAINST HIS MORTGAGE.

Hodges: I THINK HE MUST HAVE BEEN SCARED TO DEATH BECAUSE HE HAD RELATIVE LITTLE EDUCATION.

FARMING WAS ALL HE KNEW HOW TO DO, ALL HE'D EVER DONE, AND TO LOOK OUT AND SEE THAT FIELD SOLID DUST, MOUNDS OF DUST.

HE'D SAY, "OH, DORA, IT'S GOING TO GET BETTER.

IT'LL GET BETTER."

AND HE WOULD TALK ABOUT HIS BANKER IN LIBERAL, AND HE'D SAY, "OH, MR. IGO IS GOING TO LET US CONTINUE FOR A LITTLE WHILE LONGER."

HE KEEPS SAYING, "OH, PAUL, IT WON'T GET ANY WORSE."

HE CARRIED US FOR PROBABLY 3 YEARS BEYOND WHEN HE SHOULD HAVE, KEEPING THE HOPE THAT WE WERE GOING TO GET RAIN AND TIMES WERE GONNA GET BETTER AND IF WE JUST HAD A CROP, WE COULD PAY OFF THAT MORTGAGE.

FINALLY, THE BANK WAS DESPERATE, AND IN THE WINTER OF '34-'35, THEY FORECLOSED.

Narrator: THEY MOVED INTO A VACANT 3-ROOM HOUSE IN TOWN, AND HER FATHER MANAGED TO FIND A GOVERNMENT JOB BUILDING ROADS THAT HELPED KEEP THE FAMILY FED.

Hodges: HE MADE $3.00 A DAY TO START WITH, AND WHEN HE BECAME FOREMAN, HE MADE $5.00.

BUT EVEN AS YOUNG AS I WAS, I REMEMBER SEEING THE CHANGE IN HIM FROM THE SELF-CONFIDENT PERSON THAT HE'D BEEN TO SOMEBODY WHO WAS REALLY DEFEATED.

AND FRANKLY, HE NEVER RECOVERED.

Narrator: OVER IN FOLLETT, TEXAS, TRIXIE TRAVIS BROWN'S FATHER AND GRANDFATHER WERE TRYING TO HOLD ON TO THEIR HARDWARE BUSINESS.

AMONG THOSE HAVING TROUBLE PAYING THEIR BILLS WERE A PAIR OF BROTHERS, VALUED CUSTOMERS AND FRIENDS.

Brown: THE TWO OF THEM CAME IN TO THE HARDWARE STORE AND TALKED TO GRANDPA AND SAID, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT WE'RE GOING TO DO.

"WE'RE WIPED OUT, AND WE CANNOT PAY THIS BILL THAT WE OWE YOU RIGHT NOW."

AND GRANDPA COULD SEE HOW DESPERATE THEY WERE, AND HE SAID, "DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT.

"WE'LL CARRY THIS.

YOU'LL BE JUST FINE.

WE'LL GET OUR MONEY."

AND IT WAS NO TIME BEFORE THE TRAGEDY HAPPENED.

ONE OF THEM, HE HAD A FAMILY WITH CHILDREN WHO WERE IN SCHOOL WITH ME.

HE HANGED HIMSELF AT HOME.

THIS SORT OF AGONY WAS GOING ON.

Narrator: SOON ENOUGH, TRIXIE'S FATHER AND GRANDFA COULDN'T PAY THEIR DEBTS, EITHER.

Brown: THE HARDWARE STORE WENT BANKRUPT.

WE LOST IT, AND THE BANK TOOK THE HOUSE.

AND THE BANK FORECLOSED ON GRANDPA TRAVIS, AND HE LOST HIS CATTLE, HE LOST HIS SECTION OF LAND, HE LOST HIS HOME, AND HE LOST HIS HEALTH.

Narrator: IN BAZINE, KANSAS, A DOCTOR TOOK HIS OWN LIFE.

"HE TOLD US JUST A FEW DAYS AGO THAT MONEY WAS AN IMPOSSIBILITY NOW," THE LOCAL PAPER REPORTED, "AND THE LETTERS INDICATE THAT FINANCIAL TROUBLES ARE THE CAUSE OF HIS ACT."

IN DODGE CITY, A 13-YEAR-OLD BOY, SAID TO BE WORRIED THAT HIS PARENTS COULDN'T AFFORD HIS SCHOOL BOOKS, COMMITTED SUICIDE.

DEVASTATED BY HIS INVESTMENT LOSSES, A CIMARRON COUNTY DOCTOR KILLED HIS WIFE AND THEN HIMSELF.

IN BOISE CITY, MILLARD FOWLER WAS FRESH OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL AND READY TO BUILD A FUTURE.

HE HAD FALLEN IN LOVE WITH THE DAUGHTER OF A MAN WHO UNTIL RECENTLY HAD BEEN ONE OF THE AREA'S MOST PROMINENT BUSINESSMEN.

FOWLER AND HIS SWEETHEART DECIDED TO GET MARRIED, BUT FIRST HE WANTED TO GET HER FATHER'S BLESSING.

FOWLER FOUND HIS FUTURE FATHER-IN-LAW SITTING IN HIS CAR IN FRONT OF THE FAMILY HOME.

Millard Fowler: WHEN I OPENED THE DOOR, I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT HE WAS UP TO.

I KNEW HE WAS IN THE CAR, BUT I DIDN'T KNOW WHY.

BUT WHEN I OPENED THE DOOR, I SAW THAT RIFLE, POINTING AT HIS HEAD.

I OPENED THE DOOR AND GOT IN THE SEAT BESIDE HIM AND... AND TOOK THAT RIFLE AND UNLOADED IT...

WITHOUT ANY CONVERSATION, AS I REMEMBER.

BUT I FINALLY GOT AROUND AND ASK HIM IF IT'D BE ALL RIGHT IF WE GOT MARRIED, AND HE FINALLY SAID YES.

A COUPLE OF MONTHS LATER, HE COMMITTED SUICIDE.

Narrator: IN 1935, THE NUMBER OF "BLACK BLIZZARDS"DOUBLED AROUND NO MAN'S LAND, AND MANY OF THEM STRUCK IN THE FIRST 4 MONTHS.

IN THAT TIME, 7 DIFFERENT STORMS REDUCED VISIBILITY TO ZERO IN AMARILLO.

DODGE CITY, KANSAS, REPORTED ONLY 13 DUST-FREE DAYS.

ONE SINGLE STORM DESTROYED A QUARTER OF THE WHEAT CROP IN OKLAHOMA, HALF OF THE KANSAS CROP, AND ALL OF NEBRASKA'S.

IT BLEW OUT 5 MILLION ACRES OF FIELDS, AND IN THE SPACE OF A DAY, CARRIED OFF TWICE AS MUCH DIRT AS HAD BEEN EXCAVATED BY THE UNITED STATES IN THE DECADE IT TOOK TO DIG THE PANAMA CANAL.

Worster: THIS WAS MORE FRIGHTENING THAN WINTER SNOW BLIZZARDS BECAUSE IT WAS SO UNPRECEDENTED AND IT SEEMED SO CHOKING.

IT WAS IN THAT SENSE LIKE A WINTER BLIZZARD WHERE THEY TIED, YOU KNOW, ROPES FROM THE HOUSE TO THE BARN TO MAKE YOUR WAY BACK AND FORTH.

BUT PEOPLE WEREN'T PREPARED FOR THIS KIND OF BLIZZARD, BLACK BLIZZARD.

THEY DIDN'T THINK ABOUT IT IN THE SAME TERMS AT FIRST.

THEY THOUGHT, "WELL, THIS IS NOT SOMETHING THAT'S GONNA KILL ME."

BUT IT DID.

I MEAN, IT CHOKED PEOPLE.

PEOPLE DIED IN DUST DRIFTS.

Narrator: DURING A "BLACK BLIZZARD"IN FEBRUARY, A FARMER'S CAR WENT OFF THE ROAD TWO MILES FROM HIS HOME, AND HE GOT OUT TO WALK THE REST OF THE WAY.

HE NEVER MADE IT.

IN MARCH, A 7-YEAR-OLD BOY NEAR HAYS, KANSAS, GOT CAUGHT ALONE IN A STORM.

SEARCHERS FOUND HIM THE NEXT MORNING, SUFFOCATED, SMOTHERED IN DIRT.

FARTHER WEST, A 9-YEAR-OLD WANDERED OFF ALONE IN THE SAME STORM.

WHEN HE WAS DISCOVERED, HE WAS TANGLED IN BARBED WIRE BUT STILL BREATHING.

THE TRAIN FROM KANSAS CITY TO DALHART, TEXAS, WAS FORCED TO STOP WHEN ITS PASSENGERS COMPLAINED THEY WERE CHOKING.

IT PAUSED LONG ENOUGH TO LET THE DUST SETTLE, WHILE PEOPLE SCOOPED OUT THE DIRT ON THE FLOORS AND SEATS.

IN GARDEN CITY, KANSAS, THE LOCAL HARDWARE STORE SOLD OUT OF GOGGLES.

THEN THE TRAIN DELIVERING A NEW SUPPLY WAS DELAYED-- BY A DUST STORM.

WRITING FROM GREAT BEND, KANSAS, A JOURNALIST SAID, "LADY GODIVA COULD RIDE THROUGH THE STREETS WITHOUT EVEN THE HORSE SEEING HER."

THAT SPRING, A WAVE OF ILLNESSES SWEPT ACROSS THE SOUTHERN PLAINS, WITH SYMPTOMS OF COUGHING SPELLS AND HIGH TEMPERATURES, NAUSEA, CHEST PAINS, AND SHORTNESS OF BREATH.

PEOPLE CALLED IT "DUST PNEUMONIA."

THE SOIL THEY HAD TURNED OVER DURING THE GREAT PLOW UP HAD ALREADY KILLED THE SODBUSTERS' CROPS AND LIVESTOCK.

NOW IT SEEMED TO HAVE ZEROED IN ON SOMETHING MUCH MORE PRECIOUS--THEIR CHILDREN.

Lorene White: THERE WERE TIMES WHEN IT WAS HARD TO BREATHE BECAUSE OF THE DUST.

WE WORE LITTLE THINGS, LITTLE STRIPS OF SHEET, SOMETIMES OVER OUR NOSE AND MOUTH SO WE WOULDN'T BREATHE SO MUCH OF IT.

I'M SURE MOM AND DAD WERE CONCERNED ABOUT WHAT IT WOULD DO TO US.

YOU DIDN'T KNOW.

EACH PARTICLE OF SOIL IS ABOUT A TENTH OF THE SIZE OF A PERIOD AT THE END OF A SENTENCE IN A BOOK-- BARELY VISIBLE TO THE HUMAN EYE.

AND THAT'S JUST SMALL ENOUGH OF A PARTICLE TO GET INTO THE LUNGS.

Frantz: ANYTIME YOU TOOK A BREATH, YOU HAD DIRT.

IF YOU WERE COUGHING, AND...

I CALL IT GUNK.

IF YOU COUGHED A BUNCH OF GUNK UP, THE GUNK YOU'D COUGHED UP WAS MUD.

Hodges: THERE WERE DAYS WHEN MY MOTHER PUT A DUST MASK OVER MY FACE TO KEEP ME FROM CHOKING AND GASPING.

AND IT FRIGHTENED ME, AT LEAST AT FIRST.

AS I REMEMBER, I GOT OVER THAT AND I THOUGHT IT WAS UNCOMFORTABLE AND I HATED IT, BUT IT WAS BETTER THAN COUGHING AND CHOKING ALL THE TIME.

YOU JUST COULDN'T GET A GOOD BREATH AFTER THEY WAS ON A WHILE.

IT'D BE SOAKED UP, AND THE DIRT ON THE OUTSIDE OF THEM... WHAT I HEARD MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE, "FLOYD, PUT YOUR MASK BACK ON."

I HATED TO WEAR THEM.

I COULD GET A BETTER BREATH WITHOUT IT THAN I COULD WITH IT, I THOUGHT.

Narrator: THE RED CROSS ISSUED A CALL FOR 10,000 MORE MASKS.

IT WASN'T NEARLY ENOUGH.

MORE PEOPLE GOT SICK.

YOU DIDN'T GO TO THE DOCTOR BECAUSE HE WAS 60 MILES AWAY, AND SO THE FOLKS DOCTORED US THEMSELVES.

AND SO I WAS DOCTORED WITH KEROSENE AND LARD AND TURPENTINE THAT WAS RUBBED ON YOUR CHEST.

AND FOR COUGH SYRUP, YOU HAD SUGAR WITH A DROP OR TWO OF KEROSENE IN IT.

THAT WAS YOUR COUGH SYRUP.

White: MY TEMPERATURE GOT REAL HIGH, AND THEY KNEW THAT IT WAS PROBABLY PNEUMONIA.

THERE WAS NO DOCTOR NEAR US.

BUT I KEPT GETTING WORSE, AND IT WAS HARD FOR ME TO BREATHE WITH THE DUST.

Narrator: IN SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS, LORENE WHITE'S PARENTS DECIDED THEIR ONLY HOPE WAS TO MOVE THEIR DAUGHTER TO RELATIVES FARTHER EAST, AWAY FROM THE EVER-PRESENT DUST.

HER MOTHER WOULD GO WITH HER, BUT HER FATHER NEEDED TO STAY AND TRY TO MANAGE THE FARM.

White: THE DAY THEY CAME TO GET ME, THE DUST WAS TERRIBLE.

YOU COULD HARDLY SEE TO DRIVE.

AND I REMEMBER DAD WRAPPED ME IN A BLANKET... AND HE CARRIED ME TO THE CAR.

HE TOLD ME THAT WHEN HE CARRIED ME TO THE CAR, HE THOUGHT HE WOULD NEVER SEE ME ALIVE AGAIN.

BUT FROM THEN, I DON'T REMEMBER ANYTHING.

Narrator: AT HER RELATIVES' HOME, HER TEMPERATURE FINALLY WENT DOWN, BUT HER COUGHING WOULDN'T STOP.

DOCTORS SAVED HER WITH AN OPERATION THAT DRAINED THE FLUID IN HER INFLAMED LUNGS.

White: AND ONE DAY, I WAS LYING ON THE COUCH, AND I LOOKED INTO THE KITCHEN, AND THE DOOR WAS SWINGING OPEN, AND YOU KNOW THERE'S A LITTLE CRACK THAT YOU CAN SEE THROUGH.

AND I WAS LOOKING, AND I SAW MY DAD.

NO WORDS CAN TELL YOU HOW TICKLED I WAS TO SEE MY DAD.

Narrator: BACK IN NO MAN'S LAND, THE RED CROSS DECLARED A MEDICAL CRISIS.

EMERGENCY HOSPITAL WARDS WERE OPENED WHEREVER SPACE COULD BE FOUND, INCLUDING THE BASEMENTS OF TWO CHURCHES IN GUYMON, OKLAHOMA.

OVER IN BACA COUNTY, COLORADO, THE HIGH SCHOOL'S SENIOR PLAY WAS CANCELLED BECAUSE COTS NOW COVERED THE GYM FLOOR.

Floyd Coen: WITHIN A TWO-WEEK PERIOD, THERE WERE 3 LITTLE GIRLS DIED OF DUST PNEUMONIA.

IT WAS CLOSE ENOUGH WE COULD SAY THEY WAS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD.

TWO OF THEM WAS OVER IN OKLAHOMA, AND ONE OF THEM WAS IN KANSAS.

BUT THERE WAS-- THERE WAS QUITE A FEW.

IT SEEMED TO GET ABOUT THAT AGE, YOU KNOW, JUST BEFORE THEY WENT TO SCHOOL OR A LITTLE YOUNGER.

Narrator: BY 1935, EDGAR AND RENA COEN HAD 8 CHILDREN.

6 YEARS EARLIER, COEN HAD STARTED BUILDING A PROPER HOME FOR HIS FAMILY, BUT BECAUSE OF THE DEPRESSION, CONSTRUCTION HAD ENDED AT THE BASEMENT.

THEY COVERED IT WITH A SHEET IRON ROOF AND MOVED IN.

IT WAS LARGER THAN THEIR OLD HOME-- SPACE FOR TWO BEDROOMS AND A LARGE ROOM THAT SERVED AS A KITCHEN, DINING ROOM, AND LIVING ROOM-- BUT IT WAS STILL UNDERGROUND.

IN 1932, TWINS HAD ARRIVED-- RALPH AND RENA MARIE, THEIR ONLY DAUGHTER, WHO QUICKLY BECAME THE FAMILY FAVORITE.

Dale Coen: RENA MARIE WAS OUR ONLY SISTER.

SHE WAS SO PRECIOUS TO US BECAUSE THE FOLKS HAD BEEN TRYING FOR A GIRL ALL THE TIME.

IT ALWAYS COME OUT BOYS.

SHE WAS FRAIL, BUT SHE WAS A PRETTY LITTLE GIRL.

Floyd Coen: SHE WAS JUST THE SWEETEST LITTLE THING THAT YOU'D EVER SEEN.

SHE WAS SMALLER THAN RALPH, AND SHE WAS ALWAYS JUST BUSY DOING THINGS, JUST ALL THE TIME.

SHE WAS JUST A JOY FOR ALL OF US.

AT NIGHT, SINCE MAMA HAD A LOT OF WORK TO DO WITH 7 BOYS AND WASHING ON THE BOARD AND STUFF, SHE NEEDED HER REST, SO RENA MARIE WOULD SLEEP CLOSE TO ME.

AND I'M GLAD I WAS ABLE TO DO IT.

I SPENT AN AWFUL LOT OF TIME WITH HER.

Narrator: THAT SPRING, 4 OF THE COEN CHILDREN GOT SICK-- FLOYD, RICHARD, AND THE 2-1/2-YEAR-OLD TWINS.

ONE NIGHT, RENA MARIE'S TEMPERATURE SKYROCKETED.

Dale Coen: WE WERE SITTING AT THE TABLE EATING, AND SHE JUST IMMEDIATELY WAS BATHED IN WATER.

SHE JUST SWEAT-- HER HEAD JUST WAS... WATER RUNNING OFF HER FACE AND HEAD.

Narrator: SHE BECAME TOO WEAK TO BE MOVED FROM THE BED IN THE PARENTS' ROOM.

THE DOCTOR WAS SENT FOR AND USHERED IN TO SEE HER.

Dale Coen: WE WAS ALL AWAKE, ALL SETTING AROUND THE FIRE.

I REMEMBER I WAS SETTING IN BEHIND THE STOVE, BETWEEN THE STOVE AND THE WALL-- PLENTY OF ROOM THERE-- AND SHE WAS CRYING, CALLING FOR ME TO COME TO HER.

SHE CALLED FOR ME--NOT MAMA, NOT DAD, BUT FOR DALE.

AND I...I HAVEN'T REALLY EVER GOT OVER IT.

IT WAS BAD, BAD, BAD.

Floyd Coen: DR. MEREDITH WAS THERE, AND HE KNEW SHE WAS PASSING AWAY.

4 OF US HAD DUST PNEUMONIA AT THAT TIME.

I AND RALPH AND RICHARD WAS IN BED ALSO.

THE HARDEST PART WAS WE WAS IN BED OUT IN THE FRONT ROOM, AND WHEN I HEARD THE DOCTOR SAY, "DO YOU HAVE A BOARD?"

AND MY DAD SAID, "WELL, WE HAVE LEAVES FOR THE TABLE."

AND HE TOOK THE LEAF TO THE TABLE AND TOOK IT IN THERE AND PUT HER LITTLE BODY ON THAT LEAF AND BROUGHT IT OUT AND SHOWED US BOYS BEFORE HE TOOK HER.

AND THE DOCTOR PUT HER IN THE REAR SEAT OF HIS CAR AND TOOK HER INTO THE MORTUARY.

BUT THAT WAS THE HARDEST THING ON ME... AND STILL IS.

SHE WAS SUCH A PERFECT LITTLE THING.

Narrator: TWO WEEKS LATER, THE COENS' FIRST GRANDCHILD, VERLE'S SON DWAYNE, DIED AT AGE 5 WEEKS.

HE AND RENA MARIE WOULD BE TWO OF THE 31 PEOPLE WHO PERISHED FROM DUST PNEUMONIA THAT SPRING IN MORTON COUNTY, POPULATION 4,092.

THE TOWN OF LIBERAL LOST 9 TO THE ILLNESS.

IN THE 7 SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS COUNTIES, NEARLY 1,500 PEOPLE BECAME SICK WITH IT.

SOME BEGAN TO BLAME THEMSELVES FOR WHAT WAS HAPPENING.

ON ITS FRONT PAGE, THE "BOISE CITY NEWS"PUBLISHED A QUOTATION FROM THE BIBLE, THE BOOK OF EZEKIEL-- "BEHOLD, THEREFORE, I HAVE SMITTEN MY HAND "AT THY DISHONEST GAIN ICH THOU HMADE, AND AT THY BLOOD WHICH HAS BEEN IN THE MIDST OF THEE."

McCoy: SOME PEOPLE LEFT ON ACCOUNT OF THAT, THINKING GOD WANTED THEM TO LEAVE.

AFTER THEY HAD THE DUST STORM WHERE THE PEOPLE IN BOISE CITY COULD SEE THE IMAGE OF CHRIST INTO IT, PEOPLE THOUGHT THAT CHRIST WAS CAUSING THIS.

THERE WAS JUST LOTS OF TALK THAT GOD WAS TORMENTING US BECAUSE THEY PLOWED UP THAT GOOD SOD.

Egan: YOU NEVER REALLY ESCAPED THE DUST.

IT ALWAYS FOUND ITS WAY IN, AND THAT'S, I THINK, WHAT DROVE PEOPLE CRAZY.

ONE WOMAN TOLD ME IT WAS LIKE A SNAKE.

SHE COULD HEAR IT SLITHERING ALONG THE CEILING AND THEN ALONG THE SIDE OF THE WALL.

SHE SAID SHE JUST WAITED FOR THAT SNAKE TO STRIKE FROM ANY PLACE.

SHE KNEW IT WAS ALWAYS THERE.

IT WAS THAT KIND OF A PSYCHOLOGICAL BLOW.

WHEN YOU THOUGHT THAT IT WAS AT LAST BEHIND YOU, THIS MONSTER CAME ALONG AND JUST CLOBBERED YOU.

Woman: "IT SEEMED THAT "THE BLACK DUST WAS ALWAYS WITH US.

"IF A QUIET DAY HAPPENED TO BE OUR LOT, "THE TIME WAS SPENT SCOOPING OUT "THE SAND OF THE STORM OF YESTERDAY.

"IT SEEMED THAT WE LIVED IN A LAND OF HAZE.

"THE ATMOSPHERE SEEMED TO ALWAYS BE CLOSING IN AROUND US, CREATING AN EERIE AND UNEASY FEELING."

HAZEL LUCAS SHAW.

MOM SAID SHE HAD EVERY CRACK STUFFED WITH RAGS, AND SHE WOULD WET THEM DOWN.

SHE'D HANG SHEETS OVER EVERYTHING WHERE DUST MIGHT COME IN, BUT IT DIDN'T KEEP IT OUT.

IT WOULD COME IN SOMEWHERE.

Narrator: IN EARLY APRIL OF 1935, THE SHAWS OF BOISE CITY, OWNERS OF THE LOCAL MORTUARY, BEGAN PLANNING A DOUBLE FUNERAL.

THEY HAD JUST LOST THE OLDEST AND YOUNGEST MEMBERS OF THEIR OWN FAMILY TO THE DUST PNEUMONIA.

HAZEL'S BEAUTIFUL, PRECOCIOUS YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER RUTH NELL HAD DIED JUST A FEW HOURS BEFORE HAZEL'S GRANDMOTHER, THE MATRIARCH OF THE CLAN, HAD PASSED AWAY.

"GRANDMA LOU"WAS TO BE BURIED IN TEXHOMA, NEAR HER HOMESTEAD, WHILE RUTH NELL WAS TO BE TAKEN TO ENID, IN THE CENTRAL PART OF OKLAHOMA.

THE MAIN REASON FOR THAT WAS THE FACT THAT ENID CEMETERY WAS VISIBLE.

THEY WOULD HAVE BURIED RUTH NELL IN THE BOISE CITY CEMETERY EXCEPT YOU COULDN'T EVEN FIND THE TOMBSTONES, THE HEADSTONES IN THE CEMETERY, IT WAS SO DRIFTED FULL OF DIRT.

Narrator: ON APRIL 14th, 1935, THE DAY OF THE DOUBLE FUNERAL ARRIVED.

IT WAS PALM SUNDAY, A WEEK BEFORE EASTER.

AND THEY WERE EXCITED WHEN THEY GOT UP THAT DAY BECAUSE IT WAS A DAY WHEN IT WAS CLEAR.

A PRETTY DAY.

AND IF YOU'VE GOT TO DO A JOB LIKE THAT, YOU KNOW, THAT'S A BLESSING TO YOUR HEART IF YOU HAVE A NICE DAY FOR A FUNERAL FOR A LOVED ONE.

Narrator: THROUGHOUT THE AREA AROUND NO MAN'S LAND THAT MORNING, AS MANY FAMILIES PREPARED FOR CHURCH, RESIDENTS WERE BEING GREETED BY A GLORIOUS BREAK IN THE WEATHER.

Egan: THE SUNDAY ITSELF WAS SO GORGEOUS AND WINDLESS, AND PEOPLE CAME OUT OF THEIR DUGOUTS AND CLEANED THEIR SHEETS AND OPENED UP THEIR WINDOWS.

IT WAS LIKE A DAWN.

IT WAS LIKE A NEW DAY, AND YOU THOUGHT, "MY GOD, THIS LAND CAN MAKE US WHOLE AGAIN.

MY GOD, THE WORST IS OVER."

Narrator: IN FOLLETT, TEXAS, TRIXIE TRAVIS BROWN'S MOTHER HUNG LAUNDRY OUT ON THE LINE, FLUNG OPEN THE WINDOWS OF HER HOUSE TO LET IN THE FRESH AIR, AND ANNOUNCED THAT THE FAMILY WOULD ENJOY THE REST OF THE DAY OUT IN THE COUNTRY.

THE SKY WAS BLUE.

THERE WASN'T A BREATH OF WIND.

WE WERE JUST EXHILARATED, THE WHOLE FAMILY, AND WE COULDN'T UNDERSTAND IT, EITHER, BECAUSE IT JUST WAS SO ABNORMAL.

MOTHER AND DAD DECIDED WE WOULD TAKE A PICNIC, AND WE WENT DOWN ON WOLF CREEK.

Narrator: BY MID-DAY, THE TEMPERATURE HAD RISEN INTO THE HIGH 70s.

BUT FARTHER NORTH, A COLD FRONT SWEEPING DOWN FROM CANADA HAD BEGUN MOVING SOUTH AND EAST ACROSS THE GREAT PLAINS, PUSHING A WIND BEFORE IT, PICKING UP MORE AND MORE LOOSE SOIL WITH EACH MILE IT TRAVELED.

DENVER, ON THE FRONT'S WESTERN EDGE, WAS COVERED BY A HAZE, AND TEMPERATURES DROPPED 25 DEGREES IN AN HOUR'S TIME.

A LITTLE LATER, IT REACHED UNION COUNTY, IN THE NORTHEASTERN CORNER OF NEW MEXICO, WHERE SAM ARGUELLO AND HIS FAMILY LIVED.

Sam Arguello: I WAS PLAYING OUT IN THE FRONT YARD.

IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL DAY, BEAUTIFUL SUNNY DAY.

ALL OF A SUDDEN, I LOOKED UP, AND THERE WAS A BIG BLACK, BLACK CLOUD COMING IN FROM UP ON THE NORTHEAST.

WE WERE RIGHT AT THE TURN OF A CANYON, DEEP CANYON, I'D SAY PROBABLY 60 FOOT DEEP FROM THE TOP DOWN TO THE BOTTOM--OR MORE THAN THAT.

AND WHEN THAT THING CAME OVER, I RUN INTO THE HOUSE AND I TOLD THEM, I SAYS, "THERE'S A BIG BLACK CLOUD COMING OUT THERE."

EVERYBODY SAYS, "THERE'S NO CLOUDS OUT THERE."

IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL SUNNY DAY.

BY THE TIME THEY GOT TO THE DOOR, IT WAS JUST BLACK.

EVERYTHING WAS BLACK.

YOU COULDN'T SEE ANYTHING.

Narrator: THE RESIDENTS AROUND NO MAN'S LAND ALREADY HAD 4 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE WITH DUST STORMS OF ALL KINDS, BUT TO A PERSON, THIS ONE SEEMED DIFFERENT-- BIGGER, BLACKER, MORE SINISTER.

Robertson: WE SAW THIS CLOUD COMING IN.

IT WOULD JUST ROLL IN-- BLACK, BLACK DIRT.

AND I'LL NEVER FORGET, MY GRANDMOTHER, SHE WAS PRETTY MUCH CHRISTIAN, AND SHE SAID, "YOU KIDS RUN AND GET TOGETHER.

THE END OF THE WORLD IS COMING."

AND BOY, WE--THAT WAS LAW AND GOSPEL BECAUSE GRANDMA SAID SO.

AND WE ALL GOT TOGETHER, YOU KNOW, AND WE WERE SCARED TO DEATH.

AND THAT CLOUD JUST ROLLED LIKE THAT, JUST KEPT COMING, AND IT JUST GOT DARK AS COULD BE.

Wayne Lewis: WE SAT THERE AND WATCHED IT.

I REMEMBER THE THING ROLLING, THAT IT...

IT WAS LIKE A TORNADO THAT WAS ON ITS SIDE.

Wells: ALL THE BIRDS, EVERYTHING WAS FLYING SOUTH.

WE COULD SEE THIS THING ROLLING IN.

MY BROTHER TOLD ME HE THOUGHT THE END OF THE WORLD WAS COMING.

OF COURSE, THAT SCARED ME HALF TO DEATH, AND I WASN'T SO SURE ABOUT IT.

Narrator: BY NOW, IT WAS EVEN BIGGER THAN THE MONSTROUS "BLACK BLIZZARD"OF 1934, AND AS IT MOVED SOUTH AND EAST ACROSS THE OPEN FIELDS OF KANSAS, OKLAHOMA, AND TEXAS, IT GOT BIGGER STILL.

IT WAS 200 MILES WIDE, MOVING AT 65 MILES PER HOUR, AND IT BEGAN CATCHING MORE AND MORE PEOPLE OUT IN THE OPEN.

TRIXIE TRAVIS BROWN'S FAMILY WAS AT WOLF CREEK, IN THE MIDST OF THEIR PICNIC, 20 MILES FROM HOME.

Brown: WE NOTICED WHAT LOOKED LIKE RAIN CLOUDS FORMING IN THE NORTH.

RAIN CLOUDS HAVE A BLUE CAST TO THEM, A NAVY BLUE CAST, AND THERE WAS NO BLUE IN THIS ONE.

IT WAS BLACK.

WE ALL GOT INTO THE CAR VERY QUICKLY.

DAD AND MOM WET ANYTHING THAT WAS IN THE CAR-- SHIRTS, TOWELS, HANDKERCHIEFS-- PUT EVERYTHING AROUND ALL OF OUR FACES.

AND WHEN IT HIT, THE CAR JUST DID A JIGGLE FROM SIDE TO SIDE.

I DON'T REMEMBER ANY SOUND FROM ANY PEOPLE.

BUT IT WAS BLACK.

IT WAS TOTALLY BLACK.

Narrator: IN GUYMON, OKLAHOMA, THE PARENTS OF BOOTS McCOY HAD DROPPED HIM AND HIS SISTER, RUBY PAULINE, OFF FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL, PROMISING TO PICK THEM UP WHEN SERVICES WERE OVER.

THEN THE STORM HIT.

McCoy: THEY FINALLY STOPPED THE CHURCH BECAUSE IT WAS GETTING SO BAD.

PEOPLE WAS GETTING UP AND LEAVING ANYWAY.

THE PASTOR EXCUSED EVERYBODY WITH A PRAYER, AND AS WE WENT THERE, THEY HAD A RAIL.

I CAN REMEMBER HOLDING THAT RAIL AND HOLDING RUBY'S-- SHE WAS--SHE WAS MORE SCARED THAN I WAS.

SO I JUST TOOK SISTER, AND WE STARTED OFF.

Narrator: THROUGH THE DARKNESS, THEY STRUGGLED TO MAKE THEIR WAY HOME THROUGH BACK ALLEYS AND NEIGHBORS' YARDS, RELYING ON MEMORY MORE THAN EYESIGHT.

THEY FINALLY MADE IT HOME, BUT THE HOUSE WAS EMPTY.

THEIR PARENTS WERE FRANTICALLY SEARCHING FOR THEM OUTSIDE THE CHURCH AND ALONG THE MAIN STREETS.

McCoy: THEN THE FOLKS CAME, AND IT WAS SO DARK IN THE HOUSE THAT THEY COULDN'T SEE US.

MOM WAS CRYING AND HOLLERED THAT WE WEREN'T HOME AND SHE WAS WANTING TO GO BACK TO SEE IF THEY COULD FIND US.

I HOLLERED AND SAID "WE'RE HOME,"YOU KNOW, AND IT RELIEVED THEM QUITE A LOT.

THEN WE ALL JUST--JUST SAT, AND MOM JUST CRIED.

WE HAD TO HUG MOM A LOT TO GET HER TO HUSH.

Shaw: THEY HAD JUST COMPLETED THE FUNERAL.

THEY HAD TAKEN RUTH NELL BACK ACROSS THE STREET FROM ST. PAUL'S METHODIST CHURCH TO THE FUNERAL HOME, AND THEY HAD JUST SENT THE FUNERAL PROCESSION WITH GRANDMA LOU OFF TOWARDS TEXHOMA.

THEY GOT ABOUT... A LITTLE BIT MORE THAN 6 MILES OUT OF BOISE CITY WHEN THE FUNERAL PROCESSION SAW THE BLACK DUSTER BEHIND THEM.

Narrator: HAZEL LUCAS SHAW AND HER HUSBAND HAD NOT ACCOMPANIED THE CARAVAN OF CARS HEADED FOR GRANDMA LOU'S GRAVESIDE SERVICE.

THEY HAD REMAINED BEHIND, NOT WANTING TO LEAVE THE BODY OF RUTH NELL.

THEIR YOUNG NIECE, CAROL, HAD BEEN TOLD TO STAY WITH THEM.

MY COUSIN HAD BEEN WITH DAD AND MOM, AND SHE'D GONE OUTSIDE THE HOUSE, AND SHE SAW THE BLACK DUSTER COMING.

SHE WAS JUST A LITTLE TYKE IN THE GRADES, I DON'T KNOW, PROBABLY 6, 7 YEARS OLD.

SO SHE HEADED FOR HOME, WHICH WAS ABOUT 5 OR 6 BLOCKS AWAY.

BY THE TIME THE DUSTER HIT, DAD DISCOVERED THAT SHE WAS GONE.

HE HOPED THAT SHE HAD GOTTEN HOME ALL RIGHT, BUT WHEN ONE OF THOSE BLACK DUSTERS HIT, THE STATIC ELECTRICITY WAS SO TERRIBLE THAT YOU COULDN'T MAKE A TELEPHONE CALL.

THERE WASN'T SUCH A THING AS RINGING UP YOUR BROTHER AND ASKING IF THEIR CHILD HAD GOTTEN HOME ALL RIGHT.

SO DAD GOT HIS FLASHLIGHT.

HE GOT DOWN ON HIS STOMACH, AND HE ELBOWED HIS WAY UNDERNEATH THE DUST.

THE VISIBILITY WAS SLIGHT.

YOU COULD SEE A LITTLE BIT UNDERNEATH THE DUST.

SO HE ELBOWED HIS WAY THOSE 5 BLOCKS TO HIS BROTHER'S HOUSE.

FORTUNATELY, CAROL WAS THERE, AND SHE HAD ARRIVED HOME SAFELY.

BUT DAD DIDN'T WANT TO WORRY MOM, SO HE CRAWLED ON HIS STOMACH THE 5 BLOCKS BACK TO THE FUNERAL HOME.

IN THE MEANTIME, THE FUNERAL PROCESSION THAT HAD STARTED TO TEXHOMA TURNED AROUND AND RETURNED.

IN ORDER TO FIND A ROAD BACK, THERE WERE 4 MEN IN WHITE SHIRTS THAT HELD HANDS AND STRETCHED THEMSELVES ACROSS THE WIDTH OF THE ROAD, AND THE LEAD CAR GOT RIGHT BEHIND THEM.

TOOK THEM A NUMBER OF HOURS TO GET BACK THAT WAY THE 6 OR SO MILES THEY HAD TO WALK BACK.

THAT'S AS FAST AS THE PROCESSION CAME BACK.

I THINK THEY GOT BACK ABOUT 10:00 THAT NIGHT.

Narrator: APRIL 14, 1935, CAME TO BE CALLED "BLACK SUNDAY," AND NO ONE WHO LIVED THROUGH IT WOULD EVER FORGET THE STORM'S SIZE OR FEROCITY-- OR WHAT THEY DID TO SURVIVE IT.

AFTER HUDDLING IN THEIR PARKED CAR WHILE THE BLACKNESS ENGULFED THEM, TRIXIE BROWN'S FAMILY INCHED THEIR WAY HOME.

Brown: WE COULDN'T GET INTO THE HOUSE.

THE DUST AND DIRT WAS SO HIGH THAT WE COULDN'T OPEN THE SCREEN DOOR.

SO DAD HAD TO GO TO THE GARAGE TO GET A SHOVEL, AND HE HAD TO SHOVEL THE DIRT AWAY FROM THE SCREEN DOOR BEFORE WE COULD GET IN.

WE HAD LEFT THE HOUSE OPEN BECAUSE MOTHER SAID, "WE'LL AIR OUT THINGS."

SO THE HOUSE WAS TOTALLY LOADED WITH DIRT.

Arguello: BY SUNDOWN, BECAUSE THIS HAPPENED ABOUT 1:30 WHEN THAT THING CAME OFF THE TOP OF THAT CANYON, AND BY SUNDOWN, IT HAD GONE PAST AND IT WAS JUST AS RED AS IT COULD BE TO THE WEST, YOU KNOW, WHERE THE SUN WAS HITTING IT.

BUT IT WAS JUST RED ALL OVER.

MY GRANDMOTHER SCARED THE TAR OUT OF ME.

I WENT OUT THERE, AND I SAID, "WHAT IS THAT, ALL THAT RED OUT THERE, COMING ON THE WEST SIDE?"

SHE SAID, "IT'S FIRE, FIRE.

THE WORLD'S COMING TO AN END."

AND I WENT AND CRAWLED UNDER THE BED.

McCoy: THEY WERE TOUGH TIMES-- REALLY, REALLY TOUGH TIMES.

DEATHLY SCARY, YOU KNOW.

AN EERIE, EERIE TIME FOR OLDER PEOPLE AND US KIDS, YOU KNOW.

WE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT THE DEVIL WAS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT.

Narrator: WITHIN A MONTH, BOTH BOOTS McCOY AND HIS SISTER RUBY PAULINE WOULD COME DOWN WITH DUST PNEUMONIA.

HE WOULD SUFFER LUNG AILMENTS THE REST OF HIS LIFE.

SHE DIED BEFORE SUMMER ARRIVED.

McCoy: SHE WAS MY BEST BUDDY.

YEAH.

WE WENT THROUGH THEM HARD TIMES TOGETHER, YOU KNOW?

Narrator: "AT LEAST," HER MOTHER SAID, "SHE WON'T HAVE TO LIVE THROUGH ANOTHER DUST STORM."

BY CHANCE, A REPORTER FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NAMED ROBERT GEIGER HAD BEEN IN NO MAN'S LAND ON BLACK SUNDAY AND MANAGED TO FIND SHELTER IN BOISE CITY DURING THE WORST OF THE STORM.

THE STORY GEIGER FILED THE NEXT DAY BEGAN, "THREE LITTLE WORDS-- "ACHINGLY FAMILIAR ON A WESTERN FARMER'S TONGUE-- "RULE LIFE TODAY IN THE DUST BOWL OF THE CONTINENT-- IF IT RAINS..." BUT INSTEAD OF FOCUSING ON THOSE 3 LITTLE WORDS, "IF IT RAINS," MORE PEOPLE FASTENED ONTO THE 3 WORDS HE HAD USED TO DESCRIBE THE PLACE THAT RAIN HAD FORSAKEN: "THE DUST BOWL."

IT WAS THE FIRST TIME ANYONE HAD USED THAT TERM.

Riney-Kehrberg: BLACK SUNDAY IS THE DIRT STORM THAT EVERYBODY REMEMBERED.

IT WAS SO MUCH DARKER, SO MUCH MORE INTENSE, SO MUCH SCARIER THAN MOST OF THE OTHERS HAD BEEN.

AND I DON'T THINK THAT IT'S REALLY ANY COINCIDENCE THAT THE OUTWARD MIGRATION OF THOSE WHO WERE GOING TO GO CAME AFTER BLACK SUNDAY.

Narrator: IN THE MONTHS TO COME, DUST STORMS WOULD CONTINUE TO WREAK HAVOC ACROSS THE SOUTHERN PLAINS, WHILE THE PRESIDENT AND HIS ADMINISTRATION WOULD STRUGGLE TO COME UP WITH NEW STRATEGIES TO MEET THE CRISIS.

IN THE HEART OF THE DUST BOWL, MANY FAMILIES WOULD DESPERATELY TRY TO HANG ON, BUT SOME WOULD RELUCTANTLY DECIDE TO LEAVE THEIR HOMES BEHIND AND TRY TO BEGIN A NEW LIFE SOMEWHERE ELSE.

AMONG THEM WOULD BE A 22-YEAR-OLD ITINERANT SONGWRITER WHO HAD FOUND REFUGE FROM THE FURY OF BLACK SUNDAY IN A SMALL HOUSE WITH HIS FAMILY AND FRIENDS IN PAMPA, TEXAS, JUST SOUTH OF NO MAN'S LAND.

HIS NAME WAS WOODY GUTHRIE.

Woody Guthrie: WE WATCHED THE DUST STORM COME UP, LIKE THE RED SEA CLOSING IN ON THE ISRAEL CHILDREN, AND I'M TELLING YOU, IT GOT SO BLACK WHEN THAT THING HIT, WE ALL RUN INTO THE HOUSE.

AND A LOT OF THE PEOPLE IN THE CROWD THAT WAS RELIGIOUS-MINDED AND THEY WAS UP PRETTY WELL ON THEIR SCRIPTURES, AND THEY SAID, "WELL, BOYS, GIRLS, FRIENDS, AND RELATIVES, "THIS IS THE END.

THIS IS THE END OF THE WORLD."

AND EVERYBODY JUST SAID, "WELL, SO LONG.

IT'S BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YOU."

I MADE UP A LITTLE SONG.

♫SO LONG, IT'S BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YA♫ ♫SO LONG, BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YA♫ ♫SO LONG, IT'S BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YA♫ ♫THIS DUSTY OLD DUST IS A-BLOWIN' ME HOME♫ ♫I'VE GOT TO BE ROLLIN' ALONG♫ ♫I'LL SING THIS SONG, BUT I'LL SING IT AGAIN♫ ♫OF THE PLACE THAT I LIVED ON THE WEST TEXAS PLAINS♫ ♫IN THE CITY OF PAMPA IN THE COUNTY OF GRAY♫ ♫HERE'S WHAT ALL OF THE PEOPLE THERE SAY♫ ♫WELL, IT'S SO LONG, BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YA♫ ♫SO LONG, IT'S BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YA♫ ♫SO LONG...♫ Announcer: NEXT TIME ON "THE DUST BOWL"... Man: GRASSHOPPERS MOSTLY WERE CRAWLING.

Announcer: A NEW PLAGUE DESCENDS ON THE SOUTHERN PLAINS.

Man: THEY ATE EVERYTHING IN SIGHT.

Announcer: SOME FAMILIES PULL UP STAKES AND MOVE ON.

WE HAD NOTHING LEFT.

THERE WAS NO REASON TO STAY.

Announcer: AND A PRESIDENT MUST DECIDE IF THE PLAINS CAN BE SAVED.

Man: "MR. PRESIDENT, LET'S JUST GET OUT."

Franklin Roosevelt: UNLESS IMMEDIATE STEPS ARE TAKEN, WE SHALL HAVE ON OUR HANDS A NEW MANMADE SAHARA.

Narrator: DON'T MISS THE CONCLUSION OF "THE DUST BOWL" Esperanza Spalding: ONE TREMENDOUS THING ABOUT PBS IS THAT IT MAKES ART ACCESSIBLE BY PUTTING IT ON A PLATFORM WHERE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE CAN ACCESS IT FOR FREE.

AND WE NEED IT.

WE NEED MUSIC.

WE NEED DANCE.

WE NEED GREAT THEATER.

FOR OUR SOUL.

FOR JOY IN OUR LIVES.

A LOT OF PEOPLE FLIP ON PBS AND HEAR OR SEE SOMETHING THAT WAKES UP THAT INTEGRAL PART OF BEING A HUMAN BEING WHICH IS ENJOYING THE ARTS OF OTHER HUMAN BEINGS.

SO I'M GRATEFUL FOR PBS AS AN ARTIST AND AS A VIEWER.

Announcer: TO LEARN MORE ABOUT "THE DUST BOWL," WATCH WEB-EXCLUSIVE VIDEOS, EXPLORE OUR PHOTO GALLERY, AND GO BEHIND THE SCENES WITH THE PRODUCERS OF THE FILM, VISIT US ONLINE AT PBS.ORG/DUSTBOWL.

THE DUST BOWL IS AVAILABLE ON DVD OR BLU-RAY.

THE COMPANION BOOK IS ALSO AVAILABLE.

TO ORDER, VISIT SHOPPBS.ORG OR CALL 1-800-PLAYPBS.

ALSO AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD FROM iTUNES.

♫...IT'S BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YA♫ ♫SO LONG, IT'S BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YA♫ ♫SO LONG, IT'S BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YA♫ ♫THIS DUSTY OLD DUST IS A-ROLLIN' ME HOME♫ ♫GOT TO BE DRIFTIN' ALONG♫ nouncer: FUNDING FOR THIS PROGRAM IS PROVIDED BY: MEMBERS OF THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY, DEDICATED TO HELPING KEN BURNS TELL AMERICA'S STORIES, INCLUDING THE DANA A. HAMEL FAMILY CHARITABLE TRUST, AND ROBERT AND BEVERLY GRAPPONE; THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS FOUNDATIONS, DEDICATED TO STRENGTHENING AMERICA'S FUTURE THROUGH EDUCATION; THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES, EXPLORING THE HUMAN ENDEAVOR; THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION; THE WALLACE GENETIC FOUNDATION; THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING AND BY CONTRIBUTIONS TO YOUR PBS STATION FROM VIEWERS LIKE YOU.

THANK YOU.