Comments on: Dry Facts

By: Jeff Nilsson

Jeff Nilsson — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:05:33 +0000

I’ve found two sources that both report that same price. Throughout the 1930s, they say, land sold at $200 an acre.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 03:35:40 +0000

Does anyone know how much 10 acres of farmland was worth during the Great Depression? What was the average purchase amount?

By: Virginia Frantz

Virginia Frantz — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 02:02:19 +0000

I remember the dirt storms clearly. We lived in the middle of the Oklahoma Panhandle. Hardly anyone had two quarters to rub together. Some days the dust was so bad and the sky so dark that one actually could not see his hand at arm’s end. One day I remember striking a match to look at the wall clock. It was noon. Why I wanted to know the time, I don’t know; because we certainly were not going anywhere and it was too dark to do anything. We went on living our lives though. There was sharing, and kindness, singing and laughter. The human spirit is mighty hard to squelch.

By: Ima Ryma

Ima Ryma — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 07:55:20 +0000

My family’s been on this land
For generations, and we’ve known
Good and bad times, and understand
Both ways are how the winds are blown.
It’s like that Aesop’s fable old
Of the grasshopper and the ants.
In the good times the ants did hold
Provision for bad happenstance.
The grasshopper did not so be,
And felt the pain of nature’s way.
We are the ants, my family,
Upon this land, we’re here to stay.

Dust bowls will ever come and go.
Those of us who endure them, know.