An Eyewitness Account
Lawrence Svobida, a wheat farmer from Kansas, witnessed first-hand the searing
drought and relentless winds that crippled the southern Great Plains during the
1930's. His vivid account is taken from his memoir, "Farming the Dust Bowl."
"...I believe any man must see beauty in mile upon mile of level land
where the wheat, waist high, sways to the slightest breeze and is turning a
golden yellow under a flaming July sun. To me it is breathtaking, the most
beautiful scene in all the world."
"...With the gales came the dust. Sometimes it was so thick that it
completely hid the sun. Visibility ranged from nothing to fifty feet, the
former when the eyes were filled with dirt which could not be avoided, even
with goggles."
"...When I knew that my crop was irrevocably gone I experienced a
deathly feeling which, I hope, can affect a man only once in a lifetime. My
dreams and ambitions had been flouted by nature, and my shattered ideals seemed
gone forever. The very desire to make a success of my life was gone; the spirit
and urge to strive were dead within me. Fate had dealt me a cruel blow above
which I felt utterly unable to rise."
"...At other times a cloud is seen to be approaching from a distance of
many miles. Already it has the banked appearance of a cumulus cloud, but it is
black instead of white, and it hangs low, seeming to hug the earth. Instead of
being slow to change its form, it appears to be rolling on itself from the
crest downward. As it sweeps onward, the landscape is progressively blotted
out. Birds fly in terror before the storm, and only those that are strong of
wing may escape. The smaller birds fly until they are exhausted, then fall to
the ground, to share the fate of the thousands of jack rabbits which perish
from suffocation."
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