Biggest surprise to me was how much water the tumbleweeds deprive “cash crops” of. I’m almost 82 and still consider any day I learn something new a good day. Every time I tune in to The History Guy, I learn something I didn’t know before! Thanks History Guy!
The day you stop learning is that the day you stopped living, but it may take your body a few years/decades to realize that fact and catch up with you. 63 here and just learned that Tumble Weeds are not a native species to North America and that Cottonwood Trees aka Poplars are actual a native species to my Province, though I was told otherwise decades ago.
They don't bother to mention how much their plants consume in comparison, do they. But our Bow Tie here just told you that the Species Survived the Dust Bowl, the single largest mismanagement of airable land in History. So it MUST consume LESS water than ALL "Cash Crops." This is what happens when you don't put 2 and 2 together, you stay 2.
@@truthsRsung Or it is better at accessing said water resources and maximizing its consumption of said resource. It could also be better adapted at withstanding drought conditions and their seeds could have to the ability to lay dormant for a longer period, allowing them to germinate once rain returns. But you are correct, much of the so-called staple crops we grow on a rather industrial scale do demand an incredible amount of water, which is why many part of the US grain belt and southern produce producing areas have been water stressed for a long time now.
When I was 13 in 1974, me and a couple of friends thought we'd do the community we lived in a great service and collect all the tumbleweeds in the neighborhood, piling them up in a vacant lot, three stories high. We were so proud of our feat that we called the local newspaper to come and record the fact, but they declined. The next day a big wind storm blew up and all of our tumbleweeds were scattered into nearby lawns and driveways. That's when the local news got interested, running a story about how three local boys caused havoc in the hood. Lol.
The Outer Limits episode "Cry of Silence" involving animate, killer tumbleweeds featured an actress named June *Havoc*, as well as Eddie Albert who went on to the " Green Acres" TV series.
The lot of our first home in Phoenix was newly claimed from the desert when we moved in. Come Spring I was delighted to see our 5000 square foot back yard covered with green. You guessed it: it was all tumbleweeds! Through the Spring it matured into a jungle three feet high. In Summer it turned into tinder. I brought out a cheap charcoal grill and lit a small fire. With a rake, I snapped the evil plants at ground level and rolled them into the flames; a tumbleweed was gone in perhaps three seconds. When the yard was cleared, the detritus measured less than a cupful.
I grew up in Arizona and these things can be a real annoyance. Seen literally a hundred miles of 12 ft high walls of tumbleweeds stuck to the fences crossing the reservation. Some of them can be 6 ft around and weigh quite a lot if dried mud is stuck to them. Hitting them at high speed, as they often just blow across the road from nowhere and very difficult to avoid, can break your lights, even crack a radiator. Or worse, go under the vehicle to get stuck on your exhaust just to be a serious fire risk. But I too did not realize they weren't native, learned something today, thanks.
Lived in Sierra Vista, AZ for nearly 25 years - and I've hit my share of them blowing across the road...loved having them EXPLODE when I hit them on I-10.
I grew up in Arizona as well. I purchased a home on two acres full of tumble weed. What a pain to be rid of. I too, didn't know they weren't native. Thanks
You can always rely upon "The History Guy" to have a curious and interesting history lesson. Sometimes, like in this case, we learn about something we generally ignore. Tumble weeds, who would have thought they were really so bad? Now, if we were talking about Kudzu. Some once told me that "Kudzu was the only plant that you could take out 50 yards from the house, plant it in the ground, and it would beat you back to the house". He wasn't off by much.
Paper Mulberry. A tree, with runners, that can outrun a man. The only way I've found to get rid of them - ALONG WITH the physical yanking and pulling - is concentrated Roundup, painted to the freshly cut trunk, 1" above the ground, and even the dead trunk won't go away until you dig it out.
After growing up in the Rocky Mountain region I ended up moving to Atlanta, Georgia for a couple years. One of the first things I noticed when I got there was just how green everything was. Upon closer inspection I noticed that a fair part of that beautiful green scenery consisted of a plant that had climbed and twisted itself like a vine around everything in sight. I found out from the locals that it was called "Kudzu". There were places outside of the city where there were areas where it grew so thick that some of the telephone poles appeared to be in danger of being pulled down by all the kudzu. I had heard of invasive plant species before but that was the first time I was able to see how damaging they are to native ecosystems..🌳🌿🍃
As a child of the 50's, we played in tumbleweed "forts". One year our Christmas tree was tumbleweeds stacked on one another. Along with music from the Sons of the Pioneers, it all makes for good memories.
I remember burning the tumbleweeds along fences. Some farmers had special wagons with a burner they would pull behind a tractor and burn the weeds on the move. This probably accelerated the move to metal fence posts.
@@Oilfieldscout , sagging from heat is an excellent point; I hadn't considered that. And, fire will accelerate rusting. I wouldn't think burning tumbleweeds along a barbed wire fence, even if the posts are metal, to be a good tactic unless you're prepared to replace a lot of wire prematurely.
The drivers’ tumbleweed wind scale 1. The tumbleweed rolls across the highway typically up to 15 miles an hour. 2. The tumbleweed bounces as it goes across the highway. Typically 15 to 30 miles an hour. 3. The tumbleweed flies over the highway, rarely bouncing. Typically over 30 miles an hour.
Hollywood would never be the same once the first tumbleweeds rolled onto the set. While driving on Interstate 215 in California during a very windy day, I collided with a rolling tumbleweed that was bigger than the Honda Civic that I was in. The explosion was fantastic!
Canadian here. I've occasionally wondered how much of a road hazard tumbleweeds pose. I always imagined them to be more "twiggy" than "grassy," and thought they might do damage if struck at high speed. From you comment, do you mean that they simply blow apart when you hit them?
@@adreabrooks11 yes they do just blow apart, (for the most part, some smaller pieces might still cling together stuck to the vehicle on mirrors or windshield wipers.) They're very fragile. Also, they can (and did) leave multiple superficial scratches in the paint. So, generally speaking, if driving at high speeds down a highway (or somewhere like that) it's safer to just plow through them than to hit the brakes or swerve which could cause multiple vehicles to collide with each other; a much more dangerous situation.
Wow, I am 68 years young, I always thought the Tumbleweed was a Western USA plant, because of the 1960's & 70's TV Westerns & the song by the Sons of the Pioneers - Tumbling Tumbleweeds. Thanks for the History Lesson.
Is the consumption Large? What info were you given in comparison? At 15:40 he quoted evidence that the plant was able to grow unsupervised, while enduring cattle grazing, with little rainfall. I'd bet that places where this plant had rooted have More Topsoil than where humans had managed their land with Pure Force. Harmony and Eradication don't belong in any Government Document, ever.
They bring water to the surface and provide shade. I would say their damage as a growing plant is countered by their benefits. But, of course, like feral horses, they consume resources that would otherwise be used by rarer and rarer native species.
Tumble weeds burn like a gas torch, when dry. To safely burn tumblweeds, turn them bottom side up. The hollow stem structure form a natual chimney. Turning the weed upside down defeats the chimney effect.
Two problems with burning tumbleweeds; with large piles, the fire can easily get out of hand and create a "wild fire", and at least in California, in most areas it's illegal to burn off weeds and dead grass of any kind because of air pollution concerns. Anyone caught doing so can be fined a hefty amount, and they are financially liable for the cost of extinguishing a wild fire started by their tumbleweed burning, as well for any and all property damage resulting from the fire.
@@oldgysgt Break them off from the ground first. I had great success with a rake and charcoal grill. A windless day is a must, but with that caveat the fire is easily controlled.
@@flagmichael; in the past, California has suffered some very destructive wild fires caused by people who thought they could "control" their burn. But now, with the severe restrictions on open burning in California, burning tumbling weeds, or any other plant pest, is liable to result in a large fine. I'm not defending these restrictions, but that is the present state of affairs in California. Last winter I was forbidden to use my home fireplace to help heat my house because my fireplace insert is no longer on the list of State approved inserts. I could have done it anyway, but if someone had complained I could have been fined big-time by the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution District. You can imagine what they would say about open burning a large pile of tumbleweeds.
This was a good one. Seriously. I wasn't sure what to expect when I saw the episode was about tumbleweeds, but you nailed it. I knew nothing about tumbleweeds and you somehow made it a fascinating history/bio lesson.
I remember learning the tumbleweed was an invasive plant from Russia. I was surprised since so much imagery shows tumbleweeds are an iconic symbol of the west.
Yuri Bezminov knew that there would be enough “useful idiots” to rewrite history…to the point our society willingly (even exuberantly) incorporating the these hijackers into the very iconography of our nation! It’s easy to become discouraged when you see such things unfold…but do not loose heart! Not everything is as it appears! Truly…I believe…LOVE conquers ALL. The hidden hand may have a strategy that spans generations, but the ultimate power over ALL things transcends time itself…even created it! Do that which you know is within your ability to do, and leave the rest for those warring/sparring/dueling/“authorities” to work out. Brothers and sisters, we are. Bonded together in perfect love, who can stand against us? No not one. Shall we? Let’s! 🤍⚖️💎🪔⚓️⚔️🛡️🧬📯🔗🌀🔔🏳️⌛️🦯🪘♟️🪈🏆🎟️🪃🍷🍯🍼🥚🌊💨🌪️🌈🌕☀️💫⚡️🌱🐉🪶🕊️🦋🦅🪖🪢🪡🫀🧠🫡
@@RemyJackson , There was an episode of the Outer Limits where a husband (played by Eddy Arnold) and wife took refuge in an old shack after their car broke down out west somewhere. An alien presence half buried the shack in tumbleweeds so they couldn't escape and tried to communicate with them, first using croaking frogs and then telepathically.
I have seen tumble weeds that were as big as a school bus. It's been a while living here in Las Vegas as of late they won't be any larger than a Mail truck.
You're exaggerating and I've seen them for a lifetime. It's the kind of false fact that claims your 'expertise' and egotistical nature. Puffs you ego and then gets spread around by others as fact. This size never happens for a solid reason but you can't explain why Mr. False. Go back in your hole.
I am 75 come October, I have know about Russian tumble weed sense 1968 because it was on the list of invasive plants available to farmers and ranchers to aid in land management programs. It was a long list even then . Now, it is 6500+ different species of problem causing plants.
I live in Southern California. In the 1950's tumbleweeds would blow down our street and pile up against fences and the newly-built 5 Freeway. Beginning in September, the yearly Santa Ana winds would create small dust devils and send tumbleweeds and fluff from Pampas Grass (another invasive species) swirling around everywhere. The tumbleweeds would blow across our school yard and collect against the far fence. The school would have huge bonfires to get rid of all their carcasses. Late November, some people would use them as lawn ornaments. They would stack three of them and paint them white - snowmen for a snowless landscape. The "Outer Limits" TV series demonized them in its episode "Cry of Silence". But to me as a small child, when Western series ruled television, I thought they were magical.
Me, too! l live in San Diego and am retired. Long ago when l attended Spring Valley Jr. high. We lived in Casa de Oro when it was a newly built area. No houses at the end of our street but lots of tumble weeds! l remember being told that they could be eaten when very small. Wow------ memories...
Is that the Outer Limits episode where a husband (played by Eddie Albert) and his wife have a car breakdown and are trapped in an abandoned shack by an alien presence which surrounds them with tumbleweeds and thousands of croaking frogs?
@@milosterwheeler2520 , I'll have to see if it's on TH-cam somewhere. I miss Outer Limits, and the original Twilight Zone. Night Gallery had its moments as well.....
My home on the Westside of Albuquerque was loved by the infamous tumble weed gang. One year my whole house was completely covered with tumble weeds and burning was the only way to get rid of them. Out of all of my neighbors, I was the only house that was invaded and battered. I was cursed....
"Rushin' hands and roamin' *stingers* "! (For those younger than myself who might not get the reference, it was once said that a guy who would get unwantedly grabby with his date had "Russian hands and Roman fingers".)
Dried tumbleweeds are highly flammable and are have known to create fire tornadoes when the flames come racing across the plains. I did a college project on invasive species and this was one of the plants. In keeping with the "South Dakota's Least Wanted" promotional thing they did a few years back, I put faces on the photos and had them holding ID numbers like they'd lined up for a mug shot. There's a few of them here in the black hills, but not as much as the surrounding areas. I'm a plant nerd, and I approve this message.
Honestly this is the first time I ever heard the tumbleweed is an invasive species from Russia. I would bet probably 90% of the U.S does not know this. Thank you for posting.
I used a Tumbleweed for a Christmas Trees ..for there aren't trees out here. Also had a pet Tumblweed spray painted it as not loose my little friend, he stayed with my pet Rock
Fascinating. Having spent time helping out after Hurricane Katrina, I went to visit friends in west Texas. I asked the question that hurricanes kill you in south Texas, tornadoes in north Texas, what kills you in west Texas? The answer was 'tumbleweed'. I thought it was a joke until we were barricaded by them in the house one night. I had no idea they could grow so big. Draughting by trains has led to corridors of certain plants now considered by many as indigenous species in Britain too. Buddleia, is a classic, but by no means unique. The Victorians' love of imported 'exotics' introduced them; the railways drew them through the country. My late Victorian grandfather, head gardener at a large country house, had a saying: 'one year's seeding is seven years' weeding'. Three years won't do it if you're clearing ground.
My favorite invading tumbleweeds were the ones animated by a difuse alien intelligence. In an episode of the original 63-65 TV series The Outer Limits.
In BC, we have an invasive plant species that was brought in as decorative plant, the Scotch Broom.....while rather pretty, its scent is not so nice and it has spead across the Province and can be found growing in large clumps along the highway in the wild.
I was a resident of the Lemon Grove and Spring Valley area in the 1960s as mentioned in the video. The tumbleweeds were terrible where we lived. When the Santa Ana winds would blow from the east, we'd get tumbleweeds piled 10 feet high like a snow drift against the house and property. Expansion of housing developments to the east of our property finally eliminated the problem by the 80s, as it became someone else's problem further to the east. Gloves and long sleeves were essential in their removal.
I remember times when strong westerly winds blew tumbleweeds into Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Twin Cities were at the eastern edge of the prairies. The tumbleweeds would just get pushed east if the winds were blowing strongly over the western plains.
Scientists are planning to introduce at least two fungi that parasitize tumbleweeds., and do not consume any other thistle species. They are Colletotrichum salsolae and Uromyces salsolae. Other fungi are, also, being studied. Great video, keep up the good work.
Kochia and russian thistle are incredibly invasive AND quickly becoming immune to most pesticides. I have recently seen whole sections of poorly managed crop land literally covered with the stuff. And now with the wind have dropped seeds for up to 100 timed the area.
Once on a road trip, when my then 5 year old daughter saw her first tumbleweed cried out: "Look, Daddy at the haybale rolling across the road!" I will never forget it.
THIS IS MY FAVORITE EPISODE YET! I live in the TRi-Cities Washington and was raised in the town of Eltopia just a few miles away, situated on the Northern Pacific RR mainline (now BNSF) 120 miles south of Spokane. I'm 65 and retired, but in my youth, as a farmers son, I pulled, chopped, pitchforked, burned and hoed what seemed like thousands of thistles along furlongs of fence line. This also included forking them from around sheds, barns and houses on a calm day, far enough away to safely burn. Practically every summer our local newspaper runs a story or two of side roads blocked off for a couple of days until the county can burn them clear. You mentioned chandeliers. Here in eastern Washington we also have the traditional "TUMBLEWEED CHRISTMAS TREE". Like the chandeliers they are festooned with lights. However we usually try for three tiers high and use four or five cans of flocked snow. They're quite festive. REALLY! 😅 OH. One more story. In 1976 l was a pump jockey at the local gas station. A car with New Jersey license plates came in. In the back seat was a very large tumble weed. My coworker asked the man why he had it. "OH, I'M TAKING IT HOME. THEY'VE NEVER SCENE ANYTHING LIKE THIS"! 😂
Tumbleweed is also a problem in Australia. I first became aware of it many years ago in reading a detective novel by Arthur Upfield in his "Bony" series where it was an important factor. Those books are delightful reads. There are many species of tumbleweed, all apparently from Russia and Siberia. You mentioned US-Russia relations. It was after WWI when relations became antagonistic. Near the end of the war, the US sent troops to attack Russia in the north at Arkhangelsk and in the east at Vladivostok instead of bringing them home. That invasion lasted nearly two years and is history that deserves to be remembered.
This is my favorite trivia fact, I've thought at least 100 people this. So glad you are doing a video about this. FYI i live in Colorado and go to Cheyenne regularly so tumbleweeds are a constant.
Looks like you were able to resolve your video software issue, Lance. Look forward to seeing future videos! A topic suggestion I had was a report into the history of inks and writing instruments.
YES! Plant history!! I am all about it. I would love to see an entire playlist of plant history some day (apologiesif you'vecovered any already): decorative plants gone wrong (Japanese knotweed & kudzu), moss, 'American' foods (e.g. vs Mediterranean) (sweet/potatoes, corn, carrots, cliche stuff), endangered plants -how it got that way,
I was happy to see this video! I used to live near Phoenix in the west valley and miss seeing the tumbleweeds, especially on I-10. This history is so interesting 🤗
I was training at the NTC near Boise Idaho. We had high winds for a couple of days. The whole countryside seemed to come alive with tumble weed. Everywhere you looked brown round rolling bushes for as the eye could see.
@@Svensk7119 It's next to Gowan AFB. We used the barracks at the base and had a field encampment near our tanks. It was just building up at the time. About 1990.
We drove to South Dakota in 2009 from NC. We took the long way there - through Missouri, Kansas and Colorado before going briefly through Wyoming.....while in Wyoming we encountered an attack by Tumbleweeds. We were in a Mustang , so low-ish to the ground. There was a wind storm and tumbleweeds were blowing everywhere - and there were so damn many of them! We had to pull off the road it was so bad. We still talk about that experience now....
Long Live the History Guy. Love your clever creative presentation of what many would find boring topics, you have found facts to create an entertaining subject. I even found history in poorly taught Public Schools, interesting.
This could be the start of a series - episodes on kudzu, periwinkle, English ivy, Japanese knotweed, and Bradford pear trees (and its uncultivated hybrids) should follow.
And on the animal side of the coin, SA fire ants, carp, starlings, feral hogs, and, yes, precious to many, feral horses have killed hundreds, if not thousands of native American species.
@@ernestsmith3581 There are probably more invasive animals than plants - flat worms, africanized "killer" bees, Asian hornets, Burmese pythons, monitor lizards, to name but a few, and the last two are part of what could be a separate series of its own - invasive animals in Florida.
@neilm9630 In SC it's no longer legal to plant Bradford pears, and they are discouraged in NC and several other states. Here in NC if you provide evidence of a felled/ removed Bradford pear the state will give you a replacement native tree; think the limit is three trees per person/home.
Around 10 years ago, in central Washington state north of Sunnyside, on a rural road passing through a gully the Tumbleweeds compltely buried a section of Washington route 24. People drove through it were buried and trapped for several hours before emergency crews could dig them out. I hate them
Oh man I hate that weed. I’m in WY and I battle it yearly. I have a newly constructed home and the natural land that was displaced during excavation is very problematic. I’m on year 3 of battling. I find pulling it up manually works the best before seeding. I remove and or burn them. Ugh.
I was driving back from a visit to Utah to Boise Idaho when a windstorm blowing so hard that the dust and what seems like millions of tumbleweeds caused me to drive off the side of the interstate to get off the road to avoid being driven into but other traffic not slowing down for the near zero visibility due to the amount of debris blocking a safe view. It took me nearly 7 days to remove all of the pieces of tumble weed stuck in front end of the pickup that I was driving. The tumble weeds were so high that they covered the hood of the truck covering the windshield. It was amazing to watch!
I lived in AZ for nearly 25 years so I am intimately familiar with tumbleweeds. I live in Sierra Vista, and built a house there in 1996. We were on the edge of the development so all the dirt was disturbed enough for tumbleweeds to thrive. We moved into the house in July but in October, the winds really kicked up. I noticed "things" dropping into our back yard and when I went to check it out, I could see the back yard was filling up with tumbleweeds that there literally dropping out of the sky into our yard! (we had a 6' brick wall around the property). I ran out with large rake and attempted to get them over the way but the wind just kept bringing in more and more and more and before it was all said and done, our property covered by tumbleweeds to a dept of 6'!
Tumbleweeds clogged the canal that takes Colorado River water to Los Angeles. In the 1950s a friend of mine had a summer job running a speedboat up and down collecting them and pitching them over the fence. It was steady work.
In 1968, I pranked my new wife when taking her to our new home in California from her home in Virginia. I knew what they were, and she had no idea at all. We were in a Corvair traveling west on Highway 80 when I spotted one, larger than the car, rolling straight down toward us on the road. I didn't say anything and simply drove right through it. I don't think she ever forgave me for that one.
As a kid in NM we used to run out in front of the big ones during recess lay down and let them roll over us; no idea why or who even came up with the idea, just something boys did in the mid 1960s. Some of them were huge 6 foot plus around I remember a vacant field in the neighborhood where we stacked a great big pile of them then hollowed it out for a fort. Without the tumble weed Louis L'Amour couldn't have written the book Conagher how else could the lonely woman have sent notes expressing her loneliness?
I am from the South Plains of Texas. These are known to me as Iron weeds. They are gard to chop and will choke up a brush cutter. These are the worst to deal with. My skin itches just thinking about them.
Very interesting video, as always.. also i got my THG shirt recognized by a stranger at the store a few days ago and that started an interesting conversation 😊
I wonder if a tumbleweed clean up business is a good idea. Get paid for cleaning it up then mulch it well enough to destroy the seeds and sell that for something.
In 2022 I was driving north on I-25 between Las Lunas and ABQ. The wind was howling, as it often does in New Mexico, and hundreds of tumbleweeds were rolling straight down the freeway. I clocked them with my car speedometer rolling at 65 MPH. I laughed so hard at the surreal sight of tumbleweeds "rolling along like a...tumble weed" .
I farm on the prairies of Northeast Montana. They are a problem here also. Fortunately, we have herbicides that we use before the crop is planted, otherwise they, along with other weeds, would take over.
I grew up in NM. (75 now) Saw the impact of the weed in northern NM and the ranches. Memories of people spraying with silver spr@y paint as Christmas . White as snowmen. I knew they had been spread from Russia, but didn’t actually understand the mechanism. Thank you.
I do maintenance at my astronomy club's 6 acre dark sky site we are leasing from a farmer. I had to bat down the dried weeds along the fence line and a corner that they pile up on with a string trimmer around April. During the summer when the brush cutter attachment could not touch the stem, I have to use a garden spade with a sharpened edge to cut it loose. These things do not pull up easily while growing as other weeds.
Chandler AZ collects them and makes a giant Christmas tree every year and puts it in the downtown park. It is very cool when it is lighted. It stands about 40 ft tall.
1984, Albuquerque, at 17 I had THEE raddest BMX spot ever! I went there every day. Right across the street from Del Norte high school. The wind, along with the tumble weeds came along one day. It was so massive that by the time I left NM two years later it still couldn't be fixed. This was basically like a four story jam hundreds of feet long. Never got to ride the best BMX spot in Albuquerque ever again. Tumble weeds are a very serious problem.
Biggest surprise to me was how much water the tumbleweeds deprive “cash crops” of.
I’m almost 82 and still consider any day I learn something new a good day. Every time I tune in to The History Guy, I learn something I didn’t know before!
Thanks History Guy!
The day you stop learning is that the day you stopped living, but it may take your body a few years/decades to realize that fact and catch up with you. 63 here and just learned that Tumble Weeds are not a native species to North America and that Cottonwood Trees aka Poplars are actual a native species to my Province, though I was told otherwise decades ago.
🤗💜🤗
They don't bother to mention how much their plants consume in comparison, do they.
But our Bow Tie here just told you that the Species Survived the Dust Bowl, the single largest mismanagement of airable land in History.
So it MUST consume LESS water than ALL "Cash Crops."
This is what happens when you don't put 2 and 2 together, you stay 2.
@truthsRsung what a dick comment. Go troll elsewhere, dude 👍
@@truthsRsung Or it is better at accessing said water resources and maximizing its consumption of said resource.
It could also be better adapted at withstanding drought conditions and their seeds could have to the ability to lay dormant for a longer period, allowing them to germinate once rain returns.
But you are correct, much of the so-called staple crops we grow on a rather industrial scale do demand an incredible amount of water, which is why many part of the US grain belt and southern produce producing areas have been water stressed for a long time now.
I am a 63 year old biologist. And I did not know the tumbleweed was an invasive species. Thanks for the fun lesson.
I fed a round bale of kosha to my horses and they ate it and left no crumbs...
Biologist might not have known that the weed wasn't indigenous to North America. @Iwishiwasanoscarmeyerweiner
@@nancyk3615: I fed a square bale of hay to my horse and he left some round patties.
@@Iwishiwasanoscarmeyerweiner Biologist, not botanist.
I am a 56-year-old biologist and I find myself in the same pressed flower book. 😊
When I was 13 in 1974, me and a couple of friends thought we'd do the community we lived in a great service and collect all the tumbleweeds in the neighborhood, piling them up in a vacant lot, three stories high. We were so proud of our feat that we called the local newspaper to come and record the fact, but they declined.
The next day a big wind storm blew up and all of our tumbleweeds were scattered into nearby lawns and driveways. That's when the local news got interested, running a story about how three local boys caused havoc in the hood. Lol.
The Outer Limits episode "Cry of Silence" involving animate, killer tumbleweeds featured an actress named June *Havoc*, as well as Eddie Albert who went on to the " Green Acres" TV series.
At least you got your 15 minutes of fame!...(Lol!)
How did the tumbleweed know where the state dividing lines were?
That's an awesome story
In Fresno, California, where snow is a rare occurrence, tumbleweeds are stacked, flocked & decorated as faux snowmen
😂😂 cute.
I have made nice Christmas trees by stacking them on top of each other graduated of course, then flocking them.
They do that in Chandler AZ as well.
The lot of our first home in Phoenix was newly claimed from the desert when we moved in. Come Spring I was delighted to see our 5000 square foot back yard covered with green. You guessed it: it was all tumbleweeds! Through the Spring it matured into a jungle three feet high. In Summer it turned into tinder. I brought out a cheap charcoal grill and lit a small fire. With a rake, I snapped the evil plants at ground level and rolled them into the flames; a tumbleweed was gone in perhaps three seconds. When the yard was cleared, the detritus measured less than a cupful.
I grew up in Arizona and these things can be a real annoyance. Seen literally a hundred miles of 12 ft high walls of tumbleweeds stuck to the fences crossing the reservation. Some of them can be 6 ft around and weigh quite a lot if dried mud is stuck to them. Hitting them at high speed, as they often just blow across the road from nowhere and very difficult to avoid, can break your lights, even crack a radiator. Or worse, go under the vehicle to get stuck on your exhaust just to be a serious fire risk.
But I too did not realize they weren't native, learned something today, thanks.
Lived in Sierra Vista, AZ for nearly 25 years - and I've hit my share of them blowing across the road...loved having them EXPLODE when I hit them on I-10.
I've had the same experience in New Mexico.
I grew up just north of Los Angeles. Tumbleweeds were a huge problem especially in the Santa Ana winds.
I grew up in Arizona as well. I purchased a home on two acres full of tumble weed. What a pain to be rid of. I too, didn't know they weren't native. Thanks
Do y'all burn the fencelines covered in the tumbles?
In past years in Cummings Valley California, camels were used to clear fields of tumbleweeds. Apparently camels love them, green or dried.
That sounds like a great reason to have camels!
So do goats! My goats devour them before they have a chance to grow up.
You can always rely upon "The History Guy" to have a curious and interesting history lesson. Sometimes, like in this case, we learn about something we generally ignore. Tumble weeds, who would have thought they were really so bad?
Now, if we were talking about Kudzu. Some once told me that "Kudzu was the only plant that you could take out 50 yards from the house, plant it in the ground, and it would beat you back to the house". He wasn't off by much.
Bamboo doesn't grow quite as fast as kudzu (or if it does, it grows vertically instead of horizontally) but it's equally difficult to get rid of.
Paper Mulberry. A tree, with runners, that can outrun a man. The only way I've found to get rid of them - ALONG WITH the physical yanking and pulling - is concentrated Roundup, painted to the freshly cut trunk, 1" above the ground, and even the dead trunk won't go away until you dig it out.
😂😂 We joked once that kudzu could be sent over to the Middle East and they would never see them again.
After growing up in the Rocky Mountain region I ended up moving to Atlanta, Georgia for a couple years. One of the first things I noticed when I got there was just how green everything was. Upon closer inspection I noticed that a fair part of that beautiful green scenery consisted of a plant that had climbed and twisted itself like a vine around everything in sight. I found out from the locals that it was called "Kudzu". There were places outside of the city where there were areas where it grew so thick that some of the telephone poles appeared to be in danger of being pulled down by all the kudzu. I had heard of invasive plant species before but that was the first time I was able to see how damaging they are to native ecosystems..🌳🌿🍃
As a child of the 50's, we played in tumbleweed "forts". One year our Christmas tree was tumbleweeds stacked on one another. Along with music from the Sons of the Pioneers, it all makes for good memories.
I remember burning the tumbleweeds along fences. Some farmers had special wagons with a burner they would pull behind a tractor and burn the weeds on the move. This probably accelerated the move to metal fence posts.
I would guess that this tactic probably had the unwanted side effect of causing the barbed wire to start rusting sooner and more intensely.
@@goodun2974 barb wire is made from high tensile cold drawn wire. When it gets heated, it will sag.
@@Oilfieldscout , sagging from heat is an excellent point; I hadn't considered that. And, fire will accelerate rusting. I wouldn't think burning tumbleweeds along a barbed wire fence, even if the posts are metal, to be a good tactic unless you're prepared to replace a lot of wire prematurely.
The drivers’ tumbleweed wind scale
1. The tumbleweed rolls across the highway typically up to 15 miles an hour.
2. The tumbleweed bounces as it goes across the highway. Typically 15 to 30 miles an hour.
3. The tumbleweed flies over the highway, rarely bouncing. Typically over 30 miles an hour.
In southeastern Washington we have the "Tumbleweed Music Festival." I don't think any of the founders knew this is not a native plant.
Hollywood would never be the same once the first tumbleweeds rolled onto the set.
While driving on Interstate 215 in California during a very windy day, I collided with a rolling tumbleweed that was bigger than the Honda Civic that I was in. The explosion was fantastic!
During one particularly windy December day around 1999, tumbleweeds and everything else were gusting across the Ventura Freeway.
Canadian here. I've occasionally wondered how much of a road hazard tumbleweeds pose. I always imagined them to be more "twiggy" than "grassy," and thought they might do damage if struck at high speed. From you comment, do you mean that they simply blow apart when you hit them?
@@adreabrooks11 yes they do just blow apart, (for the most part, some smaller pieces might still cling together stuck to the vehicle on mirrors or windshield wipers.) They're very fragile. Also, they can (and did) leave multiple superficial scratches in the paint.
So, generally speaking, if driving at high speeds down a highway (or somewhere like that) it's safer to just plow through them than to hit the brakes or swerve which could cause multiple vehicles to collide with each other; a much more dangerous situation.
@@skyden24195 The more you know! Thanks for the info; it may come in handy, if I'm ever out west. :)
Wow, I am 68 years young, I always thought the Tumbleweed was a Western USA plant, because of the 1960's & 70's TV Westerns & the song by the Sons of the Pioneers - Tumbling Tumbleweeds. Thanks for the History Lesson.
"68 years young" Why do you say that? Are you afraid of getting old?
I thought that to.
@@LuckyBaldwin777 No, I'm not old, I still ride a Touring Motorcycle & most of my family lived into there 90's & even into their 100's.
Really? 68 years Young? ....I'm 63 years OLD. No shame here.
We do have lots of them. They are crazy in Idaho.
I have to wonder if tumbleweeds’ large water consumption didn’t/doesn’t also add to the dust bowl/drought problem in the midwest and west.
Is the consumption Large?
What info were you given in comparison?
At 15:40 he quoted evidence that the plant was able to grow unsupervised, while enduring cattle grazing, with little rainfall.
I'd bet that places where this plant had rooted have More Topsoil than where humans had managed their land with Pure Force.
Harmony and Eradication don't belong in any Government Document, ever.
They bring water to the surface and provide shade. I would say their damage as a growing plant is countered by their benefits. But, of course, like feral horses, they consume resources that would otherwise be used by rarer and rarer native species.
Your knack for finding historical irony is superlative! A Russian weed symbolizing the American spirit.
Tumble weeds burn like a gas torch, when dry. To safely burn tumblweeds, turn them bottom side up. The hollow stem structure form a natual chimney. Turning the weed upside down defeats the chimney effect.
Two problems with burning tumbleweeds; with large piles, the fire can easily get out of hand and create a "wild fire", and at least in California, in most areas it's illegal to burn off weeds and dead grass of any kind because of air pollution concerns. Anyone caught doing so can be fined a hefty amount, and they are financially liable for the cost of extinguishing a wild fire started by their tumbleweed burning, as well for any and all property damage resulting from the fire.
@@oldgysgt Break them off from the ground first. I had great success with a rake and charcoal grill. A windless day is a must, but with that caveat the fire is easily controlled.
wait a minute....isn't "bottom side up" and "upside down" the same thing? 🙃
Thank you very much!!😊
@@flagmichael; in the past, California has suffered some very destructive wild fires caused by people who thought they could "control" their burn. But now, with the severe restrictions on open burning in California, burning tumbling weeds, or any other plant pest, is liable to result in a large fine. I'm not defending these restrictions, but that is the present state of affairs in California. Last winter I was forbidden to use my home fireplace to help heat my house because my fireplace insert is no longer on the list of State approved inserts. I could have done it anyway, but if someone had complained I could have been fined big-time by the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution District. You can imagine what they would say about open burning a large pile of tumbleweeds.
This was a good one.
Seriously. I wasn't sure what to expect when I saw the episode was about tumbleweeds, but you nailed it. I knew nothing about tumbleweeds and you somehow made it a fascinating history/bio lesson.
I remember learning the tumbleweed was an invasive plant from Russia. I was surprised since so much imagery shows tumbleweeds are an iconic symbol of the west.
Yuri Bezminov knew that there would be enough “useful idiots” to rewrite history…to the point our society willingly (even exuberantly) incorporating the these hijackers into the very iconography of our nation! It’s easy to become discouraged when you see such things unfold…but do not loose heart! Not everything is as it appears! Truly…I believe…LOVE conquers ALL. The hidden hand may have a strategy that spans generations, but the ultimate power over ALL things transcends time itself…even created it! Do that which you know is within your ability to do, and leave the rest for those warring/sparring/dueling/“authorities” to work out. Brothers and sisters, we are. Bonded together in perfect love, who can stand against us? No not one. Shall we? Let’s! 🤍⚖️💎🪔⚓️⚔️🛡️🧬📯🔗🌀🔔🏳️⌛️🦯🪘♟️🪈🏆🎟️🪃🍷🍯🍼🥚🌊💨🌪️🌈🌕☀️💫⚡️🌱🐉🪶🕊️🦋🦅🪖🪢🪡🫀🧠🫡
"Commieweeds" lol
But it is interesting you hardly see a western or movie set during the Dustbowl without tumbleweeds.
@@RemyJackson , There was an episode of the Outer Limits where a husband (played by Eddy Arnold) and wife took refuge in an old shack after their car broke down out west somewhere. An alien presence half buried the shack in tumbleweeds so they couldn't escape and tried to communicate with them, first using croaking frogs and then telepathically.
I have seen tumble weeds that were as big as a school bus. It's been a while living here in Las Vegas as of late they won't be any larger than a Mail truck.
You're exaggerating and I've seen them for a lifetime. It's the kind of false fact that claims your 'expertise' and egotistical nature. Puffs you ego and then gets spread around by others as fact. This size never happens for a solid reason but you can't explain why Mr. False. Go back in your hole.
Dear History Guy. I live close to you. I live in St.. Louis. I sincerely appreciate your posts.
I am 75 come October, I have know about Russian tumble weed sense 1968 because it was on the list of invasive plants available to farmers and ranchers to aid in land management programs. It was a long list even then . Now, it is 6500+ different species of problem causing plants.
An old TV show called "The Outer Limits" had an episode called "A Cry of Silence" with killer tumbleweeds.
It aired on October 24, 1964, and starred Eddie Albert and June Havoc.
@@orbyfan, the entire episode can be viewed on TH-cam
Played this video for my kids on the way to school.
They'll be talking about tumbleweeds all day.
I live in Southern California. In the 1950's tumbleweeds would blow down our street and pile up against fences and the newly-built 5 Freeway. Beginning in September, the yearly Santa Ana winds would create small dust devils and send tumbleweeds and fluff from Pampas Grass (another invasive species) swirling around everywhere. The tumbleweeds would blow across our school yard and collect against the far fence. The school would have huge bonfires to get rid of all their carcasses.
Late November, some people would use them as lawn ornaments. They would stack three of them and paint them white - snowmen for a snowless landscape.
The "Outer Limits" TV series demonized them in its episode "Cry of Silence". But to me as a small child, when Western series ruled television, I thought they were magical.
Yup! I too have similar memories. 😊
Back when there were actual open spaces not curated by man to play in.
Me, too! l live in San Diego and am retired.
Long ago when l attended Spring Valley Jr. high. We lived in Casa de Oro when it was a newly built area. No houses at the end of our street but lots of tumble weeds! l remember being told that they could be eaten when very small. Wow------
memories...
Is that the Outer Limits episode where a husband (played by Eddie Albert) and his wife have a car breakdown and are trapped in an abandoned shack by an alien presence which surrounds them with tumbleweeds and thousands of croaking frogs?
@@goodun2974 Yes.
@@milosterwheeler2520 , I'll have to see if it's on TH-cam somewhere. I miss Outer Limits, and the original Twilight Zone. Night Gallery had its moments as well.....
My home on the Westside of Albuquerque was loved by the infamous tumble weed gang. One year my whole house was completely covered with tumble weeds and burning was the only way to get rid of them. Out of all of my neighbors, I was the only house that was invaded and battered. I was cursed....
When it's moving it's a RUSHIN' weed!!
🤣🤣🤣
You sir have won the comment section today.
"Rushin' hands and roamin' *stingers* "! (For those younger than myself who might not get the reference, it was once said that a guy who would get unwantedly grabby with his date had "Russian hands and Roman fingers".)
*groan*
At 9:30 , an epistle about a thistle! Had it been transmitted by email, it'd be an e-thistle! 😁
non sequitur: an actual, well written script with human voice, the information is a bonus
How is that a non sequitur? Seems thematic to me.
Dried tumbleweeds are highly flammable and are have known to create fire tornadoes when the flames come racing across the plains. I did a college project on invasive species and this was one of the plants. In keeping with the "South Dakota's Least Wanted" promotional thing they did a few years back, I put faces on the photos and had them holding ID numbers like they'd lined up for a mug shot. There's a few of them here in the black hills, but not as much as the surrounding areas.
I'm a plant nerd, and I approve this message.
Shared this with my neighbor as we were talking about tumbleweeds recently…
Thanks for gathering all of the data and sharing.
Here in Southern arizona we have a saying " at a four way stop the tumbleweed has the right of way"
I never would have guessed the humble tumble weed was an invasive species. Thanks for the info History Guy.
Honestly this is the first time I ever heard the tumbleweed is an invasive species from Russia. I would bet probably 90% of the U.S does not know this. Thank you for posting.
Antony Blinkin came from Russia, name a few of his kind with their diverse public so called political affiliation
@@IgorMuravyov-o5r What does Anthony Blinkin have to do with the plant called 'Tumbleweed'????????????????????
@@laserbeam002 his gradparent came from russia, at least on of them
@@IgorMuravyov-o5r Ok..whatever but the video was about Tumbleweeds
I used a Tumbleweed for a Christmas Trees ..for there aren't trees out here. Also had a pet Tumblweed spray painted it as not loose my little friend, he stayed with my pet Rock
They look very flammable and a potential nightmare during brush fires in windy conditions.
They are. Contributing to brush fires is one of the largest hazards of the weed.
They are... look at my PFP. That fire burnt 1/8 of Washington state, and dwarfed any California fire you've ever seen.
Because of the tumble weed
Seems like they would make great pellets for pellet stoves
@@TimHayward They probably would. Very little smoke or ash.
Fascinating. Having spent time helping out after Hurricane Katrina, I went to visit friends in west Texas. I asked the question that hurricanes kill you in south Texas, tornadoes in north Texas, what kills you in west Texas? The answer was 'tumbleweed'. I thought it was a joke until we were barricaded by them in the house one night. I had no idea they could grow so big.
Draughting by trains has led to corridors of certain plants now considered by many as indigenous species in Britain too. Buddleia, is a classic, but by no means unique. The Victorians' love of imported 'exotics' introduced them; the railways drew them through the country.
My late Victorian grandfather, head gardener at a large country house, had a saying: 'one year's seeding is seven years' weeding'. Three years won't do it if you're clearing ground.
My favorite invading tumbleweeds were the ones animated by a difuse alien intelligence. In an episode of the original 63-65 TV series The Outer Limits.
In BC, we have an invasive plant species that was brought in as decorative plant, the Scotch Broom.....while rather pretty, its scent is not so nice and it has spead across the Province and can be found growing in large clumps along the highway in the wild.
I was a resident of the Lemon Grove and Spring Valley area in the 1960s as mentioned in the video. The tumbleweeds were terrible where we lived. When the Santa Ana winds would blow from the east, we'd get tumbleweeds piled 10 feet high like a snow drift against the house and property. Expansion of housing developments to the east of our property finally eliminated the problem by the 80s, as it became someone else's problem further to the east. Gloves and long sleeves were essential in their removal.
I remember times when strong westerly winds blew tumbleweeds into Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Twin Cities were at the eastern edge of the prairies. The tumbleweeds would just get pushed east if the winds were blowing strongly over the western plains.
Scientists are planning to introduce at least two fungi that parasitize tumbleweeds., and do not consume any other thistle species. They are Colletotrichum salsolae and Uromyces salsolae. Other fungi are, also, being studied. Great video, keep up the good work.
Hey from Missouri. Learn something new everyday.
Kochia and russian thistle are incredibly invasive AND quickly becoming immune to most pesticides. I have recently seen whole sections of poorly managed crop land literally covered with the stuff. And now with the wind have dropped seeds for up to 100 timed the area.
Once on a road trip, when my then 5 year old daughter saw her first tumbleweed cried out: "Look, Daddy at the haybale rolling across the road!" I will never forget it.
The child has a good eye for pegging it as hay...for camels at least 😂 !
THIS IS MY FAVORITE EPISODE YET! I live in the TRi-Cities Washington and was raised in the town of Eltopia just a few miles away, situated on the Northern Pacific RR mainline (now BNSF) 120 miles south of Spokane. I'm 65 and retired, but in my youth, as a farmers son, I pulled, chopped, pitchforked, burned and hoed what seemed like thousands of thistles along furlongs of fence line. This also included forking them from around sheds, barns and houses on a calm day, far enough away to safely burn. Practically every summer our local newspaper runs a story or two of side roads blocked off for a couple of days until the county can burn them clear. You mentioned chandeliers. Here in eastern Washington we also have the traditional "TUMBLEWEED CHRISTMAS TREE". Like the chandeliers they are festooned with lights. However we usually try for three tiers high and use four or five cans of flocked snow. They're quite festive. REALLY! 😅
OH. One more story. In 1976 l was a pump jockey at the local gas station. A car with New Jersey license plates came in. In the back seat was a very large tumble weed. My coworker asked the man why he had it. "OH, I'M TAKING IT HOME. THEY'VE NEVER SCENE ANYTHING LIKE THIS"! 😂
Tumbleweed is also a problem in Australia. I first became aware of it many years ago in reading a detective novel by Arthur Upfield in his "Bony" series where it was an important factor. Those books are delightful reads. There are many species of tumbleweed, all apparently from Russia and Siberia.
You mentioned US-Russia relations. It was after WWI when relations became antagonistic. Near the end of the war, the US sent troops to attack Russia in the north at Arkhangelsk and in the east at Vladivostok instead of bringing them home. That invasion lasted nearly two years and is history that deserves to be remembered.
What would the Sons of the Pioneers have done without tumbling tumbleweeds?
Humming along with humming hummingbirds just doesn't have the same cachet.
Kept them looking for cool water.
I think your lyrics are incorrect.
This year has been the worst I've seen for tumbleweeds here in 15 years.
I've got one of the barbs in my finger even now.
The troubles with tumbles.
They're dead, Jim.
Thank you THG for another history lesson & entertaining video.
This is my favorite trivia fact, I've thought at least 100 people this.
So glad you are doing a video about this.
FYI i live in Colorado and go to Cheyenne regularly so tumbleweeds are a constant.
For all your diligence you did not mention my favorite carton strip, Tumbleweeds! Love the channel anyhow!
Glad YT tumbled me into this story. Keep spreading these story seeds!
Looks like you were able to resolve your video software issue, Lance. Look forward to seeing future videos! A topic suggestion I had was a report into the history of inks and writing instruments.
YES! Plant history!! I am all about it. I would love to see an entire playlist of plant history some day (apologiesif you'vecovered any already): decorative plants gone wrong (Japanese knotweed & kudzu), moss, 'American' foods (e.g. vs Mediterranean) (sweet/potatoes, corn, carrots, cliche stuff), endangered plants -how it got that way,
Love your work and what you do for us as a Country! THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!
I was happy to see this video! I used to live near Phoenix in the west valley and miss seeing the tumbleweeds, especially on I-10. This history is so interesting 🤗
I was training at the NTC near Boise Idaho. We had high winds for a couple of days. The whole countryside seemed to come alive with tumble weed. Everywhere you looked brown round rolling bushes for as the eye could see.
I lived at Mtn Home AFB for 4 years. We had a few there too.
There's an NTC near Boise?
I went to the one near Barstow in the early 90s.
@@Svensk7119 It's next to Gowan AFB. We used the barracks at the base and had a field encampment near our tanks. It was just building up at the time. About 1990.
Yay...let's cross-breed it with Kudzu. Love your work!!
Lol kudzu of the high plains ... 😂😂😂
Oh lord, kudzu!!
At least this was accidental.
Man kudzu has ruined so much
We drove to South Dakota in 2009 from NC. We took the long way there - through Missouri, Kansas and Colorado before going briefly through Wyoming.....while in Wyoming we encountered an attack by Tumbleweeds. We were in a Mustang , so low-ish to the ground. There was a wind storm and tumbleweeds were blowing everywhere - and there were so damn many of them! We had to pull off the road it was so bad. We still talk about that experience now....
Long Live the History Guy. Love your clever creative presentation of what many would find boring topics, you have found facts to create an entertaining subject. I even found history in poorly taught Public Schools, interesting.
This could be the start of a series - episodes on kudzu, periwinkle, English ivy, Japanese knotweed, and Bradford pear trees (and its uncultivated hybrids) should follow.
Add bufflegrass to the list, plague of the Sonoran desert.
And on the animal side of the coin, SA fire ants, carp, starlings, feral hogs, and, yes, precious to many, feral horses have killed hundreds, if not thousands of native American species.
@@ernestsmith3581 There are probably more invasive animals than plants - flat worms, africanized "killer" bees, Asian hornets, Burmese pythons, monitor lizards, to name but a few, and the last two are part of what could be a separate series of its own - invasive animals in Florida.
You sure know your invasive species. In Illinois the Bradford pear is taking over.
@neilm9630 In SC it's no longer legal to plant Bradford pears, and they are discouraged in NC and several other states. Here in NC if you provide evidence of a felled/ removed Bradford pear the state will give you a replacement native tree; think the limit is three trees per person/home.
Around 10 years ago, in central Washington state north of Sunnyside, on a rural road passing through a gully the Tumbleweeds compltely buried a section of Washington route 24. People drove through it were buried and trapped for several hours before emergency crews could dig them out. I hate them
Oh man I hate that weed. I’m in WY and I battle it yearly. I have a newly constructed home and the natural land that was displaced during excavation is very problematic. I’m on year 3 of battling. I find pulling it up manually works the best before seeding. I remove and or burn them. Ugh.
I was driving back from a visit to Utah to Boise Idaho when a windstorm blowing so hard that the dust and what seems like millions of tumbleweeds caused me to drive off the side of the interstate to get off the road to avoid being driven into but other traffic not slowing down for the near zero visibility due to the amount of debris blocking a safe view. It took me nearly 7 days to remove all of the pieces of tumble weed stuck in front end of the pickup that I was driving. The tumble weeds were so high that they covered the hood of the truck covering the windshield. It was amazing to watch!
Man, I absolutely _love_ this channel! I just found it a few days ago and I am so freaking hooked. Great stuff, y'all.
I lived in AZ for nearly 25 years so I am intimately familiar with tumbleweeds. I live in Sierra Vista, and built a house there in 1996. We were on the edge of the development so all the dirt was disturbed enough for tumbleweeds to thrive. We moved into the house in July but in October, the winds really kicked up. I noticed "things" dropping into our back yard and when I went to check it out, I could see the back yard was filling up with tumbleweeds that there literally dropping out of the sky into our yard! (we had a 6' brick wall around the property). I ran out with large rake and attempted to get them over the way but the wind just kept bringing in more and more and more and before it was all said and done, our property covered by tumbleweeds to a dept of 6'!
Thanks History Guy!
We in Colorado made the news winter before last with a huge tumbleweed problem, but this past winter, we hardly had any.
I always viewed tumbleweeds as a sign of death in movies. For example, if there are tumbleweeds, the town is dying.
Had then on the farm in Elburn IL.
Small world. Back in the 1980s I worked with a guy who lived in Elburn. That's not a town name I ever expected to see here.
Good morning from Ft Worth TX History Guy and everyone watching
Ft worth here also
I appreciate you and thank you for making content.
Tumbleweeds clogged the canal that takes Colorado River water to Los Angeles. In the 1950s a friend of mine had a summer job running a speedboat up and down collecting them and pitching them over the fence. It was steady work.
Interesting. I'm thinking they were afraid of them getting into the pumps.
I remember the good old days when the only thing that hops the rails 🚈 were Hobos! Box Car Willie!
Be on the lookout for Kitchener Leslie. He's been known to kill hobos with his bare hands.
Rip shoestring
@@bartsanders1553 Zoinks Scoob
@@tomarmadiyer2698 💯
I love your show; it's so bazaar, engaging, and humorous.
In 1968, I pranked my new wife when taking her to our new home in California from her home in Virginia.
I knew what they were, and she had no idea at all. We were in a Corvair traveling west on Highway 80 when I spotted one, larger than the car, rolling straight down toward us on the road.
I didn't say anything and simply drove right through it. I don't think she ever forgave me for that one.
As a kid in NM we used to run out in front of the big ones during recess lay down and let them roll over us; no idea why or who even came up with the idea, just something boys did in the mid 1960s. Some of them were huge 6 foot plus around
I remember a vacant field in the neighborhood where we stacked a great big pile of them then hollowed it out for a fort.
Without the tumble weed Louis L'Amour couldn't have written the book Conagher how else could the lonely woman have sent notes expressing her loneliness?
In Utah during our school lunch break, we’d gather them up, stick them together and make igloo style structures to play inside.
Fascinating, that is all I have to say. Thanks, THG.
I am from the South Plains of Texas. These are known to me as Iron weeds. They are gard to chop and will choke up a brush cutter. These are the worst to deal with. My skin itches just thinking about them.
On Star Trek they call these things Tribbles.
Good one!
False of course and lies are believed too easily.
@@PlanetEarth3141 , a shame we can't simply beam tumbleweeds into deep space ---- it wouldn't be inhumane at all!
It would explain the lack of Klingons across the American southwest.
@@christopherconard2831Yeah they stay north around Broken Bow.
I was driving through Benson when a tumbleweed crossed the highway. It bounced off the truck in front of me and came down on my windshield.
Very interesting video, as always.. also i got my THG shirt recognized by a stranger at the store a few days ago and that started an interesting conversation 😊
11:32 YT won't play past this point. I've restarted the app. It'll play commercials but no more of the show.😢
Got it! Complete internet meltdown ...
I wonder if a tumbleweed clean up business is a good idea. Get paid for cleaning it up then mulch it well enough to destroy the seeds and sell that for something.
I grew up in the Mojave, these things were like overdue visitors staying at your house beyond welcome... I learned something new.
In 2022 I was driving north on I-25 between Las Lunas and ABQ. The wind was howling, as it often does in New Mexico, and hundreds of tumbleweeds were rolling straight down the freeway. I clocked them with my car speedometer rolling at 65 MPH. I laughed so hard at the surreal sight of tumbleweeds "rolling along like a...tumble weed" .
Thanks great story.
I farm on the prairies of Northeast Montana. They are a problem here also. Fortunately, we have herbicides that we use before the crop is planted, otherwise they, along with other weeds, would take over.
Very nice homage... Heard the song in my head immediately. 💌
I grew up in NM. (75 now) Saw the impact of the weed in northern NM and the ranches. Memories of people spraying with silver spr@y paint as Christmas . White as snowmen. I knew they had been spread from Russia, but didn’t actually understand the mechanism. Thank you.
I do maintenance at my astronomy club's 6 acre dark sky site we are leasing from a farmer. I had to bat down the dried weeds along the fence line and a corner that they pile up on with a string trimmer around April. During the summer when the brush cutter attachment could not touch the stem, I have to use a garden spade with a sharpened edge to cut it loose. These things do not pull up easily while growing as other weeds.
Outstanding information. Thank. Keep the good work 👏 🙌 👍
Terrific episode!
Thank you for sharing! ❤
It's ironic that one of the most iconic symbols of the Old West wasn't actually a thing in the Old West until later in the era.
13:00 I wonder if San Diego will get hit with tumbleweeeds again this year considering all the rain they got over the winter
Chandler AZ collects them and makes a giant Christmas tree every year and puts it in the downtown park. It is very cool when it is lighted. It stands about 40 ft tall.
1984, Albuquerque, at 17 I had THEE raddest BMX spot ever! I went there every day. Right across the street from Del Norte high school. The wind, along with the tumble weeds came along one day. It was so massive that by the time I left NM two years later it still couldn't be fixed. This was basically like a four story jam hundreds of feet long. Never got to ride the best BMX spot in Albuquerque ever again. Tumble weeds are a very serious problem.