My late Father was an Okie. "The dirt just up and blowed away!", and thirteen children (needed for a large farm) were loaded on a Model T pickup with everything they could pack in it. Had to leave everything they had worked for and move. Hey! I've learned a whole lot from you. Thanks for that. My Father was the youngest of those thirteen children. There had been fifteen, but prior to the move there were two children that died. The oldest of the living, my Uncle Roy, was an entertainer who had a gig (they were live at the radio stations when it happened) playing guitar and singing. He figured, since he was going... he could fill the false floor of his car with whiskey (during prohibition days). Make a bit of extra cash to help the family be fed. He was pulled over before reaching the big city radio station, and had to spend a few years in the federal prison for bootlegging. Well... the radio station was anxious to fill the slot left open when Uncle Roy didn't show, so they went out into the street just looking for anyone... and saw a man with a guitar strapped to his back who was hanging around for just such an opportunity. That man went on to become one of the most popular entertainers of the era... Eddie Arnold. So... "Anytime... you're feeling lonely... Anytime... you're feeling blue... Anytime, you say... you want be back again... that's the time I'll be coming home to you.".
My grandparents had a farm in the Texas panhandle and their well had to be drilled deeper as the Oglala aquifer got lower. The water pump ran 24/7 during growing season, powered by a V8 engine.
My grandparents emigrated from Scotland in 1904. settled in northwest Saskatchewan Canada, the first home & where my mom was born was a sod hut. the grew veggies on the roof. it was a 1 room shack they had 14 children. T he land is still in the family and still farmed. I am now 77 yrs &have visited the homestead many times
If the U.S. wanted to improve the the history curriculum in schools, WH videos would be a great foundation, you make history come alive, then explore the old houses, the ghost towns, the fossilised reminders of past decisions. Well done. 👍👍👍❤️😊
Very interesting. My father was part of the dustbowl migration into bakersfield calif. He lost half a lung as a small child because of the dust. Tough people they were..🥰
My dad's side of the family migrated to Bakersfield in the first yr of the dust. My grand father had been working the oil fields of Texas. And packed up & quit when he hadn't heard from his wife for 2 months. First week back they were on their way to calif. There was a calif road block, stopping migrants from entering the state, so he had to drive around the road block for a day in a half thru the desert. He got lucky and got his job back with Standard oil working in Taft. After 3 months living in a Migrant camp out of work. Tough times make tough men.
@@douglasgault5458 my granfather and father also worked in tbe oil fields. There was such strength and resilience in these people. They lived in cars, built makeshift houses.then achieved the american dream. The greatest generation. So proud of my heritage.🥰
My paternal biological grandfather came from Oklahoma to Bakersfield, too! Was any of your family part of the Choctaw group? Unfortunately, he abandoned my dad after his wife died (and there's a story there... she got pregnant as a teenager and then eloped to Vegas and lied about her age), and my dad was adopted by a family in Visalia. We only had vague information, but was told that his father was Choctaw from the Oklahoma Territory and came to work the rail/oil with many of the Dust Bowlers. To this day, the largest Choctaw membership outside of Oklahoma is right in Bakersfield. I'm told it's the whitest group of Native Americans most people have ever seen. LOL
I gave this one wide circulation because it was very educational about the history of the area. My parents experienced the dry thirties in North Dakota. In the northern states the meridian divided the state into what was called the tall grass prairies on the east and the short grass prairies on the west. After the crop failures of the thirties, crop rotation and summer fallowing were introduced. Only half the acreage was planted each year with the grain crops. In between the planted areas, the soil was left unplanted, but was tilled to turn the vegetation (prairie grass and weeds) over into the soil to make it more productive when it was planted the next year. Fertilization was not used during this time. Now crop rotation and summer fallowing has been replaced by fertilization and all the land is planted in crops, with some new crops like soy beans and sunflowers replacing the minor crops like oats and flax. Wheat remains as one of the major crops on both sided of the meridian. Thanks for taking the time to explain the history of the No Mans Land and the dust bowl. I imagine this is new knowledge for many of your subscribers.
The book "The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl" by Timothy Egan is a mindboggling account of the lives of people in the 30's.
I have a lot of relatives who grew up in the panhandle during the 1930s and 40s (and a few who still live there). There's a certain beauty to the solitude out there.
My family had a farm in the northeastern corner of Oklahoma until 2000. Our family farm is mentioned in many accounts of the Trail of Tears. Our land had an artesian spring, lots of vegetation, shelter from the winter, and plenty of places to bury their dead.
Green Acres. Eddie Albert was a huge proponent of sustainable farming and spent a large part of his life giving speeches petitioning the gov and teaching farmers good practices in the area. Lose the top soil you lose everything. Climate migration. They used to stop Okie's from coming to Cali at the border, pre ACLU. Strange time in history and one that shouldn't be forgotten.
My mom came from this land and grew up during the Dust Bowl, thanks for covering this spot and it's history. There was no land for anyone to "inherit" so after my grandparents passed they walked away from the farm. I'm a CA person that can trace my roots to OK, my mom moved there when she was 14, my uncles showed up later (were stationed at Long Beach in the Navy) then WWII happened.
Farmers often take short term loans to get by until harvest time. If it was a bad year, they'd lode the farm. Not many people looking to live there so the bank lets the property go for taxes and there it sits. Or, the people die, the kids long moved away, can't sell the farm, no one wants it. So it goes back to the county for taxes. Either way, people are leaving the rural places.
Yeah Jonathandenny I also want to OPSU. Grew up in Southeast Colorado, and currently live there. Like you, I know the area well. Have never minded living in this 5 state region. GO Aggies!!
The Great Wonderhussy Trek to view the eclipse continues to produce interesting and informative videos. Hardscrabble farms existed before the Dustbowl years and ever since. So many hopes and dreams. Every property has its own story. Thanks for illuminating this mid-continent,middle of nowhere story. 😊Stay safe Sarah.
Propane or butane power wasn't rare. That LA Case looks like it came from the factory to run on propane. The price was $0.065/gallon delivered to the farm in the late 50's and early 60's. People converted gasoline tractors, pickups, trucks, and even some cars to run on butane or propane. Diesel fuel was $0.18/gallon then without road tax, gasoline was about $0.30/gallon with road tax included. Probably should have paid road tax on propane used in cars and trucks, but nobody did.
Okie here, born & raised. It was called The Land Rush when folks got to simply stake a claim to the land they wanted & the Cherokee basically got the town now called Talequah. Before that, however, they were brought to this state from Tennessee mostly, on the Trail of Tears. Oklahoma is known as Native Country & has a lot of interesting native history many people are unaware of. The panhandle is desert while the eastern half is known as Green Country. If anyone is interested in Oklahomas Dust Bowl, read the book The Grapes of Wrath.
Hey Wonderhussy. It seems that both you and Steve from Sideshow Adventues post your videos at 9:00 pst! So I flip a coin to determine which one I'll view first. You won this time! 😂 keep em coming Wonderhussy!
I 35 highway is for the most part the dividing line from the wetter east and the drier west . The problem with the dust bowl was that the farmer had no idea about wind breaks and the wind blew and blew unrestricted like it always had . After they looked at the problem the Government pushed planting trees on fence lines to break the wind up .
NEBRASKA! Thank you for being the hub of the Ogallala Aquifer‼️ Thank you Wonderhussy for another dive into history like only you can do, but you forgot Nebraska‼️I can testify, I had covered wagon ancestors that located and stayed in Nebraska and lived through not only dust storms, but grasshoppers and Indian raids before the dust storms. But with that prairie wind, dust is a way of life. Imagine living in that vast land in during what seems like a endless winter? It drove many folks crazy. ☮️💜
I read a great book once called Covered Wagon Geologist. The author, Charles Gould, spent his long life as a geologist, starting in the 1890’s. He spent a lot of time traveling that area with many others in the service of both the state of Oklahoma and private industry checking out the topography for features that would be likely to make drilling for oil profitable. Prior to the dust bowl, he was the head man for geology for the state of Oklahoma, and he read with alarm how huge areas of grassland were being opened up for farming. He wrote on his official stationary to the head person in charge of agriculture, telling him that he had been all over that area, and that the natural grass that grew there had deep roots. He told him that plowing it up would be a mistake because the soil underneath was loose and the area was subject to extreme wind. The answer he received told him, paraphrasing,” look, I’m sure you know something about geology, but you don’t know anything about agriculture. Leave agriculture to the people that know something about it.” It’s in his book.
My late mother-in-law (1920-2015) lived in a sod house in North Dakota as a young child. My late mother (1924-2019) grew up in southwest Kansas and lived through the dust bowl. Last month on one of my road trips, I started in southwest Kansas and drove to the east border to visit family I hadn’t seen for decades along the way. Very satisfying trip. I drove some of old Route 66 on the eastern side of Oklahoma. That side of the state is beautiful. Going back soon, I hope to drive the rest of Historic Route 66.
I loved seeing those old tractors on the second farmstead. The orange one was a JI Case LA powered by propane from the 40s to early 50s, and the red one was a Massey Ferguson 1085 or 1105 from the 70s. I sure hope someone saves them at some point. Every old farm has an interesting story. Just like my family farm here in Minnesota, all the buildings even the tractors have their storys and were a source of pride for those who farmed there.
From Liberal Ks. My whole family came to farm here around 1870. My grandfather and dad had to leave during the drought and and dust bowl. All around the families moved west and my family moved to Iowa. WW2 started and 5 boys including my dad went to fight. My dad served in WW2, Korea and Vietnam where I was born.
No man's land was also the name of the border area between West and East Germany. We accidentally drove in it in the 70s and my mom flipped out telling my dad to turn around. And for all those college students that argued with me there WAS a wall around East Germany separating Germany into two countries. I was there. I know it is true.😅
Great episode Sarah! I recommend reading "The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Eagan as well as watching Ken Burns documentary "The Dust Bowl". The big dust clouds/storms are called haboobs and still are happening to this day and recent ones can be seen on TH-cam. Love your channel, keep up the great work!
Thank you for the very interesting video! That must have been a tough life. I wonder how many of today's generation could have survived out there. They were one tough breed of people.
That was fascinating hearing about No Man's Land, I never knew about that. A couple of months ago I found some maps drawn by my great grandfather in 1899. In those maps he labeled the western part of Oklahoma as Indian Territory.
That was a really good video. I actually had a client who just recently passed away who survived the dust bowl she taught me all about it and she also introduced me to the Burl Ives music. The name of the song was big rock Candy Mountain. You should listen to it. It’s pretty cool. She was 96 an amazing woman.
Miss Hussy's unconventional but factual history lessons are like a wind sweeping over the YT plains. When will she receive her first academic robe and head wear?
You mean like a professor Wonderhussy or Doctor Wonderhussy? A PhD in both travelocity ( travels wisely ) and communication ( wordsmith) would be most likely.
Great video. In my parents’ case, recovery from the dust bowl happened when WWII started. Dad’s family moved from West Texas cotton farm to the big city of Wichita Falls TX after so many years of drought and got jobs making Levi jeans. WWII starting and entry into the US Army meant two new pairs of shoes and three meals a day. After the war, dad marries mom, they live for a year or two in WF then made the move to Houston where they were able to make a good living.
Great job, Wonderhussy. Used to live in Boise City. The stove in the second house was an avocado green O'Keefe & Merritt. Straight outta the early 1970s.
9:14 The land run started at high noon on April 22, 1889. An estimated 50,000 people were lined up at the start, seeking to gain a piece of the available two million acres (8,100 km2).
LOL that house you stopped to look over is probably a shell as termites were terrible , my Aunt & Uncles milk house was like that , the wood furniture in it was eaten up . Around 1958 I was staying with them for a week and one evening after they milked their cow we seen a dark cloud up by Alva Ok , when we were done the wind hit and the sand was blowing side ways might of been 40 MPH or more , the sky went dark as night , at bed time I heard tin roofing flying by the house some were , it may of been one of the last dust storms from the dust bowl era .
Hi Sarah, you just gave us a huge history lesson, thank you! I spent a summer as a bartender at the East Side Tavern in Pueblo, CO during the cool as could be 1970s. When it was time to return to college, I only had $40 in my pocket, so I thumbed my way thru CO, KS, then south thru OK, then east on I20 all the way to my cousin's home in Canton, GA. I enjoyed the trip down to Dallas. OK had green hills & never ending sky! I've always wondered about the dust bowl during the depression years. You're an amazing lecturer of history & so sexy too!
Really cool! I noticed when you mentioned all the States where people settled to farm you did miss that when lands were opened up many Americans crossed the border into the Alberta and Saskatchewan territory and to this day their descendants have built up huge farming empires. So many of my neighbours up here their great great grandparents came from Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas etc etc to farm the western Canadian prairies. Lots of old abandoned farm houses here also.
Thank you for coming out here! Fits in nicely with all the pioneer and middle of nowhere videos. It's a fabulous idea to explore this! What is incredible about that 100th parallel is if you drive west on I-40 you can see with your own eyes the difference between western Oklahoma with the livestock and wheat fields and the Texas Panhandle which is desolate and not much there except a giant feed lot. Really can see what the dude was talking about with "not suitable for agriculture."
You did a very good explanation of the history. My Dad was raised in western Nebraska that had the severe drought too in the 1930s. There is a really good do umentary about the dust bowl area in the 1930s.
Great vid, WH ! You are a True American Historian.... You should be awarded an Honorary Degree from some Higher Institution. Greetings from Fife, Scotland. ( I love you, BTW . In a Platonic way ) James . XX
Farming is a tough way to make a living, IF you make a living. I imagine many farms were abandoned when none of the next gen cared to "stay on the farm".
Thanks for this history lesson. My grandma was born in Beaver county OK in a sod house. She escaped the dust bowl by marrying my grandfather who took her with him to Chicago. They worked for Pullman and my grandma was first runner up in the Mrs Pullman pageant.
I would never say I didn’t learn anything from the Wonderhussy channel! I learn something new with every video!! Very interesting how the people just left everything… clothes , curlers .. farming tractors .. makes you really wonder what the heck happened??? Anyways… thanks for another cool video ! 👍
Sarah - You’ve really stretched your wings on this video. Not many people know the history of No Man’s Land. In our 7 years of RVing all over North America… this is the closest we’ve come to running out of fuel in our RV. After unwisely not filling up with Diesel in Boise City there was no open filling station until we got down to New Mexico. We stayed at a nice state park with petrified wood and dinosaur tracks near Kenton. In Kenton we went to the fascinating local museum. The woman working there had been born there when it was a house and moved back to Kenton when she retired. By the way we stopped at the Herzstein Memorial in Clayton, NM. They had an excellent Dust Bowl exhibit. I had no idea the Dust Bowl extended into New Mexico?
Here is how sooners got that name. in 1889, people poured into central Oklahoma to stake their claims to nearly 2 million acres opened for settlement by the U.S. government. Those who entered the region before the land run's designated starting time, at noon on April 22, 1889, were dubbed “sooners.”
THANK YOU. This is what I came to say. My great-great grandfather played by the rules and rode at the shot of the gun to property he'd already scoped out. On the land was a guy who already had a fire built, his horse wasn't winded... it was obvious he'd come out illegally early... he was a "Sooner." All my great- granddad had to do was touch the butt of his gun, and the guy got up, grabbed his stuff, hopped on his horse and rode away. My great-great grandfather was able to claim the land he wanted. (The newspapers of the day described a "massive gunfight," but my great-grandmother assured my dad that was NOT what happened; they were just trying to sell newspapers, lol)
My dad was born in Blackwell, OK in 1926. His father and uncles owned an oil drilling company back then. They had many tales to tell, but it all came to a halt when they sold out to Standard Oil. I've always wanted to see where he was born. Too old now to take up traveling alone, so I enjoy your videos. Thanks for sharing this history lesson with us sweetie.
My great grandfather built the first sod house in Beaver County (right where you are!) before OK was a state. The windmills were and still are primarily used for watering cattle. My family “dry farmed” (without irrigation, dependent only on the rain) wheat which is what most people did and still do. Nothing like California, where I currently live, where we suck up all the water from the ground creating subsidence issues.
Thanks sharing for your historical homework. I’ve been in a few Haboobs in New Mexico, quite the experience. I left my truck windows cracked open when one hit, it took a bit to vacuum it out.
Merle Haggard might have said , The Hussy is 'Proud to be an Okie from Muskogee', or at least in part because her grandma is originally from the dust bowl area. And today I was reminded of how the pan handle of Oklahoma came to be. And that's a long trip, I'm glad you're home and enjoying the coolness of the 'half-split' ?....travel on WH !!
Yeah. those dwellings were called soddies. One was apt to see a goat or two grazing on the roof on occasion. Like you said, people shared living quarters with a few critters, but it was THEIRS. They owned it...and didn't begrudge burning "buffalo chips" in the fireplace or stove to keep warm in winter. Great video, Sarah Jane. Back in the 90s, I was talking to some younger folks who'd never heard of "The Dust Bowl Days". I don't like the fact they stopped teaching history in schools. And we didn't have you back then...so kids were SOL But we have you now, thank goodness.
Interestingly enough, my great uncle was H.H. Finnell who was intramemtal in the education of the farmers and the "restoration" of that whole area down into Texas. If I'm not mistaken another huge problem were the newly introduced disc plows.
You are so interesting and fun, I have driven the I 40 so many times and you actually check out the abandoned farms. That is why you have such a successful channel.
my father grew up on a chicken ranch where the land was purchased from someone who was in the land rush exactly to sell their claim. he joined the army air corp the day he graduated from high school, fought WW2, got a G.I. loan on a house in California and raised kids.
There is a really good video on the dust bowl. Here on TH-cam. I didn't have a clue. It was touched on in school, but that's all. I'm 63, but grew up on the east coast.
@wonderhussey in top form. So much valuable history and great story telling and imagination. Nice to see the abandoned house still having some artifacts and not completely trashed by taggers and thrashers.
Hey, WH ! What a great video ! You outdid yourself on this one, everything is true, well scripted, good video shots, you told it the way it is and happened. I think this is your best work to date. Did you get to stop in Slapout ? On your last video about the zeaolite mine, zeolites are important minerals, used to capture polution and bad stuff, hope they succeed in the mine, and kitty litter is made from weathered volcanic ash, totally different stuff. I had relatives displaced from Oklahoma to California during the 1930s, to Fresno and Sonoma. Thank you.
That’s really neat. You’re probably about 100 miles west of me. I’m in Woodward OK, the panhandle is definitely no man’s land. You will have to try the no man’s land jerky. It’s pretty famous from around there I used to work road construction on those highways out there, extremely desolate pretty much just highways for people to pass through. me and my wife watch your show and we’ve really enjoyed you. You put a smile on our face and you make us laugh a lot. We absolutely love your work you do! And 100%. It’s definitely native American land out there if you end up in.Guymon. I had the pleasure of meeting many native Americans and other ethnic groups, I found it to be quite the melting pot of people out there when I worked on the roads. I think the black Mesa state park is out there also.
The Dust Bowl extended into Eastern New Mexico as well, my mom told us stories of walls of dust bearing down on the farm and how in the winter the falling snow was pink. Love the dry air and wide open spaces as well, salud Sarah
I have a great great grandmother buried out in Oklahoma. Apparently, she was Cherokee. Have been through the state headed to Colorado back in the 1990s. That was a long, bare and arduous journey. Not saying that there's nothing out there but I didn't see much out my way once I left Iowa's green and rolling hills. At least in Iowa you can see a farm a mile off every five miles.
I crossed the panhandle many times in a truck going up and down 287 we use to call it 42 miles of hell cause the road was so bad spent a few nights at the truck stop in Boise city love you WH be safe ❤
Great storytelling, as always. I would add a cautionary tale beginning with the introduction of early tractors (instead of less efficient horse drawn plows) prior to the dustbowl contributed to the over aggressive farming in the region, with predictable results.
Thank you for another informative video. So much to see and do in Oklahoma... I just don't want to have a homebase or "live " there again... Thank you again for taking us along on your journey. 😊
Listen to John Cougar Mellancamp's song "Rain on the Scarecrow". I am picturing farm foreclosures from the 1970s & 80s causing the farms' abandonments.
The Oklahoma land rush was in 1889, Sooners were the ones who crossed into Oklahoma prior to the noon Cannon Shot(s) to start the run. I was born in OKC. University of Oklahoma fans yell Boomer Sooner to honor those who waited for the Cannon booms and also those who came across Sooner.
![ปฏิเสธไม่ไหว (Crush on you) - LIPTA feat. No One Else [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/NBw1jF342vw/mqdefault.jpg)
Sarah is a natural born narrator, a real gift.
She's also a true AMERICAN.🗽
@@vernwallen4246 ...and more !!....
Huell Howser would be proud!
You are amazing and so knowledgeable and entertaining, Sarah! Thank you.
@@JoryBlake I met Huell when he was doing a bit on MCAS El Toro. I always liked his work a lot.
My late Father was an Okie. "The dirt just up and blowed away!", and thirteen children (needed for a large farm) were loaded on a Model T pickup with everything they could pack in it. Had to leave everything they had worked for and move.
Hey! I've learned a whole lot from you. Thanks for that.
My Father was the youngest of those thirteen children. There had been fifteen, but prior to the move there were two children that died. The oldest of the living, my Uncle Roy, was an entertainer who had a gig (they were live at the radio stations when it happened) playing guitar and singing. He figured, since he was going... he could fill the false floor of his car with whiskey (during prohibition days). Make a bit of extra cash to help the family be fed. He was pulled over before reaching the big city radio station, and had to spend a few years in the federal prison for bootlegging. Well... the radio station was anxious to fill the slot left open when Uncle Roy didn't show, so they went out into the street just looking for anyone... and saw a man with a guitar strapped to his back who was hanging around for just such an opportunity. That man went on to become one of the most popular entertainers of the era... Eddie Arnold. So... "Anytime... you're feeling lonely... Anytime... you're feeling blue... Anytime, you say... you want be back again... that's the time I'll be coming home to you.".
Millions of stories like this good and bad happy and sad need to be passed on to the next generation and on thank you
Thank you so much for telling this story!
❤ this story! Thanks for sharing 😊
Great story!
Thank you. And thank you WH for just doing what she does, so people like Douglas have a place to tell an amazing story like this.
Western Oklahoma. Where you can watch your dog run away for 3 days.
Don't forget under that charming windmill you had to dig a well between 100 and 300 feet deep to reach the Ogallala Aquifer.
My grandparents had a farm in the Texas panhandle and their well had to be drilled deeper as the Oglala aquifer got lower. The water pump ran 24/7 during growing season, powered by a V8 engine.
My grandparents emigrated from Scotland in 1904. settled in northwest Saskatchewan Canada, the first home & where my mom was born was a sod hut. the grew veggies on the roof. it was a 1 room shack they had 14 children. T he land is still in the family and still farmed. I am now 77 yrs &have visited the homestead many times
If the U.S. wanted to improve the the history curriculum in schools, WH videos would be a great foundation, you make history come alive, then explore the old houses, the ghost towns, the fossilised reminders of past decisions. Well done. 👍👍👍❤️😊
Very interesting. My father was part of the dustbowl migration into bakersfield calif.
He lost half a lung as a small child because of the dust.
Tough people they were..🥰
My dad's side of the family migrated to Bakersfield in the first yr of the dust. My grand father had been working the oil fields of Texas. And packed up & quit when he hadn't heard from his wife for 2 months. First week back they were on their way to calif. There was a calif road block, stopping migrants from entering the state, so he had to drive around the road block for a day in a half thru the desert. He got lucky and got his job back with Standard oil working in Taft. After 3 months living in a Migrant camp out of work. Tough times make tough men.
@@douglasgault5458 my granfather and father also worked in tbe oil fields.
There was such strength and resilience in these people.
They lived in cars, built makeshift houses.then achieved the american dream.
The greatest generation. So proud of my heritage.🥰
My paternal biological grandfather came from Oklahoma to Bakersfield, too! Was any of your family part of the Choctaw group? Unfortunately, he abandoned my dad after his wife died (and there's a story there... she got pregnant as a teenager and then eloped to Vegas and lied about her age), and my dad was adopted by a family in Visalia. We only had vague information, but was told that his father was Choctaw from the Oklahoma Territory and came to work the rail/oil with many of the Dust Bowlers. To this day, the largest Choctaw membership outside of Oklahoma is right in Bakersfield. I'm told it's the whitest group of Native Americans most people have ever seen. LOL
Chicasaw
Wow Wonderhussy, I remember when you hit 100k subscribers. I just noticed that you are up to 266k! Five Hundred thousand …here you come 🙃
I gave this one wide circulation because it was very educational about the history of the area. My parents experienced the dry thirties in North Dakota. In the northern states the meridian divided the state into what was called the tall grass prairies on the east and the short grass prairies on the west. After the crop failures of the thirties, crop rotation and summer fallowing were introduced. Only half the acreage was planted each year with the grain crops. In between the planted areas, the soil was left unplanted, but was tilled to turn the vegetation (prairie grass and weeds) over into the soil to make it more productive when it was planted the next year. Fertilization was not used during this time. Now crop rotation and summer fallowing has been replaced by fertilization and all the land is planted in crops, with some new crops like soy beans and sunflowers replacing the minor crops like oats and flax. Wheat remains as one of the major crops on both sided of the meridian. Thanks for taking the time to explain the history of the No Mans Land and the dust bowl. I imagine this is new knowledge for many of your subscribers.
The book "The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl" by Timothy Egan is a mindboggling account of the lives of people in the 30's.
I have a lot of relatives who grew up in the panhandle during the 1930s and 40s (and a few who still live there). There's a certain beauty to the solitude out there.
My family had a farm in the northeastern corner of Oklahoma until 2000. Our family farm is mentioned in many accounts of the Trail of Tears. Our land had an artesian spring, lots of vegetation, shelter from the winter, and plenty of places to bury their dead.
Green Acres. Eddie Albert was a huge proponent of sustainable farming and spent a large part of his life giving speeches petitioning the gov and teaching farmers good practices in the area. Lose the top soil you lose everything. Climate migration. They used to stop Okie's from coming to Cali at the border, pre ACLU. Strange time in history and one that shouldn't be forgotten.
"The History Guy" would say it "deserves to be remembered." Didn't know that about Eddie Arnold!
@@jubelet Eddie Albert is different than Eddie Arnold.
My mom came from this land and grew up during the Dust Bowl, thanks for covering this spot and it's history. There was no land for anyone to "inherit" so after my grandparents passed they walked away from the farm. I'm a CA person that can trace my roots to OK, my mom moved there when she was 14, my uncles showed up later (were stationed at Long Beach in the Navy) then WWII happened.
Farmers often take short term loans to get by until harvest time. If it was a bad year, they'd lode the farm. Not many people looking to live there so the bank lets the property go for taxes and there it sits. Or, the people die, the kids long moved away, can't sell the farm, no one wants it. So it goes back to the county for taxes. Either way, people are leaving the rural places.
I grew up in far Southwest Kansas and went to college at Oklahoma Panhandle State University in Goodwell, Oklahoma, so I know that area very well!
Ahh Tumble Weed Tech! An Okie here!
Home of Robert Etbauer.
Yeah Jonathandenny
I also want to OPSU. Grew up in Southeast Colorado, and currently live there. Like you, I know the area well. Have never minded living in this 5 state region. GO Aggies!!
The Great Wonderhussy Trek to view the eclipse continues to produce interesting and informative videos.
Hardscrabble farms existed before the Dustbowl years and ever since. So many hopes and dreams. Every property has its own story. Thanks for illuminating this mid-continent,middle of nowhere story. 😊Stay safe Sarah.
The old tractor shown at 29:30 is a rare type of tractor. It ran on propane gas. The propane tank is located just ahead of the steering wheel.
A Case LA
Propane or butane power wasn't rare. That LA Case looks like it came from the factory to run on propane. The price was $0.065/gallon delivered to the farm in the late 50's and early 60's. People converted gasoline tractors, pickups, trucks, and even some cars to run on butane or propane. Diesel fuel was $0.18/gallon then without road tax, gasoline was about $0.30/gallon with road tax included.
Probably should have paid road tax on propane used in cars and trucks, but nobody did.
Okie here, born & raised. It was called The Land Rush when folks got to simply stake a claim to the land they wanted & the Cherokee basically got the town now called Talequah. Before that, however, they were brought to this state from Tennessee mostly, on the Trail of Tears. Oklahoma is known as Native Country & has a lot of interesting native history many people are unaware of. The panhandle is desert while the eastern half is known as Green Country. If anyone is interested in Oklahomas Dust Bowl, read the book The Grapes of Wrath.
Hey Wonderhussy. It seems that both you and Steve from Sideshow Adventues post your videos at 9:00 pst! So I flip a coin to determine which one I'll view first. You won this time! 😂 keep em coming Wonderhussy!
I 35 highway is for the most part the dividing line from the wetter east and the drier west . The problem with the dust bowl was that the farmer had no idea about wind breaks and the wind blew and blew unrestricted like it always had . After they looked at the problem the Government pushed planting trees on fence lines to break the wind up .
NEBRASKA! Thank you for being the hub of the Ogallala Aquifer‼️ Thank you Wonderhussy for another dive into history like only you can do, but you forgot Nebraska‼️I can testify, I had covered wagon ancestors that located and stayed in Nebraska and lived through not only dust storms, but grasshoppers and Indian raids before the dust storms. But with that prairie wind, dust is a way of life. Imagine living in that vast land in during what seems like a endless winter? It drove many folks crazy.
☮️💜
My grandmother was born in a “Soddy” in 1889 in Beatrice, Nebraska.
I read a great book once called Covered Wagon Geologist. The author, Charles Gould, spent his long life as a geologist, starting in the 1890’s. He spent a lot of time traveling that area with many others in the service of both the state of Oklahoma and private industry checking out the topography for features that would be likely to make drilling for oil profitable. Prior to the dust bowl, he was the head man for geology for the state of Oklahoma, and he read with alarm how huge areas of grassland were being opened up for farming. He wrote on his official stationary to the head person in charge of agriculture, telling him that he had been all over that area, and that the natural grass that grew there had deep roots. He told him that plowing it up would be a mistake because the soil underneath was loose and the area was subject to extreme wind. The answer he received told him, paraphrasing,” look, I’m sure you know something about geology, but you don’t know anything about agriculture. Leave agriculture to the people that know something about it.” It’s in his book.
My late mother-in-law (1920-2015) lived in a sod house in North Dakota as a young child. My late mother (1924-2019) grew up in southwest Kansas and lived through the dust bowl. Last month on one of my road trips, I started in southwest Kansas and drove to the east border to visit family I hadn’t seen for decades along the way. Very satisfying trip. I drove some of old Route 66 on the eastern side of Oklahoma. That side of the state is beautiful. Going back soon, I hope to drive the rest of Historic Route 66.
I loved seeing those old tractors on the second farmstead. The orange one was a JI Case LA powered by propane from the 40s to early 50s, and the red one was a Massey Ferguson 1085 or 1105 from the 70s. I sure hope someone saves them at some point. Every old farm has an interesting story. Just like my family farm here in Minnesota, all the buildings even the tractors have their storys and were a source of pride for those who farmed there.
From Liberal Ks. My whole family came to farm here around 1870. My grandfather and dad had to leave during the drought and and dust bowl. All around the families moved west and my family moved to Iowa. WW2 started and 5 boys including my dad went to fight. My dad served in WW2, Korea and Vietnam where I was born.
I'm already fascinated at the 3:00 mark. Okay, gotta get back to this.
No man's land was also the name of the border area between West and East Germany. We accidentally drove in it in the 70s and my mom flipped out telling my dad to turn around. And for all those college students that argued with me there WAS a wall around East Germany separating Germany into two countries. I was there. I know it is true.😅
I got to venture through Checkpoint Charlie a few times ...🙂
I did too. We went on a few shopping tours in East Berlin. Got my passport stamped.
Great episode Sarah! I recommend reading "The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Eagan as well as watching Ken Burns documentary "The Dust Bowl". The big dust clouds/storms are called haboobs and still are happening to this day and recent ones can be seen on TH-cam. Love your channel, keep up the great work!
Thank you for the very interesting video! That must have been a tough life. I wonder how many of today's generation could have survived out there. They were one tough breed of people.
That was fascinating hearing about No Man's Land, I never knew about that. A couple of months ago I found some maps drawn by my great grandfather in 1899. In those maps he labeled the western part of Oklahoma as Indian Territory.
Makes me think of the movie "The Grapes of Wrath" with Henry Fonda! Nice work Sarah!
Henry Fonda?
@@kendallsmith1458 Thank you!
That was a really good video. I actually had a client who just recently passed away who survived the dust bowl she taught me all about it and she also introduced me to the Burl Ives music. The name of the song was big rock Candy Mountain. You should listen to it. It’s pretty cool. She was 96 an amazing woman.
I know that song...
Harry McClintock wrote that song in 1895. Didn't record it until 1928. It didn't not become a "hit" until 1939. Burl Ives version was 1949.
Enjoy your historical videos way better than hot springs info.Well done!
Miss Hussy's unconventional but factual history lessons are like a wind sweeping over the YT plains. When will she receive her first academic robe and head wear?
I was thinking the same? Having a PhD next to her name would give her some street cred too. Hehe.
You mean like a professor Wonderhussy or Doctor Wonderhussy? A PhD in both travelocity ( travels wisely ) and communication ( wordsmith) would be most likely.
I've learned a whole lot from the Wonderhussy channel!
Indeed!
You should be on the History channel. I always feel a little bit smarter after watching your adventures. Best darn History teacher that I ever had.
Great video. In my parents’ case, recovery from the dust bowl happened when WWII started. Dad’s family moved from West Texas cotton farm to the big city of Wichita Falls TX after so many years of drought and got jobs making Levi jeans. WWII starting and entry into the US Army meant two new pairs of shoes and three meals a day. After the war, dad marries mom, they live for a year or two in WF then made the move to Houston where they were able to make a good living.
Great job, Wonderhussy. Used to live in Boise City. The stove in the second house was an avocado green O'Keefe & Merritt. Straight outta the early 1970s.
Haha! We have a Nomansland, (Spelt that way) Here in the UK, Cornwall to be precise!
Cornish American here! Give my regards to Cornwall.
@@martharetallick204 Will do! I'm passing through Torpoint later today!
9:14 The land run started at high noon on April 22, 1889. An estimated 50,000 people were lined up at the start, seeking to gain a piece of the available two million acres (8,100 km2).
LOL that house you stopped to look over is probably a shell as termites were terrible , my Aunt & Uncles milk house was like that , the wood furniture in it was eaten up . Around 1958 I was staying with them for a week and one evening after they milked their cow we seen a dark cloud up by Alva Ok , when we were done the wind hit and the sand was blowing side ways might of been 40 MPH or more , the sky went dark as night , at bed time I heard tin roofing flying by the house some were , it may of been one of the last dust storms from the dust bowl era .
My dads dad is from Oklahoma! My great grandfather is buried in the same town that his son, who is also my grandfather, was born in!
I live in Oklahoma and grew up in Oklahoma just West of the 100 meridian. This was very accurate. Thanks for the shout out.
Hi Sarah, you just gave us a huge history lesson, thank you! I spent a summer as a bartender at the East Side Tavern in Pueblo, CO during the cool as could be 1970s. When it was time to return to college, I only had $40 in my pocket, so I thumbed my way thru CO, KS, then south thru OK, then east on I20 all the way to my cousin's home in Canton, GA. I enjoyed the trip down to Dallas. OK had green hills & never ending sky! I've always wondered about the dust bowl during the depression years. You're an amazing lecturer of history & so sexy too!
Really cool! I noticed when you mentioned all the States where people settled to farm you did miss that when lands were opened up many Americans crossed the border into the Alberta and Saskatchewan territory and to this day their descendants have built up huge farming empires. So many of my neighbours up here their great great grandparents came from Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas etc etc to farm the western Canadian prairies. Lots of old abandoned farm houses here also.
Thank you for coming out here! Fits in nicely with all the pioneer and middle of nowhere videos. It's a fabulous idea to explore this!
What is incredible about that 100th parallel is if you drive west on I-40 you can see with your own eyes the difference between western Oklahoma with the livestock and wheat fields and the Texas Panhandle which is desolate and not much there except a giant feed lot. Really can see what the dude was talking about with "not suitable for agriculture."
You did a very good explanation of the history. My Dad was raised in western Nebraska that had the severe drought too in the 1930s. There is a really good do umentary about the dust bowl area in the 1930s.
They had a sod house on the original farm.
Great vid, WH !
You are a True American Historian....
You should be awarded an Honorary Degree from some Higher Institution.
Greetings from Fife, Scotland.
( I love you, BTW . In a Platonic way )
James . XX
Greetings from Oklahoma ❤!!
Farming is a tough way to make a living, IF you make a living. I imagine many farms were abandoned when none of the next gen cared to "stay on the farm".
"Sooners" were the crooks who jumped the gun and staked out land before they were supposed to.
I was hoping someone would correct the mis-statement.
Thanks for this history lesson. My grandma was born in Beaver county OK in a sod house. She escaped the dust bowl by marrying my grandfather who took her with him to Chicago. They worked for Pullman and my grandma was first runner up in the Mrs Pullman pageant.
I would never say I didn’t learn anything from the Wonderhussy channel! I learn something new with every video!!
Very interesting how the people just left everything… clothes , curlers .. farming tractors .. makes you really wonder what the heck happened???
Anyways… thanks for another cool video ! 👍
Sarah - You’ve really stretched your wings on this video. Not many people know the history of No Man’s Land. In our 7 years of RVing all over North America… this is the closest we’ve come to running out of fuel in our RV. After unwisely not filling up with Diesel in Boise City there was no open filling station until we got down to New Mexico. We stayed at a nice state park with petrified wood and dinosaur tracks near Kenton. In Kenton we went to the fascinating local museum. The woman working there had been born there when it was a house and moved back to Kenton when she retired.
By the way we stopped at the Herzstein Memorial in Clayton, NM. They had an excellent Dust Bowl exhibit. I had no idea the Dust Bowl extended into New Mexico?
Classic sign of Evictions in those two houses you visited.
Those dust clouds weren't just a mile high, they were MILES high! The dust clouds were so big, even New York City was hit hard.
Bad times.
Interesting, informative and…..adorable! Wonderhussy magic!
Here is how sooners got that name. in 1889, people poured into central Oklahoma to stake their claims to nearly 2 million acres opened for settlement by the U.S. government. Those who entered the region before the land run's designated starting time, at noon on April 22, 1889, were dubbed “sooners.”
THANK YOU. This is what I came to say.
My great-great grandfather played by the rules and rode at the shot of the gun to property he'd already scoped out. On the land was a guy who already had a fire built, his horse wasn't winded... it was obvious he'd come out illegally early... he was a "Sooner." All my great- granddad had to do was touch the butt of his gun, and the guy got up, grabbed his stuff, hopped on his horse and rode away. My great-great grandfather was able to claim the land he wanted.
(The newspapers of the day described a "massive gunfight," but my great-grandmother assured my dad that was NOT what happened; they were just trying to sell newspapers, lol)
My dad was born in Blackwell, OK in 1926. His father and uncles owned an oil drilling company back then. They had many tales to tell, but it all came to a halt when they sold out to Standard Oil. I've always wanted to see where he was born. Too old now to take up traveling alone, so I enjoy your videos. Thanks for sharing this history lesson with us sweetie.
Informative entertainment. Great show.
My great grandfather built the first sod house in Beaver County (right where you are!) before OK was a state. The windmills were and still are primarily used for watering cattle. My family “dry farmed” (without irrigation, dependent only on the rain) wheat which is what most people did and still do. Nothing like California, where I currently live, where we suck up all the water from the ground creating subsidence issues.
My grandfather and grandmother were born in Indian territory near Ponca City. They stayed.
Thanks sharing for your historical homework.
I’ve been in a few Haboobs in New Mexico, quite the experience. I left my truck windows cracked open when one hit, it took a bit to vacuum it out.
I read a book about the Dust Bowl and boy it was knarly what people went through!
LOVE your videos Wonder Hussy!!!
The first land run was in 1889, not 1907. 1907 was the year Oklahoma became a state. Thanks for visiting the Sooner State. I hope you enjoyed it!
This was a fascinating video! Thank you for your insights Wonderhussy!!
26:40 the Olive colored oven, along with the shag carpeting, screams 1970.
Sure does!
Merle Haggard might have said , The Hussy is 'Proud to be an Okie from Muskogee', or at least in part because her grandma is originally from the dust bowl area. And today I was reminded of how the pan handle of Oklahoma came to be. And that's a long trip, I'm glad you're home and enjoying the coolness of the 'half-split' ?....travel on WH !!
Yeah. those dwellings were called soddies. One was apt to see a goat or two grazing on the roof on occasion. Like you said, people shared living quarters with a few critters, but it was THEIRS.
They owned it...and didn't begrudge burning "buffalo chips" in the fireplace or stove to keep warm in winter.
Great video, Sarah Jane. Back in the 90s, I was talking to some younger folks who'd never heard of "The Dust Bowl Days". I don't like the fact they stopped teaching history in schools. And we
didn't have you back then...so kids were SOL But we have you now, thank goodness.
My grandparents owned the general store in Balko. Dad talked about the dust bowl. My sisters and I still own a small farm in Beaver County.
History class is in session! Thank you Teacher Hussey
Interestingly enough, my great uncle was H.H. Finnell who was intramemtal in the education of the farmers and the "restoration" of that whole area down into Texas. If I'm not mistaken another huge problem were the newly introduced disc plows.
Children's toys and clothes left behind because they only left with what they could carry in their car. Thanks for this happy video
Wonderhussy... much respect... what a wonderful history lesson... amazing vlog.
Welcome to Oklahoma!
You are so interesting and fun, I have driven the I 40 so many times and you actually check out the abandoned farms. That is why you have such a successful channel.
my father grew up on a chicken ranch where the land was purchased from someone who was in the land rush exactly to sell their claim. he joined the army air corp the day he graduated from high school, fought WW2, got a G.I. loan on a house in California and raised kids.
There is a really good video on the dust bowl. Here on TH-cam. I didn't have a clue. It was touched on in school, but that's all. I'm 63, but grew up on the east coast.
THANKS for the Lesson...
@wonderhussey in top form. So much valuable history and great story telling and imagination. Nice to see the abandoned house still having some artifacts and not completely trashed by taggers and thrashers.
Hey, WH ! What a great video ! You outdid yourself on this one, everything is true, well scripted, good video shots, you told it the way it is and happened. I think this is your best work to date. Did you get to stop in Slapout ? On your last video about the zeaolite mine, zeolites are important minerals, used to capture polution and bad stuff, hope they succeed in the mine, and kitty litter is made from weathered volcanic ash, totally different stuff. I had relatives displaced from Oklahoma to California during the 1930s, to Fresno and Sonoma. Thank you.
Excellent video. Thank you, Sarah Jane.
That’s really neat. You’re probably about 100 miles west of me. I’m in Woodward OK, the panhandle is definitely no man’s land. You will have to try the no man’s land jerky. It’s pretty famous from around there I used to work road construction on those highways out there, extremely desolate pretty much just highways for people to pass through. me and my wife watch your show and we’ve really enjoyed you. You put a smile on our face and you make us laugh a lot. We absolutely love your work you do! And 100%. It’s definitely native American land out there if you end up in.Guymon. I had the pleasure of meeting many native Americans and other ethnic groups, I found it to be quite the melting pot of people out there when I worked on the roads. I think the black Mesa state park is out there also.
The Dust Bowl extended into Eastern New Mexico as well, my mom told us stories of walls of dust bearing down on the farm and how in the winter the falling snow was pink. Love the dry air and wide open spaces as well, salud Sarah
There was a movie with Tom Cruise called far and away about that race for free land in Oklahoma! Not a bad movie!
I have a great great grandmother buried out in Oklahoma. Apparently, she was Cherokee. Have been through the state headed to Colorado back in the 1990s. That was a long, bare and arduous journey. Not saying that there's nothing out there but I didn't see much out my way once I left Iowa's green and rolling hills. At least in Iowa you can see a farm a mile off every five miles.
I crossed the panhandle many times in a truck going up and down 287 we use to call it 42 miles of hell cause the road was so bad spent a few nights at the truck stop in Boise city love you WH be safe ❤
Thanks for sharing the adventure and the history stay safe wild and free 🎉❤
Great storytelling, as always. I would add a cautionary tale beginning with the introduction of early tractors (instead of less efficient horse drawn plows) prior to the dustbowl contributed to the over aggressive farming in the region, with predictable results.
I always learn from you, Sarah
Thank you for another informative video. So much to see and do in Oklahoma... I just don't want to have a homebase or "live " there again... Thank you again for taking us along on your journey. 😊
Black Mesa, the highest point in Oklahoma, is a cool hike. Watch out for rattlesnakes though!
You never disappoint!
Listen to John Cougar Mellancamp's song "Rain on the Scarecrow". I am picturing farm foreclosures from the 1970s & 80s causing the farms' abandonments.
Thank you for another educational tour. You should have a travel program on PBS the nation would enjoy it.
Did you visit the town of Nowhere, Oklahoma, Sarah? Nowhere is in the southwest of Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma land rush was in 1889, Sooners were the ones who crossed into Oklahoma prior to the noon Cannon Shot(s) to start the run. I was born in OKC. University of Oklahoma fans yell Boomer Sooner to honor those who waited for the Cannon booms and also those who came across Sooner.
Interesting as always 🙂
Fascinating ❤ love your adventures 😊
You are a great singer and I like you voice . Interesting history lesson too , more please !