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Speaker 1: It was eighteen seventy five, and the people under the

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Speaker 1: blazing Minnesota sun hoped for relief. At first, they welcomed

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Speaker 1: the ominous cloud forming on the horizon, but instead of rain,

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Speaker 1: came locusts. Like something out of a horror movie. They

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Speaker 1: blanketed everything before them, eating and chewing through every green

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Speaker 1: growing thing, and then when they had devoured every crop,

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Speaker 1: the ravenous insects took to paper, cloth, and even the

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Speaker 1: wool off of sheep. Intense summer heat had caused the

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Speaker 1: grasshopper population to explode. For some mysterious reason, certain species

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Speaker 1: morphed into hideous, long winged, ravenous locusts, and while yes,

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Speaker 1: insects are pretty light, estimates put the total weight of

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Speaker 1: the swarm at roughly the equivalent of a full grown bison.

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Speaker 1: They blanketed the skies and fields from Texas in the

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Speaker 1: south all the way to the Dakota Territory in the north.

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Speaker 1: The locusts washed up against fences, creating drifts a foot deep.

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Speaker 1: As one landowner put it, they ate everything except the mortgage.

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Speaker 1: Farmers filled trenches with sticks and leaves before setting them ablaze,

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Speaker 1: but the thick wave of locusts smothered the flames. It

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Speaker 1: was like bringing a fly swater to a gunfight. When

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Speaker 1: Autumn rolled in, the bugs sunned themselves on the railroad tracks.

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Speaker 1: But when the cooler morning came, the chili insects found

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Speaker 1: themselves unable to move. If you're imagining a slippery, gooey

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Speaker 1: mess and train wrecks, then were both on the same page.

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Speaker 1: Communities turned to the government for assistance. Unfortunately, state governments

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Speaker 1: offered next to no relief, and Congress tossed a measly

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Speaker 1: one hundred thousand dollars at the problem. In eighteen seventy five,

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Speaker 1: the locusts returned in record numbers. At an astounding one

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Speaker 1: hundred ten miles wide, eighteen hundred miles long, and a

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Speaker 1: quarter mile deep. They covered a staggering one hundred ninety

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Speaker 1: eight thousand square miles, and inside that buzzing cloud were

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Speaker 1: an estimated three point five trillion hung insects. Many settlers

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Speaker 1: abandoned their homesteads and ventured west, hoping for a fresh start.

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Speaker 1: But new isn't always better, and sometimes it comes at

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Speaker 1: an unimaginable cost. I'm Aaron Mankee, and welcome to the

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Speaker 1: wild West. They had always been wanderers. Ever since the

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Speaker 1: moment the ancestors first stepped off the Mayflower, the Ingles

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Speaker 1: family had been reinventing themselves through hardship, and they were

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Speaker 1: good at it. In fact, it might have been that

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Speaker 1: starting point in Puritan New England, where Martha Ingles had

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Speaker 1: been accused of witchcraft in the town of Salem, that

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Speaker 1: spurred their move westward. By the time Charles was born

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Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty six, the family had settled in New York.

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Speaker 1: Unfortunately for the Ingles family, America's first Great Depression came

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Speaker 1: along a year later. As it dragged on for the

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Speaker 1: next seven years, it decimated whatever wealth the family managed

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Speaker 1: to accumulate. Their search for a better life led them

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Speaker 1: to Wisconsin, and although the family was poor, Charles found

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Speaker 1: riches in another area of life. Love. He met Caroline

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Speaker 1: Lake Kuiner, whose family was equally poor. Romance blossomed between them,

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Speaker 1: and they married in February of eighteen sixty. For a

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Speaker 1: short time, life seemed good for both clans. Sadly, the

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Speaker 1: financial crash after the Southern Secession shattered their dreams of prosperity,

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Speaker 1: nearly wiping out both families life savings. It making matters worse,

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Speaker 1: Wisconsin put a controversial military draft in place as the

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Speaker 1: Civil War began. Caroline's brother Joseph tragically died after an

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Speaker 1: injury he sustained in the Battle of Shiloh. To avoid

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Speaker 1: the draft, many of the male residents of Wisconsin suddenly

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Speaker 1: developed a range of disabilities. Some claim to have bad eyes,

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Speaker 1: while others said they suffered from lameness or bronchitis. I've

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Speaker 1: seen no mention of bone spurs, but I'm sure that

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Speaker 1: excuse was you as well. Charles Ingles also managed to

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Speaker 1: avoid enlistments. Although it's unclear how, the Ingles headed north

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Speaker 1: to live closer to family who had settled in Pepin, Wisconsin.

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Speaker 1: In January of eighteen sixty five, they welcomed their first child,

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Speaker 1: Mary Amelia. Two years later, in February of eighteen sixty seven,

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Speaker 1: Laura Elizabeth was born, but it wasn't long before the

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Speaker 1: family hit the open road again. This time, they traveled

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Speaker 1: through Missouri and then to southeastern Kansas. At first, they

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Speaker 1: tried to settle in Native American territory, but that didn't

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Speaker 1: work out as plan, so they began searching for a

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Speaker 1: new opportunity. It was the rumor of rich farmland in

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Speaker 1: Minnesota that finally drew them north. During their travels, Caroline

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Speaker 1: gave birth to two more daughters, Carrie and Grace. The

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Speaker 1: Ingles had very little to no money, but the newly

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Speaker 1: minted Homestead Act gave the family of six an opportunity

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Speaker 1: that they couldn't resist. And we've talked about the Act

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Speaker 1: before on this show, but here's a quick refresher. Established

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Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty two, it offered lower income Americans the

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Speaker 1: chance to own their own land. Homesteaders could either take

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Speaker 1: to squatting on land or pay a small fee. But

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Speaker 1: nothing comes without a catch, does it, And those seeking

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Speaker 1: property also had to reside on it for five years,

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Speaker 1: and there were other conditions too. Applicants had to be

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Speaker 1: either the head of a household or at least twenty

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Speaker 1: one years old. Two neighbors or friends had to vouch

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Speaker 1: that claimants had never taken up arms against the US

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Speaker 1: and intended to honor the requirements, and freeland was too

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Speaker 1: good to pass up. After filing a claim for a

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Speaker 1: nice piece of property along the banks of Plum Creek

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Speaker 1: near Walnut Grove, the Ingles settled down once again, but

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Speaker 1: carving out a new life was far from easy. Homesteaders

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Speaker 1: faced blizzards and limited supplies. Open fields meant fewer trees

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Speaker 1: for building materials, and their livestocks struggled with the lack

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Speaker 1: of proper vegetation. Despite their hard work, the family remained poor.

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Speaker 1: For Christmas one year, Laura and her siblings felt lucky

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Speaker 1: enough to get a piece of candy that was it

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Speaker 1: tucked away deep in the woods. Predators like wolves howled

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Speaker 1: in the night. Fire was an ever present threat, and

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Speaker 1: the distance between neighbors and towns made getting crops to

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Speaker 1: market difficult. But hope outweighed the risks for them, and

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Speaker 1: when the first railway connecting the east to the West

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Speaker 1: coast was completed on May tenth of eighteen sixty nine,

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Speaker 1: farmers everywhere rejoiced. More land rushes spurred on a wave

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Speaker 1: of homesteaders, but with all the difficulty and the locust invasions,

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Speaker 1: the Ingles began to look elsewhere. This time, the family

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Speaker 1: set off for Dakota Territory. Unbeknownst to them, though the

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Speaker 1: best land had already been taken, that wouldn't be the

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Speaker 1: worst of their troubles. I can only imagine what it

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Speaker 1: looked like. Newspaper ads depicted fields of bountiful crops utter

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Speaker 1: abundance to those who were down on their luck. But

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Speaker 1: little did they know that those railroad company ads were

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Speaker 1: nothing more than an illusion. You see, the Great Plains,

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Speaker 1: including the d Quota Territory, had remained largely unsettled until

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Speaker 1: the late eighteen seventies for a few reasons. For one,

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Speaker 1: Native Americans had put up a valiant resistance against displacement

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Speaker 1: from their ancestral territory. One clear example of this could

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Speaker 1: be seen as gold seekers descended upon the Black Hills,

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Speaker 1: forcing the Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux to fight to protect

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Speaker 1: their sacred land. And then there was the environment. To

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Speaker 1: put it bluntly, the Great Plains was a farming nightmare.

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Speaker 1: Even as far back as eighteen oh three, Thomas Jefferson

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Speaker 1: called it and I quote, an immense trackless desert, and

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Speaker 1: over the years numerous explorers and surveyors echoed his sentiments.

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Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy seven, Major John Wesley Powell, a war

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Speaker 1: hero and a scientist, conducted extensive expeditions into the Western territories.

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Speaker 1: He classified the land into three categories, humid, sub humid,

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Speaker 1: and arid. And here's the kicker. According to Powell, a

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Speaker 1: mere three percent of the arid land was suitable for farming.

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Speaker 1: He warned anyone who would listen that the small farmers

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Speaker 1: flocking to Dakota Territory would likely be financially ruined within

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Speaker 1: a decade. Their only hope was cooperative farming. If local

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Speaker 1: farmers could pool their resources and knowledge, he suggested that

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Speaker 1: they might stand a chance, But railroad companies brushed away

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Speaker 1: Powell's scientific evidence and warnings. Instead, they waged a relentless

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Speaker 1: campaign to fuel the Dakota boom. After all, without the

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Speaker 1: farmers and travelers, the railroads wouldn't make a dime. Charles

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Speaker 1: found a job as a bookkeeper with a railroad company.

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Speaker 1: He scouted the area around Silver Lake for the perfect homestead,

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Speaker 1: eventually choosing a plot not far from the budding town

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Speaker 1: of Desmet. After the winter of eighteen seventy nine, the

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Speaker 1: area became a boom town, and the Ingles built a

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Speaker 1: structure not much more than a shack. Claim shanties like

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Speaker 1: the one that Charles and his family constructed were flimsy

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Speaker 1: structures made from spare materials and leftover lumber. The spring

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Speaker 1: and summer were beautiful that year, and the family needed

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Speaker 1: little more than what nature provided, and they barely had

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Speaker 1: more than that anyway. And although the weather was pleasant,

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Speaker 1: the soil and the farming conditions were meager at best.

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Speaker 1: But Charles was nothing if not resourceful. Wild grasses grew abundantly,

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Speaker 1: and he cut and sold them for a quick buck.

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Speaker 1: They invested in a mowing machine and a hay rake

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Speaker 1: with the money that they earned from that. But little

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Speaker 1: did they know that this crop would serve as a

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Speaker 1: lifeline during the unforgiving months to come. Charles and Caroline

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Speaker 1: had planned to rely on the railroads to supplement their supplies,

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Speaker 1: but nature had its own plans. In late September that year,

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Speaker 1: the summer drew to a close and rains arrived. Then,

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Speaker 1: in a twist of fate, on Friday, October fifteenth of

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Speaker 1: eighteen eighty, it happened the sun seemed to vanish from

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Speaker 1: the sky. The winds shifted to the northwest, bringing torrential rain, sleet,

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Speaker 1: and ice. Followed a blizzard, unusually early for the season,

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Speaker 1: descended upon desmet snowfall in intensified throughout the day and night,

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Speaker 1: transforming the landscape into a maze of enormous snowdrifts. While

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Speaker 1: there were no reported deaths, the blizzard wreaked havoc. The

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Speaker 1: Ingles battled the elements, performing chores and preparing meals, and

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Speaker 1: simply trying to stay warm. The wind in the region

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Speaker 1: howled at speeds of up to seventy miles per hour,

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Speaker 1: and unprotected animals succumbed to the bitter cold. Settler David

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Speaker 1: Gilbert and his father had been constructing a shanty made

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Speaker 1: of sod when the storm hit. They huddled together in

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Speaker 1: the structure for three days and prayed that the roof

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Speaker 1: would hold. Lucky for them, they survived to tell the tale.

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Speaker 1: Charles realized that the shanty would not be suitable for winter.

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Speaker 1: With the weather turning pleasant once again, the family packed

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Speaker 1: their belongings and moved to one of the store buildings

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Speaker 1: he had erected and dismet. The buildings were more secure,

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Speaker 1: and the proximity to neighbors, shops, and the railway offered

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Speaker 1: a better chance of survival. Even before the Ingles arrived,

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Speaker 1: though a letter from a missionary had described the brutal

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Speaker 1: winters in Dakota Territory. It warned of how the north

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Speaker 1: wind raged with unimaginable violence, burying everything under thick layers

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Speaker 1: of snow. If only Charles had read those accounts, perhaps

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Speaker 1: he would have chosen a different path. Charles remained optimistic. Yes,

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Speaker 1: winter was coming, but people were close enough to town

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Speaker 1: to be ready to lend a hand should anyone need it,

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Speaker 1: And together they would also keep the railways clear, which

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Speaker 1: meant that fresh supplies wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, those

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Speaker 1: townsfolk were about to come face to face with a

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Speaker 1: harsh reality. The first winter storm came calling in November.

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Speaker 1: Sure everyone expected snow, but no one expected the white

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Speaker 1: out conditions. The blizzard caught Laura Carrie, their teacher, and

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Speaker 1: their classmates by surprise. They shuffled along, keeping focused on

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Speaker 1: the direction of the closest building. Thankfully, the teacher's brother,

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Speaker 1: Cap Garland, had broken away from the group and taken shelter.

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Speaker 1: He organized a search part that found Laura and the

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Speaker 1: others just in time. But they hadn't been heading towards

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Speaker 1: safety after all. Disoriented by the conditions, they had been

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Speaker 1: heading straight out into the prairie. The blizzards were relentless

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Speaker 1: as the weeks went on. Snowdrifts covered the buildings, and

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Speaker 1: farmers had a tunnel from their houses to their barns

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Speaker 1: to feed the livestock. Snow piled up on the railroad tracks,

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Speaker 1: defying their best efforts to keep them clear, and according

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Speaker 1: to a few cowboys, the snow filled a nearby canyon

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Speaker 1: that was roughly thirty feet deep, and the situation only

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Speaker 1: became worse in January of eighteen eighty one, when railway

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Speaker 1: service to the area was suspended. The snow seemed unbeatable,

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Speaker 1: and without the trains bringing in fresh supplies, starvation became

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Speaker 1: an imminent threat. The one hundred people trapped in the

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Speaker 1: town began to wonder if they would live to sea spring.

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Speaker 1: Multiple families moved in with each other to help with chores.

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Speaker 1: Businessmen formed communities to assist in rationing shares of food

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Speaker 1: and fuel, and it was oppressive too. Snow piled against windows,

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Speaker 1: which blocked out most of the daylight, the constantly howling wind,

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Speaker 1: and the dwindling stock of lamp oil weighed heavily on

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Speaker 1: everyone's spirits. Coal was also in short supply, forcing settlers

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Speaker 1: to twist hay into sticks for fuel, and thanks to

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Speaker 1: the bitter cold, those fires had to be kept burning

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Speaker 1: day and night. The ingles took turn either twisting hay

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Speaker 1: or grinding seed for bread. Their family shared their building

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Speaker 1: with George and Maggie Masters, but Laura couldn't help but

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Speaker 1: notice that the couple did nothing to contribute to the

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Speaker 1: survival efforts. So Charles played the fiddle to keep everyone's

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Speaker 1: spirits up, although his hands were dry and cracked from

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Speaker 1: twisting so much hay. And then one night the strings snapped,

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Speaker 1: leaving them with nothing but conversation and the howling winds.

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Speaker 1: Under such strain, everyone's sanity began to slip. In the

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Speaker 1: midst of this desperation, a story emerged about a stockpile

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Speaker 1: of wheat for sale, but the problem was the lone

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Speaker 1: settler lived twenty miles away, so Elmonzo Wilder and Capgarland

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Speaker 1: embarked on a dangerous journey to acquire the wheat, a

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Speaker 1: tale later recounted by Laura, but in truth, there's very

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Speaker 1: little evidence to support her version of the events, and

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Speaker 1: alternative accounts suggest that other sources of wheat were available. Finally,

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Speaker 1: though spring arrived, but the hardships were far from over.

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Speaker 1: The warm April weather melted all of that snow, causing

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Speaker 1: massive flooding that nearly swept away the nearby town of Yankton.

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Speaker 1: In fact, more people died in the spring floods than

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Speaker 1: during the blizzards. When the first train arrived on April

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Speaker 1: first of eighteen eighty one, the settlers were elated, but

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Speaker 1: those hopes were dashed when they discovered it only carried

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Speaker 1: farm equipment. The disappointment led to near riots, with the

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Speaker 1: townspeople stealing telegraph poles to burn for fuel as the

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Speaker 1: town struggled to recover. The rest of the country entered

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Speaker 1: a period of prosperity known as the Gilded Age, and

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Speaker 1: while some prospered, Charles Ingalls never realized his dream of

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Speaker 1: a bountiful crop. Laura helped support the family of taking

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Speaker 1: on teaching positions, and Mary went to a college for

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Speaker 1: the blind, but of course the family's experience would live

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Speaker 1: on many years later. Laura began to write about her

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Speaker 1: life in the West and the time spent on the

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Speaker 1: Dakota Prairie. She also wrote about her courtship and engagement

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Speaker 1: to Elmonzo Wilder in eighteen eighty four and their small

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Speaker 1: wedding the following year, and it would have been a

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Speaker 1: happy ending except for a small note on the final

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Speaker 1: page What came next, she wrote, was nobody's fault. Laura

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Speaker 1: Ingleswilder lived in astonishing ninety years. It was a life

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Speaker 1: that left an indelible mark on American literature. Her novels

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Speaker 1: captivated children with tales of a young girl's life full

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Speaker 1: of courage and triumph on the prairie. For many of

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Speaker 1: those books were a beacon of hope for a better future,

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Speaker 1: and while based in reality, Laura's stories were a far

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Speaker 1: cry from the truth of her own life. In her

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Speaker 1: fictionalized accounts, she carefully omitted the darker aspects of her

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Speaker 1: childhood and entirely overlooked her married DearS. The reason might

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Speaker 1: be evident if we look a little closer. You see

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Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty nine, the Dakota boom had turned into

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Speaker 1: a bust, plunging the Wilders deeper into hardship and despair.

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Speaker 1: The final blow came in August of eighteen eighty nine,

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Speaker 1: when the family home caught fire, reducing their dreams to ashes.

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Speaker 1: Faced with oblique future in a region ravaged by a

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Speaker 1: devastating drought, the Wilders packed up and left the Dakota

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Speaker 1: territory behind. They briefly took refuge with Almonzo's family in Minnesota,

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Speaker 1: hoping to recover from their losses, and the move would

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Speaker 1: mark the end of the ingles time together as an

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Speaker 1: extended family unit. Laura seldom returned to Dismet after that,

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Speaker 1: except for a few brief visits. The entire area was

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Speaker 1: reeling under a catastrophic drought. The bitter truth was that

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Speaker 1: the farmers had unwittingly contributed to their own plight by

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Speaker 1: tearing up the fragile ecosystem to make way for the

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Speaker 1: thirsty wheat crop. The reduct of certain wildlife, too, such

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Speaker 1: as wolves and bison, also disrupted the delicate balance of nature.

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Speaker 1: Contrary to the belief that rain would inevitably follow the plow,

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Speaker 1: what followed instead was an unforgiving drought that lasted for

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Speaker 1: six long years, and like her father and those who

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Speaker 1: came before him, Laura became a wanderer. Finally settling in Missouri,

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Speaker 1: she and Almonzo acquired Rocky Ridge Farm, hoping to fulfill

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Speaker 1: their dream of becoming self sufficient and prosperous, And along

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Speaker 1: the way, Laura's tales helped her make sense of a

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Speaker 1: turbulent childhood and gave her a chance to honor her parents.

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Speaker 1: Her father, Charles passed away in nineteen oh two, followed

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Speaker 1: by Caroline in nineteen twenty four, and perhaps Laura used

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Speaker 1: the writing of these books as a form of self care.

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Speaker 1: She constructed a world where hard work, determination, and grit

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Speaker 1: could bring the American dream to life. An ideal for sure,

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Speaker 1: maybe even a fantasy. The Homestead Act was a disappointment

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Speaker 1: for a lot of people of funds, the terrible weather

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Speaker 1: and all those wasted years working for a wheat crop

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Speaker 1: that failed to deliver led to a lot of shattered dreams.

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Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy one, the popular song Don't Leave the

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Speaker 1: Farm Boys encourage people to hold onto their dreams, but

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Speaker 1: are reworking of the hymn Beulah Land into Dakota Land

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Speaker 1: might have summed up Laura Wilder's childhood experience better. We

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Speaker 1: do not live, We only stay. We are too poor

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Speaker 1: to get away. I hope you enjoyed our journey into

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Speaker 1: the darker aspects of that old myth that the wild

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Speaker 1: West was the promised land. So much gets overlooked when

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Speaker 1: we sum it all up nice and concisely, And like

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Speaker 1: so many stories throughout history, this one reveals a darker underbelly.

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Speaker 1: But our battle against the elements isn't over just yet.

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Speaker 1: We've got one more tale about the brutality of the

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Speaker 1: wild West to share, and if you stick around through

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Speaker 1: this brief sponsor break, teammates Alie Steed will tell you

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Speaker 1: all about it.

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Speaker 2: The land was vast and fertile as far as the

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Speaker 2: eye could see. The rich soil hinted at bountiful harvests,

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Speaker 2: and the open sky foretold the future of life giving rain.

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Speaker 2: This vision drove European settlers across North America, from the

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Speaker 2: woods of New England to the Golden Promise of California.

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Speaker 2: Rain follows the plow had become a mantra. Armed with

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Speaker 2: this belief, farmers set out to conquer the untamed land,

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Speaker 2: and they were chasing a lie. By nineteen thirty three,

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Speaker 2: everyone realized there was something wrong with the weather. As

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Speaker 2: saying is just a saying. After all, what was once

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Speaker 2: a hot dry spell revealed itself as something more ominous.

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Speaker 2: Because it wasn't rain that followed the plow, it was drought.

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Speaker 2: They were entering the era we now call the dust bowl.

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Speaker 2: Trouble began three years earlier, in nineteen thirty when rainfall

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Speaker 2: began to decrease, Yet it was only when the full

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Speaker 2: force of the drought hit that farmers and scientists realized

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Speaker 2: the magnitude of it all. So much of the soil

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Speaker 2: caught on the wind, creating rolling dusters, some could last

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Speaker 2: as long as twenty four hours, and every year the

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Speaker 2: number of storms increased. Imagine looking outside and seeing a

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Speaker 2: black cloud bearing down on you and realizing it's a

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Speaker 2: blizzard of dust, with drifts so deep that people took

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Speaker 2: to shoveling it like they would snow. The drought struck hard,

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Speaker 2: slashing normal precipitation levels by forty fifty and even sixty percent,

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Speaker 2: and a lot of these areas didn't get much rain

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Speaker 2: to begin with. The storms transformed the Great Plains into

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Speaker 2: a desolate waste land. The sky darkened for days on end,

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Speaker 2: and homes were infiltrated by a thick layer of dust,

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Speaker 2: no matter how well sealed. Nineteen states fell victim to

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Speaker 2: the wrath of the dust bowl. The toll on human

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Speaker 2: life was immeasurable. Aside from some people and animals being lost,

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Speaker 2: the storms caused health issues too. Dust pneumonia, a condition

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Speaker 2: caused by inhaling fine particles, afflicted the population. Estimates of

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Speaker 2: the death toll ranged from hundreds to several thousand individuals. Men, women,

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Speaker 2: and children were all vulnerable, but it was the young

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Speaker 2: and the elderly who suffered the most. Malnutrition weakened their bodies,

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Speaker 2: leaving them defenseless against the restless assaults of dust storms.

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Speaker 2: Livestock and wild animals fared no better. With their food

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Speaker 2: sources withered away. They resorted to desperate measures, devouring the

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Speaker 2: leaves from trees if they could find any. Farm animals

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Speaker 2: stood in fields, their nostrils caked with dirt, and many

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Speaker 2: suffocated people noticed that the dry air crackled with static electricity,

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Speaker 2: making even a simple handshake seem risky. On May ninth,

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Speaker 2: nineteen thirty four, twelve million pounds of dust rained down

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Speaker 2: on Chicago, and then the storm continued east, reaching the

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Speaker 2: coast and allowing the nation to witness the horrors of

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Speaker 2: the plane's first hand. But the worst was yet to come.

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Speaker 2: On April fourteenth, nineteen thirty five, a monster storm battered

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Speaker 2: the Oklahoma Panhandle. Winds reaching sixty miles an hour created

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Speaker 2: a wall of dust so thick it blotted out the sun.

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Speaker 2: People were left stranded, unable to see their own hands

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Speaker 2: in front of their faces, and many believed the judgment

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Speaker 2: day had come. Associate Press reporter Robert Geiger aptly named

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Speaker 2: the disaster the dust Bowl after that storm, capturing the

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Speaker 2: essence of its terror. Desperation drove people away from their homes,

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Speaker 2: selling anything and everything they could and embarking on a

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Speaker 2: journey to find work elsewhere. Nearly two point five million

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Speaker 2: people left Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

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Speaker 2: The mass exodus was one of the largest migrations in

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Speaker 2: American history. Programs such as the Soil Erosion Service and

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Speaker 2: the Prairie State's Forestry Project were established in nineteen thirty

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Speaker 2: five to combat erosion. The Soil Conservation Service now known

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Speaker 2: as the Natural Resources Conservation Service promoted new farming techniques

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Speaker 2: to conserve top soil and restore the land. By nineteen

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Speaker 2: thirty eight, soil lass had been reduced by sixty five percent.

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Speaker 2: The drought finally broke in the autumn of nineteen thirty nine,

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Speaker 2: when rains returned to the prairies. But how did we

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Speaker 2: get here? The dust Bowl wasn't just a byproduct of

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Speaker 2: the weather or the Great Depression. It was one of

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Speaker 2: the greatest man made catastrophes in history, born from the

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Speaker 2: relentless pursuit of the American dream. Farmers, enticed by the

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Speaker 2: promises of the Homestead Act and exaggerated claims by railroad companies,

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Speaker 2: unwittingly became the agents of their own destruction. Homesteaders and

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Speaker 2: railroads tore through the Great Plains, plowing up a fragile

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Speaker 2: ecosystem and disrupting the delicate balance of nature. The top soil,

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Speaker 2: which had taken thousands of years to create and settle,

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Speaker 2: was raked and plowed to oblivion, turning everything to dust.

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Speaker 2: The scars left by the dust Bowl would forever mar

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Speaker 2: the landscape. The Dirty Thirties etched themselves into history as

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Speaker 2: one of the most terrifying and desperate periods in American memory.

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Speaker 2: But Laura Ingleswilder wasn't the only one writing about the

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Speaker 2: people and towns on the edge of despair. From Woody

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Speaker 2: Guthrie to John Steinbeck, the dust Bowl affected everyone and

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Speaker 2: lives on in our collective consciousness. One of the darkest

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Speaker 2: times in American history, and we brought it on ourselves.

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Speaker 1: Grimm and Mild Presents The Wild West was executive produced

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Speaker 1: by me Aaron Mankey and hosted by Aaron Mankey and

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Speaker 1: Alexandra Steed. Writing for this season was provided by Michelle Mudo,

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Speaker 1: with research by Alexandra Steed, Sam Alberty, Cassandra de Alba,

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Speaker 1: and Harry Marx. Fact Checking was performed by Jamie Vargas,

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Speaker 1: with sensitivity reading by Stacy Parshall Jensen. Production assistance was

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Speaker 1: provided by Josh Stain, Jesse Funk, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.

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Speaker 1: To learn more about this and other shows from Grimm

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Speaker 1: and Mild and iHeartRadio, visit Grimandmild dot com