Dust Bowl Tapestries

This is an historical map of how the dust bowl affected the southern landscape. Pretty rough considering most of the affected areas couldn't plant any crops for a long time and most of these areas were farms!

A family moving west to escape the drought-stricken Dust Bowl. Their Model T Ford has a message on back that reads "Oregon or Bust". Montana, 1936.

John Steinbeck's, novel of the Great Depression, THE GRAPES OF WRATH image shows the bleak Dust Bowl landscape where a car, readied for a journey waits as the sun sets on a lonely farmhouse.

A small farm in the desolate Dust Bowl region. Dalhart, Texas. 1938.

The Dust Bowl

Dust Bowl Dinner Table by Debra Martz In the kitchen of the Dust Bowl house, the dishes are set facing down so that the surfaces of the plates that people would eat off wouldn't become covered with dust. The dust storms were so severe in the 1930s that the dust would find its way inside people's homes even with windows and doors closed. The replica of a Dust Bowl house from the 1930s is on the grounds of the Cimarron Heritage Center museum located in Boise City, Oklahoma. ©Debra Martz, All Rights Reserved 20220928-IMG_2974-Edit.dng

The writer John Steinbeck Rules

Window and Door Dust Bowl House by Debra Martz Located on the grounds of the Cimarron Heritage Center museum in Boise City, Oklahoma. ©Debra Martz, All Rights Reserved

The Dust Bowl Trio

Dust Bowl Bedroom by Debra Martz Houses, during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, often had very little between the outside wall and the inside. Lining the walls in newspaper, which was plentiful, meant that less dust came in with the wind between the cracks of the boards or timbers. One of the inside rooms of the Dust Bowl House replica at the Cimarron Heritage Center in Boise City, Oklahoma. ©Debra Martz, All Rights Reserved 2022-09-28-IMG_2975-Edit.tif

Henry Fonda as Tom Joad

Dust Bowl House At Cimarron Heritage Center Boise City Oklahoma The museum starts in a Bruce Goff-designed house with some of the original furnishings and collections of the owners who donated the home. It continues through several other buildings very well organized with historical information of Cimarron County. I was amazed with the outstanding work of displays for the Santa Fe Trail, dinosaurs, military and the Dust Bowl era. On the grounds is a one-room schoolhouse, a Dust Bowl home, restored Santa Fe Depot, windmill, blacksmith shop and more. The Cimarron Heritage Center is also responsible for providing access to Autograph Rock, a historic Santa Fe Trail campground that features ruts and a cliff wall full of traveler signatu...

Hitchhikers walking along a highway outside Los Angeles, California. 1937.

Portrait of a young couple working on a farm during the harvest season. Oregon, 1939.

Kicking up dust on the Yuma Road

Kicking up dust in Calexico Road

Painting of a windmill sitting still silhouetted against the dusty dry sunset in the West.

Lone car driving along dirt road in Yuma, Arizona

Henry Fonda as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath