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A 1933 Dust Bowl Thanksgiving
Football Game Between Springfield and Lamar Includes Former Professionals The 1920s earned the moniker “The Golden Age of Sports” due to the dawn of high-level competitive athletics and the rise of exceptional athletes across various disciplines. With increased leisure time and improved transportation, individuals exhibited unwavering devotion to local sports, fostering an unprecedented sense of…
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Baca County’s Connection to 1939 Czechoslovakia: Another Unusual Baca County Dust Bowl story.
The Sudetenland, a region located in the western part of what was Czechoslovakia (The Czech Republic until 2016, and is now called Czechia) has a long and complicated history that has been marked by controversy and conflict. The area is known for its cultural diversity, and strategic importance, which has made it a coveted…
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Growing Up in Baca County, Episode #5b John Havens
As the dust storms increased many of the farm families and a few of the town residents had to pull up stakes and look for greener pastures. As a kid working around the service station I observed first hand family after family load all their belongings into cars and onto pickups and head out to…
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Dust Bowl Poems(1930s) by Nellie Grover Bamber
This post is a true pleasure. There are some little things to look for. The image of Grandma Bamber printed on an early dot matrix printer is a piece of history in itself. The poems? Priceless. In the not so recent past I had a conversation with Nancy Hall Nelson about using her Grandma’s Poems…
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Growing Up in Baca County, Episode #4 by John Havens
As the dust storms increased many of the farm families and a few of the town residents had to pull up stakes and look for greener pastures. As a kid working around the service station I observed first hand family after family load all their belongings into cars and onto pickups and head out…
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Dust Bowl Research Update: Origins of the term”Dust Bowl”, Maps and more
I have been collecting artifacts of the Dust Bowl as it relates to Baca County for awhile. My focus is compiling a resource that tells the “Dust Bowl” story from the perspective of the Baca County Newspaperman, in particular, Springfield Democrat Herald, Editor Ralph Williams. However, the research from other newspapers across the country…
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The Dust Bowl Days: by George Chatham
The Dust Bowl Days: by George Chatham As I shared in an earlier post the Elmer & Lela Chatham family left Baca County and moved to Power’s county sometime in the mid 1920’s. My grandparents (Fred and Ethel Chatham) moved from the “dug-out” on Fred’s homestead to Elmer Chatham’s homestead March 13, 1924. The reason…
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Were the Dirty Thirties the Good Old Days?
Posted with permission of Gloria Jean. Original article appeared in the Huckaby Times (Cousin Newsletter), April 2004 On Sunday April 14th, 1935, the sun came up in a clear sky. The day was warm and pleasant, a gentle breeze whimpered out of the southwest. Suddenly a cloud appeared on the horizon. Birds flew swiftly ahead…
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I Was Working on the Railroad…In The Heart of the Dust Bowl?
Dust Bowl noun, The region in the South Central U.S that suffered from dust storms. Associated Press staff writer Robert Geiger was in Boise City Oklahoma writing a series of articles on a day that is sometimes referred to as Black Sunday. In his April 15 release for the Washington, D.C., Evening Star he wrote:…
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Free Dust Bowl Teaching Resources
August 2018 NOTE: This resource will be updated extensively later this fall as I am currently preparing a resource “The Dust Bowl: The View from Ground Zero.” Stay tuned. Growing up in Springfield Colorado in the 1930’s, my mother was a child of the Dust Bowl. I asked her once if she remembered Black Sunday any more…
