Legacies of Dust

This work by Douglas Sheflin (instructor, Colorado State University) comprises three parts: the development of settler agriculture, running into the establishment of agricultural extension in Baca and Prowers Counties; the transformative Dust Bowl experience; and downstream from that, the legacies of dust, with particular attention to the so-called Filthy Fifties. From the southeastern corner pocket of Colorado the author argues scholars have “failed to understand the Dust Bowl’s impact on American agriculture and the people of the Great Plains” and promises “an entirely new interpretation of the Dust Bowl” (pp. 2–4). Bold words, possibly justified. The declaration that the Dust Bowl experience formed the “memory context” for how plains folk would deal with subsequent crises is a common element in folk narrative; but whereas such talk previously was mythic gas puffing up a triumphalist trope, Sheflin works from impressive evidence and critiques the story, including some unsavory pieces. Much of that evidence comes from the annual reports of county extension agents, a body of documentation heretofore little used by scholars. It is a trove. Sheflin might have humanized his work by drawing on the rich detail therein, but he remains focused on policy and program. His work is dense. So be it.

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