Legacies of Dust

Douglas Sheflin's Legacies of Dust is a significant addition to the Dust Bowl historiography. Unlike previous works, his focuses exclusively on southeastern Colorado, one of the lesser-known corners of the southern Great Plains. By siting his study there, he is able to compare the experiences of two different counties. Prowers County had the good fortune of being able to tap the Arkansas River, which modified the county's experience with serious drought. Baca County, however, was home to dry-land farmers, whose Dust Bowl years were much more tumultuous. Sheflin's work, however, does far more than examine ten years of drought. He begins his story in the early settlement period of this corner of Colorado, and continues through the postwar years, which radically changed the area farmers’ labor and water experiences. This is a big-picture analysis of agriculture on the southern plains. Sheflin does many things with the book. The discussion of agricultural development in this corner of the Great Plains is useful, especially as it juxtaposes irrigated agriculture with dry-land agriculture. He develops a sustained discussion of the role of agricultural extension personnel in suggesting and helping implement conservation policies, and explaining why conservation had much greater traction in Baca County. He also explores the postwar efforts to bring groundwater to the surface and to modify the climate through rainmaking. The author does well explaining how the drought and the Great Depression in conjunction with the war years shaped the labor regime on the Great Plains. He describes the fall of tenancy and the rise of mechanization. The stories of prisoners of war, internees at Amache, and Mexican and Mexican American migrant labor all have a place in his discussion. The examination of agricultural labor at Amache is particularly interesting

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