Dalhart, Texas…Where the Dust Bowl happened

We both recently finished reading the book “The Worst Hard Times”. Its setting was Dalhart, Texas in the 1930s. The author tells the stories of many families in the Dalhart area and what they had to endure when most of the soil in the area dried up and blew away creating black blizzards or dusters on a regular basis. As Dalhart is basically on our route toward Mesa Verde and Southern California we figured a quick stop to see how the town is faring today, almost 100 years later was in order. When we were on a short tour of the west coast a few months ago we detoured a few hours to visit the town of Paradise, CA. This is where 85 people lost their lives in the infamous Camp Fire a few years back. It was nice to see that Paradise, CA is recouping nicely. Dalhart, like Paradise seems to have recovered from the physical damages imposed by mother nature.

The remaining photos in this post will be regarding the exhibits we looked at in the XIT Museum. Not only did the museum have an entire wing dedicated to the Dust Bowl Era but it also had many really cool exhibits showing off life in the small town of Dalhart back in the early 20th century.

A bit of history regarding the ranch: It came into being in 1879 when the Texas Legislature allocated the 3 million acres to sell (or trade in this case) in order to finance the building of the state capital in Austin. A group of mostly British investors accepted the land in lieu of payment for the construction of the capital building. All 3 million acres were in the Texas panhandle. 200 miles along the Texas-New Mexico border with a width anywhere between 20 and 30 miles. It generally had 150,000 head of cattle at any one time. They were Texas longhorns, herefords and angus. It was the world’s largest fenced in ranch with over 1500 miles of barbed wire fencing. It had 335 windmills for drawing water from the wells at an average depth of 125 feet. It ceased to exist after about 1912 and very rarely made a profit. It was originally set up as a temporary use of the land until enough farmers could be convinced to head west to set up individual smaller ranches. The name XIT stands for “Ten In Texas”. Not sure why but that is the lore.

The XIT brand seen on the hide of a cow above was used to identify cattle belonging to this large ranch. The branding iron is seen on the right and had to be used 5 times on each cow to make the XIT brand. Leather companies complained about the large brand so after 35 years or so they changed the brand to a simple X.

Here is a picture of one of the 335 wells located on the ranch.

So many types of barbed wire, who knew. Here are some of the types of barbed wire used on the ranch.

We found these 23 printed rules for working on the XIT ranch fairly interesting. Rules and regulations in the Wild Wild West?

In 1936 locals decided to start having a reunion of sorts for the cowboys that worked the ranch over the years. They called it the XIT Rodeo and Reunion. The first Thursday thru Sunday in August every year. We missed it by only a few days. The event includes 3 days of professional rodeo, the world’s largest FREE barbeque, live music and tractor pulls.

Above: The pit was dug, filled with wood, doused with gasoline and lit. The last pic shows the meat cooking. Not sure what kind of meat but we must assume cattle here right?

The picture above looks like a jetty for protection creating a manmade harbor but in reality it is a line of cattle crossing the Yellowstone river back in the day. Once the cattle were ready to go to market they needed to be driven up north to catch a train to the Chicago area.

A picture of everyday life in downtown Dalhart as a duster rolls through. We experienced one of these dusters a few years back in Death Valley National Park. It was cool to experience once; but, nothing like Dalhart experienced regularly in the 1930s.

Check out the car trying to outrun the duster. Folks had to drag metal chains along the road under the car to dissipate the static electricity from the unusually dry air. The static electricity was so bad it would short the car’s electrical system out otherwise.

Locals claimed that a single duster could easily bury an entire farm in dust as above.

Kids going to school had to wear goggles and cloth masks to protect from the dust. Many infants and livestock died by inhaling too much dust.

During a duster local used a network of ropes either strung between out buildings or tied to a heavy barrel so they could find there way around in the dusty environment. These storms sometimes lasted more than 24 hours.

A picture above of a rabbit, or hare, roundup. Once a week, on Sundays the towns people would gather in town and have a “rabbit clubbing party”. They took baseball bats to thousands of them each week as they were eating anything the farmers could manage to grow and they were fairly tasty themselves.

The above article in the local paper nicely described why all the dusters occurred. The federal government needed more grain to sustain the war effort during WW1 so they enticed farmers to locate in the midwest and produce as much wheat as they could. After the war, wheat prices plunged and farmers had to plow up more land for more crops so they could pay their mortgages and farm equipment loans. Eventually there were no native grasses to hold the dirt in place allowing the wind to pick the dry dirt up and send it soaring through the atmosphere toward the eastern US. In Washington DC Congress was holding a meeting to figure out what to do regarding the dustbowl situation when a duster of major significance on the plains blew up enough dust to reach all the way back to DC. After that, it did not take much to convince the legislators to allocate funds to study the problem.

The gentleman above, John McCarty, was the founder of the “Last Man Club” in Dalhart. To become a member you had to swear to never leave Dalhart due to the crappy conditions of the time and to never except outside assistance, especially from the government. Ironically, John left town in the early 30s and stated it was because he was offered a better job.

The only thing exciting to us regarding this saddle is that it belonged to Uncle Dick Coon. He was one of the main characters in the book “The Worst Hard Times”.

The final photos in the post are of items from the early farming days we found to be particularly interesting.

An early gasoline pump. Notice the price at 17.5 cents a gallon with almost a third of it being taxes. I thought today’s taxes on gas are outrageous but no where near these percentages. To think, we were alive in a time when leaded gas still existed.

We never knew what the term “chuck wagon” really meant. Here is a picture of one that got fitted onto the rear of a horse drawn wagon. During our RV adventures we run into many folks that have the modern day equivalent of these outdoor kitchens.

Could not imagine having my house catch fire waiting for one of these early fire engines to arrive on the scene.

Not sure if any of you have ever heard of a corn husker machine. We have not but have seen examples of them at many of the museums we have entered here in the midwest.

We have both seen many of these along the backroads of Upstate NY but never really knew what they were for. A silage pit contains corn or hay and is covered to keep the moisture content in. This helps ferment it a bit and makes it easier for the cattle do digest. We can attest to the fact that grasses hold the soil in place, despite the winds offered up on a regular basis here on the prairie!

When bicycling across the country back in the early 80s I signed a pledge to myself that read “I, Roy Dando, will never again ride a bicycle on the prairies due to the God forsaken winds”. After a few weeks of traveling with the kayaks strapped to the top of the truck and having the strong winds play havoc with them and our camper, I can see why I signed that pledge.