At times, I reflect that for Americans living on the Great Plains, the Dust Bowl years must’ve been about the most miserable time imaginable. The Dust Bowl years were during the 1930s. This was the same time as the Great Depression in the U.S. But for people living on the Great Plains, their great depression […]
Tag: Great Plains
How Was William Gilpin a Model For America’s Disdain of Science?
On the Fourth of July in 1868, William Gilpin gave a speech in Denver, Colorado Territory. William Gilpin was the governor of the territory at the time. His speech portrayed the future of Colorado as one of limitless possibility. So limitless, in fact, that the laws of nature did not apply to Colorado. You probably […]
“Rain Follows the Plow” – One of America’s Great Mistakes?
“Rain follows the Plow.” It’s a sentence that seems so ridiculous to modern people that we wonder how anyone ever believed it. But in America in the late 19th century, this was gospel truth to some people. Rain follows the plow. The idea behind rain follows the plow was simple and powerful. Proponents needed a […]
Bison Skulls – A True Symbol of the Authentic Old West?
At first, this question about bison skulls perhaps seems axiomatic. Is there anything, besides a cowboy, a cactus, or a gunfight, perhaps, that seems obviously more Old West than a bison skull? Well, just because something has become a symbol doesn’t mean it should be. Read my previous post about cowboys and the cowboy way, […]
The Cowboy Way – Prime Historical Nonsense
(Disclaimer: if you like cowboys, you might want to skip this discussion of the cowboy way. It won’t be pretty. Or, alternately, stick around and learn some history.) It was, perhaps, the most worthless hour of my life. I was a college professor, and the motivational speaker at our inservice gathering was about to educate […]
Why the Dust Bowl Happened in the 1930s
The question of why the Dust Bowl happened is not merely an academic one. Far from it. Personally, I regard the Dust Bowl of 1930s America as one of the six worst ecological disasters of all time. Even if one doesn’t go quite as far as I do, no one denies it was a human […]