We have focused on the heat this spring and summer but we have often forgotten the big drough going on across the USA. As you can see below this year ranks as the 6th worst drought in history and climbing.
1934 was by far the worst drought in American History and the decade of the 1930's as the "DUST BOWL". Never before images below show the hardship many new americans faced as they tried to live out in the Midwest. Would most americans survive under the conditions of the 30's ?
Caption from LIFE. "Farmer John Barnett and his family are 'Okies' who stuck to their land near Woodward. They have 21 dairy cattle which yield a scant seven gallons per milking.
Mrs. Barnett takes care of a vegetable garden that is always blowing away. The children, Delphaline, 17 (top), Lincoln, 11 (right), and Leonard, 9, do plenty of chores. On Sundays the Barnetts eat jack rabbit." Oklahoma, 1942. (Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life)
Caption from LIFE. "Oklahoma farmer John Barnett's daughter Delphaline, 17, wears bright-colored slacks around the farm. She and her two brothers go to a rural school where there are only four other pupils. Next fall Delphaline will enter high school." Oklahoma, 1942. (Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images) The home on the left was abandoned once the dust bowl started.