U.S. Great Plains. Legacies of the Dust Bowl: National Grasslands of the Southern Great Plains
The term “Dust Bowl” refers to a region of the U.S. southern Great Plains that suffered severe economic hardship between 1930 and 1936. After World War I, submarginal lands in the southern Great Plains were put into cultivation. Following years of poor soil conservation practices, the area was stricken by a severe drought and crop failures. In the absence of precipitation, massive clouds of dust blew eastward to places as far away as Washington, DC. The drought’s physical and economic impacts were most severe in southeastern Colorado, western Kansas, northeastern New Mexico, and the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles. Estimates suggest that as many as 750,000 family farms were lost between 1930 and 1935. As farms failed, the National Industrial Acts of 1933 and 1935 provided funding to the federal government for purchasing former agricultural lands.
In 1960, the U.S. government created national grasslands under the stewardship of the U.S. Forest Service with the goal of facilitating water conservation, wildlife management, cattle grazing, and mineral extraction. Today, 15,378 km2 of land is protected within 20 national grasslands, most located in the Great Plains. Livestock grazing permits held by private ranchers and oil and gas leases represent the single largest economic uses. In addition, some grasslands offer picnicking, camping, and other recreational activities. Along with their importance to people, the grasslands are home to prairie dogs, coyotes, mountain lions, deer, rattlesnakes, and other wildlife.
A colleague and I decided to explore national grasslands within the Dust Bowl’s core area. Our plan was to complete a loop drive starting in the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles that continued through northeastern New Mexico, southeast Colorado, and southwest Kansas. Departing Oklahoma City, our first stop was the 126 km2 Black Kettle National Grassland located in Roger Mills County, Oklahoma and Hemphill County, Texas. The Black Kettle includes 100 tracts of public land interspersed in a checkerboard pattern with private lands. To safeguard the productivity of range vegetation, the Forest Service manages grazing permits through a rest and rotation system with about 2,000 head of privately owned cattle grazing on Black Kettle allotment lands each year. Nearby is Washita Battlefield National Historic Site where Col. George Custer attacked a Cheyenne Village in 1868.
After exploring the Black Kettle, we continued on to the 376 km2 Rita Blanca National Grassland, located in New Mexico and within the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles. The Forest Service manages a total of 140 grazing permits within the Rita Blanca. My all-wheel drive Honda SUV handled the grassland’s dirt roads well until ruts became too deep, forcing us to return to the pavement. Our next stop was New Mexico’s 555 km2 Kiowa National Grassland. Wildlife within the Kiowa include Barbary sheep, found mostly on steep terrain. Leaving my SUV in Clayton, we rode with a Forest Service ranger who offered to show us ruins of an early settlement in Mill’s Canyon, near the town of Springer. Melvin Mills established a ranch there in the 1880s, planting fruit orchards and vegetable gardens, and running cattle. Within the canyon and along its sides are buffalo grass, little bluestem, and blue grama grass interspersed with pinyon pine. For years, Mills’ hotel catered to settlers traveling along a hazardous shortcut of the Santa Fe Trail. Following a devastating flood in 1916, Mills and his family abandoned the valley. We walked around the brick walls of the former hotel near a Forest Service campground. As a thank you, we treated our guide to a sandwich and drink at the mercantile in the tiny town of Gladstone.
After a night in Clayton, we continued northward towards the 1,793 km2 Comanche National Grassland in southeastern Colorado. Containing both prairie grasslands and rugged canyons, the grassland is bisected by the Santa Fe Trail. Stretching more than 1,900 kilometers, the trail connects Franklin, Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. After more than 140 years, it’s still possible to see ruts created by the wagon wheels of westward-bound settlers who used the trail between 1821 and 1880. Elsewhere, we saw the ruins of stone houses built by homesteaders. The 1862 Homestead Act permitted citizens over 21 years of age to claim 160 acres (0.65 km2) of surveyed land from the public domain. Legal title to property could be earned by making improvements and living on the land for five years.
Our final stop was the 428 km2 Cimarron National Grassland in southwestern Kansas. Bisected by the Cimarron River, the Cimarron was home to the Comanche and other Native American tribes. A 37 kilometer section of the Santa Fe Trail crosses through the grassland. Most of the Cimarron is located within Morton County, the nation’s single most devastated place during the Dust Bowl years.
If you are interested in learning more about U.S. National Grasslands, please see my co-authored article: Lands of Meat and Oil: Conservation, Resource Management, and America’s National Grasslands (© 2012 American Geographical Society).