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| Comanche National Grassland, 2003 |
Great Divide Pictures LLC
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Santa Fe Trail
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Segment 6: Healing the Wounds
Standards-Based Themes: Human-Environmental Interaction
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Summary
While the remains of farm buildings dot the landscape of the prairie along the Santa Fe Trail, the farms are no longer there. The Homestead Act enabled hundreds of families to claim land in southeastern Colorado and establish farms. When a severe drought in the early 1930s occurred, the result was devastating. Overgrazing and overplowing upset the delicate balance of the prairie ecosystem. Huge clouds of dust obliterated the sun and choked the inhabitants. Conditions were so bad that people abandoned their land. By the late 1930s the federal government began buying the farms and setting aside the land as the Comanche National Grasslands. Through a variety of methods, the land began to heal. Once again this land gives us a glimpse of the prairie as it once was. |
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Dust storm
Southeastern Colorado, 1935 |
Courtesy, Denver Public Library,
Western History Department, X-17605
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Vocabulary
drought
Dust Bowl
Homestead Act
homesteaders |
Pre-Viewing Focus
- What dreams and hopes did the farmers have for this area?
- What was Black Sunday?
- Why did the federal government buy land from farmers?
- What methods have been used to heal the land?
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FSA supervisor
standing amidst grass native to region
Baca County, Colorado, 1939 |
Courtesy, Library of Congress
LC-USF34-034129-D
Photo by Russell Lee
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Post-Viewing Discussion
- What caused the Dust Bowl? How could it have been prevented?
- How was humanity’s will challenged by nature’s power along the Santa Fe Trail? Can you give other examples of this struggle?
- What wounds had to be healed after the Dust Bowl—for people and for the land?
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Exploring on Your Own >
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Abandoned farm
Courtesy, Library of Congress, LC-USF34-028412-D, Photo by Arthur Rothstein
Between La Junta and Trinidad, the Santa Fe Trail rolls through prairie land dotted with farms abandoned because of repeated crop failures.
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Black Sunday, 1935
Courtesy, Library of Congress
On Black Sunday, April 14, 1935, dust clouds literally block out the sun. People turn on lights at mid-day.
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Dust storm, Colorado
Courtesy, Library of Congress, LC-USF343-001617-ZE
When severe drought hits in the early 1930s, it unleashes a disaster of epic proportions: The Dust Bowl.
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Headlines, 1935 - 1942
Courtesy, Library of Congress, LC-USF344-003181-ZB
News stories describe the threat to life and land created by the Dust Bowl.
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Aftermath of dust storm
Courtesy, Library of Congress, LC-USF344-001616-ZE
Many homesteads are nearly buried by windblown soil on Black Sunday.
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Comanche National Grassland, 2003
Great Divide Pictures LLC
In an effort to insure the Dust Bowl never happens again, the Federal Government buys land from farmers in the late 1930s. Damaged land, 444,000 acres, is set aside along the Santa Fe Trail as the Comanche National Grassland. |
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