“Miles to water,
Miles to wood,
Six inches to hell”
~Folk wisdom passed on from those who survived the great Dustbowl of 1929-1933
In 1929, suitcase wheat farmers from back East descended on the southern plains of the United States intent on striking it rich in agriculture. Like locusts, they began stripping the land of the thin, fragile, six-inch covering of native grasses to make ready the soil for planting. According to Tim Egan, “In just five years, 1925-1930, 5.2 million acres went under the plow in the southern plains–an area the size of two Yellowstone National Parks. This was in addition to nearly 20 million acres of prairie land that had already been turned.”
Caught up in the escalating madness of wheat farming, Sodbusters removed the only thing that was keeping the ground in place. As a result, the land would soon turn on them causing them to lose everything.
Foreclosed upon in 1931, this Nebraska farmhouse–now overrun by the trees and prairie grasses that were planted in desperation seventy five years ago–stands as a reminder that, if you remove the topsoil from the central and southern plains, you are literally six inches from hell.
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