Farmers must accept and work with the weather in any growing season. Early snow melt and dry conditions for planting. timely rains and sufficient sunshine and warm days during the growing season, and dry conditions for harvest combine to make a good year. But if any one of these variables is off, the year can turn out badly. If one of these variables is off two or more seasons in a row, life for farmers can become very bleak indeed.

Farmers must also accept and work with the market conditions in any growing season. If the agri-markets are down, even the best growing conditions cannot guarantee a good return on the farmer’s work during the year.

Persistent drought conditions from 1930 through 1936 led local residents to label those years the Dirty Thirties. These dry conditions year after year combined with a national Depression that led to poor agri-markets to create a farm crisis.

Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) records during that time paint a grim picture. Lyon County received an average of 18% less annual rainfall, experienced an average of only 69% of usual crop conditions, and experienced an average of only 60% of usual pasturage during the 1930-35 growing seasons. Lyon County was a designated drought county during the 1934 and 1936 growing seasons. The brutal 1934 season saw crop yields in Lyon County of only 26.7% of the last “normal” season in 1929.

What was it like to farm in Lyon County during these years? Let’s hear from someone who can give us a first-hand account.

Harold Mellenthin was born in October 1925 on the same farm west of Marshall where he grew up; on the land he later farmed; and where he still lives. He grew up during the Dirty Thirties, helping his family farm their land.

Harold recalled, “(I)n ’30 and ’31 (we) had fairly decent crops and then we went into that ’33, ’34, ’35 and on into ’36 – the Dust Bowl days. I tell you, it was tough. It was mean and tough.”

He described the most difficult farming seasons, “(I)n ’33, we had little or no crops. It was just dry, dry, dry.”

Back-to-back poor growing seasons in 1932 and 1933 had dried out pastures and reduced yields of grass and other browse for livestock.

Harold shared the background to his next story. His dad and relatives used a large threshing machine to thresh their small grains (mainly oats and barley). This process separated the grain from the plant stalks and resulted in grain ready for storage and large piles of straw. His dad chose not to burn these straw piles, a practice which irritated his mom, who saw no value in leaving the straw pile sit there.

Harold then described how desperate farmers turned to non-traditional feed sources, “(O)n this farm there was an old straw pile. Guess what happened in ’33? Every single spear of that was hauled away. . . We even had an uncle come almost from Arco to get a load of that straw for his cattle. That was all that they had. They would eat anything.”

He reflected further and continued, “The little corn they grew only got about that high (indicating a height of about three feet) – little tufts of corn. It didn’t hardly make corn. There were a couple years when we even used to cut it with a grain binder and make little shocks. Cows ate the whole damn thing. Those were a series of bad years.”

But the terrible growing season in 1933 was only a foretaste of the year ahead. Harold explained, “Probably the worst year was . . . 1934 when it was so damn dry that hardly nothing grew. We had hardly no grain at all and . . . in June and July the ground was bare. Those years it was too dry — no use to plant it because nothing came up.”

Harold identified one hardy plant that grew under these austere conductions, “Here come those Russian thistles and, believe it or not . . . that little bit of humidity that was in the air, they survived on that. Actually, they grew into quite big bushes. Everybody’s cows (were) dying for no grass. They tried to feed them (the thistles) . . . They had briars on them that got hard. But when they caught them early, they could kind of crush them down and the cows would eat them.”

Farmers had found some purpose for the thistles, but Harold explained how those same thistles created other problems, “(A)s you drive through the country around here there is still evidence that people had fences . . . around their property. . . (W)hat happened in the fall that year, here come the Dust Bowl days that came through this area. It (hot winds) picked up all those . . . Russian thistles – and they all went into these fences. They were just like snow – ridges of dirt from the field . . . just like a snow bank. There were miles and miles . . . the dirt (piled higher) than the fencepost.”

The Dirty Thirties required farm families to use creative, even desperate measures to pull themselves and their farm through those terrible times. Next week we’ll explore other methods they used to struggle through those years and we’ll learn how some farm families were unable to hold on.

I welcome your participation in this exploration of prairie lives. You may reach me at prairieviewpressllc @gmail.com.