Academic  Controversy  in  the  History  Classroom  

This workshop is sponsored in part by the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Eastern Region Program, coordinated by Waynesburg University.  

Historical Question:

Was the dust bowl of the Great Depression a natural disaster?

Author: Tim Roarty Class/Grade Level: 11th Grade US History CT Standards: 1.4 Geographical space and place. 1.5 Interaction of humans and the environment. 2.2 Interpret information from a variety of primary and secondary sources including electronic media. Overview: In the 1930s the Great Plains of the United States had a series of violent and awful dust storms. They caused many problems for people, economy and the crops growing in the region which was a major source of income and food for people. There is a debate still going on over what caused the dust bowl. There are two main sides of the debate. One is it was a natural disaster primarily caused by long periods of drought. The other is that the dust bowls were caused mostly by the people over farming the land and abusing the resources there beyond repair resulting in the storms. The period of drought and storms caused many people to flee living in the area and the region to struggle for a while. Document Summary: Document 1 shows that people living in the region of the dust bowl were ‘ambitious’ and may have abused the land. Also it discusses some of the farming that was happening during the time period around the dust bowl and supports that the dust bowl may not have been a natural disaster. The document also has some information on the drought of the period making it complex and showing some support for both sides. Document 2 shows some of the hardships people faced when moving to and living in the region of the Great Plains and mid-west. It talks about some of the experiences the people had including more about the struggle with the droughts. The document makes a personal tie and connection for people in present time to the past. This document primarily supports the yes side that the dust bowl was a natural disaster. Document 3 shows a glimpse into the life of a woman living during the time period based around the question for the lesson. It shows that the family was fairly wealthy and they were living a little excessively. It discusses how they farmed and where and the extent to which they were farming.

Similar to the other documents it does discuss the struggle farming for a time and provides some support for both yes and no answers to the question. Document 4 shows information about the life another family during the period around the dust bowl. It covers more of the everyday events and family activities the Croslin family participated in. The document is direct quotes from Elbert Croslin and his perspective of what was going on. It talks about some of the excess and unnecessary purchases and uses around the time supporting that the durst bowl was not a natural disaster. Document 5 shows a collage of newspaper articles from the time of the dust storms. The titles show some of the harsh effects of the dust bowl and how they left a huge impact on the region. It mentions the effects on farms and implies that the drought was the cause of many storms for some of the article titles. This source supports that the dust bowl was a natural disaster. Document 6 shows an image to just how barren the land was during the dust bowl. There is nothing but a house and desert like land left behind. It shows that the droughts left the land completely ruined for farming. There is no extra farming equipment or even people in the image. The image supports the idea that it was a natural disaster. It does leave many ideas up to interpretation but the image is very powerful and a great source to show just how devastating the dust bowl was. Procedure (80 minutes):

1. Introduction of lesson, objectives, overview of SAC procedure (15 minutes) 2. SAC group assignments (30 minutes)

a. Assign groups of four and assign arguments to each team of two. b. In each group, teams read and examine the Document Packet c. Each student completes the Preparation part of the Capture Sheet (#2), and works with

their partner to prepare their argument using supporting evidence. d. Students should summarize your argument in #3.

3. Position Presentation (10 minutes)

a. Team 1 presents their position using supporting evidence recorded and summarized on the Preparation part of the Capture Sheet (#2 & #3) on the Preparation matrix. Team 2 records Team 1’s argument in #4.

b. Team 2 restates Team 1’s position to their satisfaction. c. Team 2 asks clarifying questions and records Team 1’s answers. d. Team 2 presents their position using supporting evidence recorded and summarized on

the Preparation part of the Capture Sheet (#2 & #3) on the Preparation matrix. Team 1 records Team 2’s argument in #4.

e. Team 1 restates Team 2’s position to their satisfaction. f. Team 1 asks clarifying questions and records Team 2’s answers.

4. Consensus Building (10 minutes)

a. Team 1 and 2 put their roles aside. b. Teams discuss ideas that have been presented, and figure out where they can agree or

where they have differences about the historical question

Closure: The groups of students will each present their consensus about the topic. There will be a group discussion talking about the two different sides of the question. The students will recognize through this that there is no one right answer and that the issue is more complicated than a simple yes or no.

Assessment: The students will be assessed through writing an essay presenting their knowledge on the question. They will have choose either the yes or no side for answering the question and using the primary source documents will have to support the side they choose. Differentiation: There will be both text and visual primary source documents to help the students. If some students still struggle with working with the textual primary sources I will provide them with more images to help. And for more advanced students I will provide some more text documents and more complex ones.

DOCUMENT PACKET

Document 1

Many people moved into the great plains of the United States in the early 1900s. The people moving and living in the area worked to accomplish many things such as farming and building a better form of transportation which resulted in different consequences. …The  group  petitioned  for  a  post  office  and  September  6,  1912,  Mr.  J.  X.  Shupe  was  appointed  first  post  master.  They  were  also  assigned  a  school  district  and  December  1,  1912,  school  opened  for  the  children  of  eight  or  ten  families.  School  was  held  in  a  small  frame  house  and  Mr.  Shupe  was  the  first  teacher.  Other  families  came  in  1913  and  especially  during  the  year  1914  there  was  an  influx  of  new  homesteaders. This  ambitious  group  began  constructing  a  road  across  the  Rio  Grande  canyon,  the  one  which  is  still  in  use  today.  Previous  to  this  all  wagons  or  cars  came  by  way  of  the  Arroyo  Hondo  road  over  John  Dunn's  toil  bridge.  It  was  during  this  year  of  1914  that  it  was  tho'ught  admirable  by  a  group  of  the  Latter  Day  Saints  in  the  community  to  organize  a  branch  of  the  Mormon  Church  and  also  a  Sunday  School.    

This little settlement of courageous homesteaders, who year after year, planted suitable dry farming crops and then hoped that they would harvest enough to live on, grew and and prospered until 1920. At that census the precinct showed 243 persons. Then in 1923 high wages were being paid at the sawmill at [?] Piedras and the mica mines near-by-were very active. Soon many of the homesteaders, who have been gradually discouraged by the increasing drought each year, left their plows and the town of Carson to earn money in other fields of work. But W. K. Shupe remained and was elected Taos county Probate Judge in 1929 and 1930. By 1930 the population of Carson had dwindled to less than 150 including Taos Junction, some five miles to the west. This was the railway station of the Denver and Rio Grande Western and had been nothing but a railway building while Carson was prospering. However, the railroad had attracted business and a small community had been slowly developing there at Stong, (Taos Junction) while Carson had been going downhill.

The year 1933-34 brought the most severe drought and tho'se few farmers who still remained on their homesteads were reduced to bringing water in barrels and tanks loaded on trucks and wagons hauled five miles after being filled from the Rio Grande River itself. This hauled water supply had to take care of both household and stock purposes. This further reduced the population. Later a [?] land purchase by the government bought land to the south and west of this area which further reduced the population of Carson….

Source: Excerpt from The Mormon Church West of the Rio Grande. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-­‐bin/query/r?ammem/wpa:@field(DOCID+@lit(wpa119070104))

Document 2 Many people had hardships in one form or another in the mid-west of the United States. This document covers the struggle of one man and his family settling in the region. …When Mr. Rogers was 14 years old his father died. The year following his death was a fine crop year, following three years drought. Mr. Rogers then took his mother and three sisters to Mineral Wells to live, and he went back to Weatherford, Texas, and freighted from there for three years to make a living for them. He then went back to McKinney, Texas, to live. Here he began working in a store and planned to make his life work.

Mr. Rogers declares he was eighteen years old before he knew that there was such a thing as a man "beating his debts". His father -- as was customary with all ranchmen -- paid his bills once a year. It was during his job in the store that he had his first experience of this kind. He had hired out for a month, and if, at the end of [this?] time he had given satisfactory service, he was to continue working. At the end of the month his employer asked him to take charge of the store; doing all the buying and selling. One day two well dressed men came to the store and wanted to open an account, which Mr. Rogers refused to do, but Mr. Pierce -- the proprietor of the store -- did; taking a mortgage on the team and buggy the men were driving, and duly recording the same at the court house. For several days the men bought big bills of goods -- each time buying enough to run the ordinary ranch for three months. Then one {Begin deleted text}Saurday{End deleted text} {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}Saturday{End handwritten}{End inserted text} they came in and again bought a large bill of goods; that night they left for the Indian Territory and was never seen nor heard from again.

…In May 1907, Mr. Rogers filed on a claim near Des Moines, New Mexico, which was then only a station on the Colorado and Southern railroad. In October of the same year he came to New Mexico with his intentions of opening a store for himself in the new settlement. His first work was that of hauling wood and water for the settlers; he then began erecting shacks as the people were coming into the new community faster than shelter could be provided for them. With in three months he had built seventy-five shacks, and has acquired the sobriquet of "The Shack Builder". He also began locating people from Texas and other parts of the country on homesteads around Des Moines for which he was paid five dollars per claim. This was the nucleus for the business he is still in, that of Realtor….

Mr. Rogers and his wife live on their ranch, a few miles from Des Moines, in the summer and make their home in town in the winter.

He has watched the town grow form a little railroad station, whose only inhabitants were the station agent and his family, to one of the most prosperous towns in Union County; and has also watched its decline during the recent years of drought and depression; but thro'ugh it all he has retained his jovial disposition and his faith in his town and fellow men. Such characters as Mr. Rogers, are the real back-bone of the country.

Source: Biographies—J.J. Rogers http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-­‐bin/query/r?ammem/wpa:@field(DOCID+@lit(wpa119060404))

Document 3 People living and farming during the early 1900s United States made a living in many different ways. The family in this document participated in farming in multiple forms and during their experiences farming was met with some obstacles. About the time Mary and John married, John's mother died and his father spent the rest of his life with them. For two years after their marriage, they rented farms. During their leisure hours, they learned from the land-lord the art of pottery making. At odd times they made pots, jars, and jugs. For several years the father was provided with a horse and covered wagon and was sent out with the pottery products to canvass the homes of the farmers and villagers. He was usually gone two weeks at a time, camping in his wagon and paying for his food with his wares. The profits brought back by this "travelling merchant" supplemented the savings from the farm and enabled the family during a period of ten years to pay for the property on which they are now living. They continued to prosper and in due time paid for another farm of forty acres five miles north of Four Oaks.

The Allens had three sons and a daughter, each of whom is married and living away from home. Some years ago a young woman began to live with the family as a servant. She was never married but became the mother of one son and three daughters. The Allens allowed her to stay and helped her to rear her children. Mary spoke of her four "adopted" children but one of the letter gave me the true facts. The foster-children are married and live as tenants within a radius of a few miles….

Mary told me that her husband "does not like to work" and hence has had to place a loan on the farm. The mortgage did not worry her. Apparently she thought it a small matter. The family income has been larger in recent years under "control" than when they first married; but the husband is taking life easier and the upkeep of the car eats up the income until they are barely "breaking even" in recent years….

The garden was almost a failure due to excessive rain and no effort had been made to cultivate a late garden. The Allens had done some canning, but James and his wife had done almost none, seemingly depending in part upon the generosity of the older couple. James was cordial but did not ask his wife to come out and see me. Neither family knew how to estimate an adequate income. As they bad done in other years, they would "tough it out" during the winter on potatoes, hog meat which they had raised in small quantity, a few cans of vegetables and fruits, and meal and flour which they would buy, and anxiously await the vegetable garden in the spring….

Source: American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940 http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-­‐bin/query/r?ammem/wpa:@field(DOCID+@lit(wpa227040207))

Document 4 People living in the time around the dust bowl participated in a multitude of activities. This document shows some of the activities done. It also gives more of a glimpse to how people were and what they did during this time. …"Well, I've been about everything else in my life but a cow poke. I rode freight trains into New Mexico when that was still a pretty wild place, met Billy the Kid, outrode most of the cow pokes I ever rode with sin the rodeos I rode in, settled a claim and proved it up, run drug stores and sold moonshine. I could tell you a wilder tale about running rot-gut liquor than I could about riding hosses and wet-nursing cows but that's what you want so here goes nothing.

"First, I was born on my dad's stock farm in Lamar county, Texas, on June the 21st, 1885. If somebody'd rushed the stork up about three days, all the niggers all over the country could celebrate on my birthday. Well, about the farm. Dad didn't have but a few head of cows and a couple of hosses. Just enough to get under the rope as a stock farm….

…"Until we got to Altus Oklahoma, we had the worst matched team I've ever seen. A little old mule teamed with a big fine hoss. The big hoss was always pulling the load, and the mule was almost excess if it wasn't for the fact that we needed two hosses anyway. While we were in the wagon yard at Altus, a hoss trader came up with a small hoss and said, 'Bud, let me put this hoss in here just to show you how fine he'll look with your mule. He's more the mule's size and wont cost you a penny because I'll trade even.'…

…"They had wagon yards out on the plains and in the mountains in those days like they have tourist camps these days. One of the busiest wagon yards without a town to support it was Lucky Springs, located on the Prairie Dog fork of the Red River, and in Hall county. This place was just like I've seen in several picture shows. They had a big stockade around it, and stalls to drive your whole outfit into. You could rent rooms if you was so a mind to because they had some log cabins built over the stalls all around, the supports for the cabin being the separations for the stalls below. In one corner of the wagon yard would be the combination saloon, storehouse, postoffice (if they had one there), and office for the yard….

Source: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940 http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-­‐bin/query/r?ammem/wpa:@field(DOCID+@lit(wpa337011615))  

Document 5

Much like current day events of the past were covered in newspapers. This document is a collage of many newspaper article of the time around the dust bowl. It shows many feelings and ideas about the events of the dust bowl

Source: http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/fsa/8e03000/8e03200/8e03296r.jpg

Document 6 The land during the time of the dust bowl became extremely barren and devastated. The image below shows just how devastating the events were on farm land.

Source: http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3c30000/3c30000/3c30600/3c30634v.jpg  Some of the language and phrasing in these documents have been

modified from the originals.

CAPTURE SHEET Was the dust bowl of the Great Depression a natural disaster? Preparation:

1. Highlight your assigned position.

Yes: The dust bowl of the Great Depression was a natural disaster. No: The dust bowl of the Great Depression was not a natural disaster.

2. Read through each document searching for support for your side’s argument. Use the documents to fill in the chart (Hint: Not all documents support your side, find those that do):

Document #

What is the main idea of this document? What details support your position?

3. Work with your partner to summarize your arguments for your position using the supporting documents you found above:

Don’t  forget  the  rules  of  a  successful  academic  controversy!  

1. Practice  active  listening.  2. Challenge  ideas,  not  each  other  3. Try  your  best  to  understand  the  other  

positions  4. Share  the  floor:  each  person  in  a  pair  

MUST  have  an  opportunity  to  speak  5. No  disagreeing  until  consensus-­‐

building  as  a  group  of  four  

Position Presentation:

4. You and your partner will present your position to your opposing group members. When you are done, you will then listen to your opponents’ position.

While you are listening to your opponents’ presentation, write down the main details that they present here: Clarifying questions I have for the opposing partners: How they answered the questions:

Consensus Building: 5. Put your assigned roles aside. Where does your group stand on the question? Where does

your group agree? Where does your group disagree? Your consensus answer does not have to be strictly yes, or no.

We agree: We disagree: Our final consensus: