Daughters of Felt

Daughters of Revolution by Grant Wood, 1932, in the collection of Cincinnati Art Museum

Daughters of the Oklahoma Panhandle

If you head west on Hwy 412 from Tulsa, it 's three and half hour to Woodward, and  then another couple hours to reach Guymon; further west yet, Boise City, in almost a straight line fashion. 

 

The Oklahoma Panhandle region has an incredibly rich history which is shaped by farming and ranching culture and definitely by the water and wind as well. Three teachers from Felt Public School, on the edge of the OKlahoma panhandle joined the field trip. Linnett, a graduate of Felt High School and a farm gal remembers the area neighborhood; Crystal recalled the story she heard from relatives about the Black Sunday in Guymon; Janese as a tour guide pointed to the direction the dust came from  more than 70 years ago. They know people in Ken Burns's The Dust Bowl. "Remember the widow of ten kids during the Dust Bowl? She survived and managed a Cafe in  her later years," the ladies recall.

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New Deal efforts at soil conservation brought back the land. When the rains came back in ’39, and dust storms started to settle down, farmers on the Plains turned to the Ogallala Aquifer, the 174,000-square-mile water table beneath them, to satisfy their crops’ needs. In a region with so little and such unreliable rainfall, it made sense: All the water that they could ask for was right there, under their feet. Wells started cropping up everywhere. Just how much water the aquifer holds is difficult to calculate, but its volume has been dramatically drawn down since 1950. At the present rate of depletion, the aquifer could, at some point, be pumped dry. And when that happens, the Plains, the people who live there, and their children could face the possibility of another Dust Bowl. (Children of the Dust by James Williford)

In fact, during our trip, the teachers from Guymon confirmed that the highway had to be closed due to bad visibility from dust storms.  It is very hard to visualize that I am standing in an area that has no surface water, all water supply comes from the mighty Ogallala Aquifer!

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Crystal's granddaughters visited her while we stopped at Felt; Janese's parents are volunteers at Cimarron Heritage Center Museum; Linnett and husband live on leased farm land and we said hi to their cattle as we passed them. The most incredible impression I have from the people in the panhandle regions is their longevity. Their grandparents, parents, aunts, and uncles all lived very long lives.  For everyone, every farm and ranch, and every cattle, please rain! 

"The guy in the picture is my grandpa"

American Gothic in grassland

Felt History