Hydrohistorian
A possible solution to the dust problem is irrigation. This farmer is pumping water from a well to his parched fields. Cimarron County, Oklahoma
Library of Congress · 1936 · Arthur Rothstein, for the Resettlement Administration
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF34-004106-E No known restrictions on publication. Archive record ↗ · Rights
Source Archival record · verify at Library of Congress ↗
The caption the government wrote for this was a policy position: "a possible solution to the dust problem is irrigation." It worked, and it is also how the Ogallala came to be drawn down.
Shows: Groundwater arriving at the surface as the answer to a dry decade, and the fuel drums it took to lift it.
What this does not let you conclude: The aquifer. Nothing in the frame says what was underneath, how much of it there was, or how long it would last -- which is the whole difficulty with pumping as a drought answer. April 1936.
Placed on
- Topic groundwater · plate
- Topic drought · plate
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