Black Sunday Dust Storm of 1935

 

(Wikipedia) Black Sunday refers to a particularly severe dust storm that occurred on April 14, 1935, as part of the Dust Bowl. It was one of the worst dust storms in American history and it caused immense economic and agricultural damage. It is estimated to have displaced 300 million tons of topsoil from the prairie area in the US. On the afternoon of April 14, the residents of the Plains States were forced to take cover as a dust storm, or "black blizzard", blew through the region.
The storm hit the Oklahoma Panhandle and Northwestern Oklahoma first, and moved south for the remainder of the day. It hit Beaver around 4:00 p.m., Boise City around 5:15 p.m., and Amarillo, Texas, at 7:20 p.m. The conditions were the most severe in the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles, but the storm's effects were felt in other surrounding areas. Continued

John Lomax

 

(Wikipedia) John Avery Lomax (September 23, 1867 – January 26, 1948) was an American teacher, a pioneering musicologist, and a folklorist who did much for the preservation of American folk music. He was the father of Shirley Mansell, John Avery Lomax, Jr., Alan Lomax, also a distinguished collector of folk music, and Bess Lomax Hawes. John Lomax was born in Goodman in Holmes County in central Mississippi, to James Avery Lomax and the former Susan Frances Cooper. In December 1869, the Lomax family traveled by ox cart from Mississippi to Texas.
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Adobe or sun-dried brick for farm buildings

Not many government pamphlets have inspired a novel, but this one did. It's also a handy guide to making your own adobe bricks and buildings. It was published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1934, and you can read the whole thing for free here.

State says keep Woody Guthrie image off Oklahoma Capitol

(KFDA) An image of Woody Guthrie lit up the Oklahoma Capitol, but the state doesn't want the unauthorized artwork coming back.
Oklahoma City artist Jack Fowler says he projected an image of the folk singer Monday night onto tarps covering construction work in an effort to get people to "shake up the powers that be." Guthrie was born in Okemah, Oklahoma, and influenced singers including Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. Continued

With Johnny Depp’s Help, Woody Guthrie Novel to Arrive in 2013

(NYTimes) The author Douglas Brinkley and the actor Johnny Depp are teaming up to edit “House of Earth,” a previously unpublished novel by the folk singer Woody Guthrie that will be released next spring. Mr. Brinkley said in a telephone interview that the book would appear from “a major New York publisher,” but declined to specify which one before the deal was completed. The manuscript, which Guthrie finished in 1947, follows a West Texas couple who, in their effort to build adobe homes as protection against treacherous weather, fight against banks and lumber companies. Continued