The Great Depression as it effected Miller County,Arkansas

Part 2

The Dust of Wrath

In 1933, the Great Depression was at the height of its impact on the nation. As if that were not enough, there were areas of Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and North Texas which became devastated by an unprecedented drought. In the years prior to this drought, high grain prices had encouraged wheat growers to plow up millions of acres of grassy range land to plant wheat.

These millions of acres of land had become pulverized to a fine silt almost the consistency of talc. During the middle of this drought, a relentless wind blew millions of tons of powdery silt high into the sky where it drifted south and east with the wind currents as far as the Atlantic coast.

There was so much dust in the sky that the sun was blocked out for days over Doddridge and most other parts of the south. In the drought-stricken area the wind piled sand in dunes some thirty feet high. Roads and fences were covered/ houses and barns were banked with sand, and pastures were ruined.

Counties in this dust bowl lost sixty percent of their population through migration to other states. The hardships endured by some of the people in these migrations served as a basis for a famous novel of the time entitled, The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck. This story also became a classic motion picture.

The effects of this “Black Blizzard” on Doddridge were considerable.

The sun was so obscured that it seemed to be dawn or dusk even at mid-day. The dust, as fine as talcum powder, crept into homes, no matter how tightly the doors and windows were closed. People and animals suffered respiratory and eye difficulties. Fruit and vegetables were covered with the powder. Engines and machinery were no doubt damaged to some degree. Only after the coming of rain weeks later was there any real relief from this unprecedented “plague.”

Recovery and Decline

Recovery from the Great Depression was a gradual process. Toward the late 1930s, conditions began to improve. Even so, the businesses of Doddridge never regained their former level of activity such as was known in the 1920s.

Actually, Doddridge had entered into a gradual decline from which, to the present day, it has never reversed itself. The economic and social base had undergone a remarkable change; this change was not unique, however, since the same process was happening to small towns all over America. The Great Depression, as devastating as it was, was only incidental, and not the cause of the decline of Doddridge.

As already pointed out, the car, the highway, the improvement of roads, the end of cotton production, the end of the family farm, and the decreasing population were all factors which contributed to the inevitable decline of Doddridge.

Just prior to, and during World War II, the people of Doddridge, who were not called into the military, found excellent paying jobs in the defense industry. Some people worked nearby at the Red River Arsenal near Texarkana; others went as far away as Los Angeles and Seattle.

Prosperity was back again, but this time it was in a very different mode. It was a grim and worrisome time which everyone prayed would soon end.

After the war ended in 1945, most of those who had left Doddridge returned for at least a time to decide how they would go on with their lives. Some took jobs elsewhere, some went to college, others remained in Doddridge to do whatever it was that held them there. After the war, there was little or no farming in the Doddridge area except for cattle raising. The timber industry was still going on as always, but virgin pine timber was depleted. Now the pulp wood was being harvested (for paper manufacture), and it was shipped by train to a paper mill in Louisiana.

Forests were almost devastated by this heavy removal of young trees, but pine trees grow rapidly, and within about fifteen years, a new crop of pulp wood is ready for harvesting.

For this reason, the timber industry in Sulphur Township has never completely come to an end.

The oil industry has been a small source of income for many residents of the area who own land.

People were usually willing to lease their land, first, because this meant cash for the lease, and secondly, there was always the chance that the oil company would drill on the property.

Several wells have been drilled southeast and southwest of Doddridge. It was commonly believed that if oil was found on your property, you were sure to become wealthy.

But this is largely a myth. Charlie Smith of River Bend has had wells on his land, but he made no claims or show about being wealthy.

His wife, Lela, says that because they had wells, some people liked to think they were rich. “Not so,” says Lela. “Those royalty checks bring only a small dab of money.”

With the demise of the family farm, cattle raising increased as a favorite means of income. What once were corn and cotton fields, were now pastures and hay meadows with cattle grazing. This was more agreeable to some people because cattle raising is less labor intensive than crop farming; consequently, they could hold jobs away from home and raise cattle at the same time.

Thus, is seen that timber, oil, and cattle were the basic income producers following World War II up to the present time (1992).

Starting in 1938, a whole series of long hoped for improvements were extended to Doddridge and all of Sulphur Township.

First, the Southwest Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation, backed by the Federal Rural Electrification Administration, built the first electric lines into Sulphur Township. Doddridge now had electricity. The community felt at last that it had caught up with the rest of the country.

Next, during World War II, Highway 71 was paved from Texarkana to the Louisiana state line.

The completion of this project eliminated the last of the discomforts of traveling to the cities, namely, the gravel road which had been built there in 1928.

The next great improvement was the dial telephone. The system was installed under the Southwest Arkansas Telephone Cooperative, Incorporated, and service was initiated in March, 1953.

In 1954, Miller County paved Highway 160 from Spring Bank Ferry through Doddridge and Bright Star to the Texas state line at Bloomburg.

This was a considerable improvement over the road of 1929, when the first school buses plowed their way through the mud to Bright Star High School.

There were times in those years when older boys in the school would have to go and work on the road so that the buses could get through.