. . . During the Great Depression, all us Kansas hicks, Missouri Pukes, Arkies and last but not least, Okies that caravanned out to the San Joaquin valley and picked fruit lost our lands not because we couldn't tough it out eatin' coons and jackrabbits and scratching a bit of wheat out of the ground. We lost the land because the government demanded their taxes. People who hadn't been in debt, suddenly were, and then a couple of years later, BOOM! They're wondering what hit them as they pile stuff on their Clampettmobile and head for Bakersfield. . .
I know families here in Oklahoma who are living on the trust funds set up by the bankers who foreclosed on thousands of farms in North and Northwestern OK along the Kansas border. These few bankers amassed 10s of thousands of acres of land along with the mineral rights for pennies on the dollar. Today this land is covered with oil wells and has created untold wealth, all because of the dust bowl and the Great Depression.
