Just A Little Rain*

Seventy-five years ago Texas Historian Walter Prescott Webb published his big laudatory history of the Texas Rangers. His book is filled with tales of old-timers and their derring-do. Webb could only praise them. Modern histories of the Rangers make them out to be, well, more human. They were products of their times, after all.

Webb the historian forecast the demise of the Rangers when they were transferred to the new Department of Public Safety in 1935.

Historians don’t always get it right. Webb did not foresee the influence of a radio drama – The Lone Ranger – on the nation’s image of the Rangers. Texans loved it. The Rangers persisted and prospered.

Earlier, in 1931, the same Walter Prescott Web wrote a better history entitled The Great Plains. He explained how easterners, used to the Great American Forest, adapted to the treeless plains, and the influence of the plains on American culture. I used his book when I was lecturing on grassland ecology. Webb’s perspective is brilliant. But he concluded that the Plains would prosper through dryland farming.

Webb didn’t get that one quite right, either. He didn’t foresee the great dust storms of the plains.

Texas has experienced droughts before, of course. The Nueces River ran dry, way back when George West himself was running cattle. Some of us remember the drought years of the early and middle 1950’s, when farms and ranches failed. Texas had an actual demographic shift, with so many leaving rural areas for the cities (thanks, Irene B., for forwarding the story).

Now - What are today’s historians saying about this year’s terrible droughts? What will be the consequences in agriculture, in water policy, in demographic changes? I think a big question is whether we are seeing the consequences of global climate change, or the repetition of a normal pattern.

This current drought extends Midwest and southeast, including my state – Georgia. What is it telling us?

Be careful how you answer. Our Georgia State Climatologist recently re-defined Georgia’s long-term average temperature (a bit higher) and rainfall (a bit lower).

Our Governor fired him!

Dac Crossley
September 12, 2011

“It does not make a writer popular to speak of the shortcomings and deficiencies of a country, and to do so is to bring down upon one a local storm of adverse criticism.” – Walter Prescott Webb.

*a recent song by Kevin Leftwich

Comments

[shirley white]

Hot and dry here, too. The following is from Ruthie. s
"Sonny, we have cracks in our yard that are 47 inches deep. My son said that he could top that; while driving his truck in the field, he hit a hole that took the truck down to the axle...
Ruth"

[Dac Crossley]

Indeed. Many are suffering from this drough and high temps, including wildlife on land and in streams.

[Angela K Roe]

The droughts and wildfires are frightening, to say the least. My heart goes out to those suffering through crazy weather all over the nation, not only Texas.

[Lauro F. Cavazos]

Dac, I remember the drought years of the late 1940's and early 50's. On the ranch there was no grass for the cattle. I recall men burning prickly pear with "pear burners," and the cattle following them and eating the pear while it was still hot. Behind the herd of cattle came deer eating the pear the cattle left. Larry C.

[irene black]

Short term effects for the entire country will be higher food prices.
We traveled to St. Louis in July. There were acres & acres covered in water for miles on both sides of the highway. With the drought in TX & floods elsewhere the harvest will be sparse this year.
Historically, I suspect a number of factors are at play: jet stream patterns, ocean winds systems, solar flares (11 year cycle), lowering of the aqua line, living at the end of a major ice age, & a shift by a couple of degrees in the earth's axis (within the last year & half). All of which we have no control over; frustrating as it may be.
The history & development of the west has center around the available water resources.
Remember that the great Sahara Desert was once (gelogically speaking) a fertile alluviam plain.

[Marj. F.]

FYI -- This past June, July and August are the highest three-month average ever recorded in the US, according the KENS (local San Antonio station) weather forecasters. As of today, we have had 54 days of 100 or better. Our record is 59, but the average was not as high.

[J. R. Lindermuth]

Webb was good at history. Not as good at forecasting.

[Janice]

I'm hoping the recent drought and resulting wildfires will make folks think more about how proposed mining will affect their water quality and quantity. Looking for the silver lining, I guess.