HIGH AND DRY: THE SERIES
The severe drought that swept through Colorado in 2020 could be a harbinger of what the future will hold. However, in the arid Southwest, it’s not the first time that such challenges have wrecked lives and livelihoods.
In this part of the series we'll share images that explore the history of The Dry, a Black community in southeast Colorado undone by drought. The community was started back in the 1910s, with high hopes of reliable water resources from a local irrigation canal, and the passion of nearly 50 families that moved from across Kansas and Oklahoma to start a new life as homesteaders in Eastern Colorado.
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Alice McDonald grew up on The Dry, an area of land south of Manzanola, first homesteaded by Black families that moved to Colorado from other Black agricultural communities in the Midwest. McDonald spent most of her life on The Dry, and has fond memories of riding her horse around the area and enjoying the beauty of the prairie. (Forrest Czarnecki/The Gazette)
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A patch of cracked, dry dirt and dead plants fill the bottom of the old drinking water cistern at Alice McDonald's homestead on The Dry, south of Manzanola on Feb. 4, 2021. The family had two cisterns, one for drinking water, and one for stock water and chores around the homestead. (Forrest Czarnecki/The Gazette)
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Alice McDonald points out the plot of land owned by her grandmother, Lulu Craig, on a map of The Dry near Manzanola on Jan. 13, 2021. McDonald still owns the plot of land homesteaded by her family back in 1916, and she intends to keep the land in the family, citing the importance of land ownership and carrying on her family's legacy. (Forrest Czarnecki/The Gazette)
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Richard Craft, Alice McDonald's son, opens up the ranch gate that leads into McDonald's homestead on The Dry. The homestead has been in the family since the 1910s, when The Dry was founded by George Swink and the Rucker sisters, along with several other Black families that moved out to the plains south of Manzanola with hopes and dreams of living an agrarian life and owning their own land. (Forrest Czarnecki/The Gazette)
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An old ditch leading to a defunct reservoir near The Dry is filled with thousands of tumbleweeds. The reservoir, along with several others, was intended to hold water for residents of The Dry and the surrounding area, but those hopes never came true, and years after they were created, they sat empty and dry. (Forrest Czarnecki/The Gazette)
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Alice McDonald leans on the front of her truck while looking out over a property on The Dry, where she grew up and spent many years of her life. She remembers many of the families that were out on The Dry when she grew up, but over the years they all disappeared, until only her family and a couple others were left. Many of the families have lost of sold their homesteads, but McDonald is steadfast to keep the property in her family and pass it on to her son. (Forrest Czarnecki/The Gazette)
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A sign covers the ranch gate leading into Alice McDonald's property south of Manzanola, out on The Dry. McDonald still owns the property, citing her mother's strong belief and passion for retaining property ownership, although it is now leased out to a local rancher for cattle grazing. (Forrest Czarnecki/The Gazette)
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A lonely stock tank sits just south of a well house, in the middle of a parched and near barren cattle pasture, on The Dry in early February 2021. The stock tank is holding water that comes from a small spring in the side of a hill, roughly ten miles from Alice McDonald's homestead. McDonald's family would often load up barrels and buckets into a wagon and ride out to the well to retrieve drinking water, of which this well was one of the only sources in the area. (Forrest Czarnecki/The Gazette)
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Richard Craft, Alice McDonald's son, checks out the ruins of an old homestead on The Dry, only a few miles from McDonald's homestead on Jan. 13, 2021. Craft has fond memories of visiting his mother's homestead south of Manzanola, and he hopes to restore the property some day. (Forrest Czarnecki/The Gazette)
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A pronghorn runs through the cholla cactus and across and open field out on The Dry in early January 2021. Alice McDonald remembers much of the beauty and wildlife she saw in the area when she was growing up – the snakes, the birds, the pronghorn and rabbits. (Forrest Czarnecki/The Gazette)
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Clockwise from top photo: Alice and her brother, Harvey, Jr., sit on a pair of horses, Fancy and Dolly, behind a couple of their family's milk cows at their homestead in the 1940s. Alice McDonald's niece, Margery Owens, pets Dolly the saddle pony at McDonald's homestead during a summer time visit around 1961-62. Alice McDonald's father, Harvey, Sr., and McDonald's nephew, Jayme Owens, sit in the shade of the elm tree in front of McDonald's homestead in the early 1960s. (Photos provided by Alice McDonald)
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The Apishapa River, pictured near Manzanola, was vital to the creation and existence of The Dry in the early 1900s. The river served as a water source for the farmers in the community before a flash flood destroyed a dam on the canal that delivered water out to The Dry. (Forrest Czarnecki/The Gazette)
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The water tower for the town of Manzanola is pictured through some of the trees in the town's park in early February 2021. The town recently built a new water tower because of low pressure and less storage room in the old tower. (Forrest Czarnecki/The Gazette)
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Alice McDonald stands on the doorstep of her grandmother's home, Lulu Craig, in the late 1970s. Craig's home was the last one standing out on The Dry before vandals destroyed it in the 1980s. (Photos provided by Alice McDonald)
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A pickup truck is reflected in the window of a defunct shop as it drives through downtown Springfield in February 2021. Springfield is in Baca County, in the very southeast corner of the state, and was among the areas hit the hardest by the dust storms that gave rise to the name of the "Dirty Thirties," referring to the 1930s and the Dust Bowl. (Forrest Czarnecki/The Gazette)
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A truck transporting hay drives through Baca County, in the very southeastern corner of the state, in February 2021. Baca County was one of the areas hit the hardest by the Dust Bowl, according to historians and experts on the 1930s, and it is still largely dependent on agriculture, although it is also home to a major trucking route. (Forrest Czarnecki/The Gazette)
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A shaft of light pokes through a layer of storm clouds out near Springfield in February 2021. The area south of Springfield is now largely under private and federal ownership, with tens of thousands of acres as part of the Comanche National Grasslands. The grasslands were established following the Dust Bowl, and created in part to take land out of agricultural production and allow native prairie grasses to come back and provide structure and cover for the soil in the area. (Forrest Czarnecki/The Gazette)
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A cattle truck rolls through downtown Springfield in February 2021. Springfield is the county seat for Baca County, one of the areas hit hardest by the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. (Forrest Czarnecki/The Gazette)
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A dilapidated storefront in Springfield is pictured in February of 2021. Springfield was among the areas hit hardest by the Dust Bowl, and following the 1930s the area saw a massive exodus of residents. (Forrest Czarnecki/The Gazette)
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A property boundary sign for the Comanche National Grasslands sits among a massive file of tumbleweeds south of Springfield, Colorado on Feb. 18, 2021. The area south of Springfield is home to a large section of the federally-managed grasslands, which were created after unsustainable and intense farming practices in the early 1900s created conditions that led to the massive dust storms of the 1930s. (Forrest Czarnecki/The Gazette)
February 28, 2021 at 09:09PM
https://gazette.com/multimedia/photos-high-and-dry-colorado-in-drought---the-past/collection_b6703d3c-7935-11eb-98a1-6fed9a329e34.html
PHOTOS: High and Dry: Colorado in Drought - The Past - Colorado Springs Gazette
https://news.google.com/search?q=dry&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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