DUANE
Duane's take
Now, I'm tellin' this one straight off the official marker — here's how the record reads. Picture the southern plains in the 1930s. The Great Depression already had folks on their knees, and then the land itself turned against them.
Long periods of drought mixed with strong winds, and those winds took the topsoil — just lifted it right off whole farms. Buried others outright. Not a little dust, mind you.
An ecological disaster, one of the worst sustained ones in the nation's history. And for a good while, confusion was mounting as to what was even causing it. That detail right there ought to stop you.
The land was blowing away and people weren't entirely sure why. That's how bad it had gotten. A few early soil conservationists stepped forward, seekin' scientific and pragmatic solutions — and one of them, Hugh Hammond Bennett, was outspoken enough and determined enough that he became instrumental in the earliest federal efforts to address the soil erosion problem.
Federal help was a start. But more was needed. In Texas, the response came early.
As early as 1931, Governor Dan Moody called for a special soil and water conservation committee. Good instinct. But the road from instinct to law is paved with failed legislation, and that's exactly what followed — several years of it, attempts to create local conservation districts and a state board to oversee them, going nowhere.
Then came 1939. Governor W. Lee — and folks knew him as Pappy — O'Daniel signed the Texas Soil Conservation Law.
Now, that law didn't come from nowhere. It was proposed by V.C. Marshall of Bell County and something called the Committee of 100.
What the law did was establish local districts — and here's the part worth savoring — controlled by landowners. Not bureaucrats in some distant office. The people working the land.
One of the first orders of business under the new system was to establish the state board, elected by delegates from each county across Texas. And who did those delegates elect as the first chairman? V.C.
Marshall himself — the Bell County man who'd helped write the law in the first place. The board's headquarters were established in Temple. From the beginning, the agency worked directly with farmers, interest groups, and political leaders, with programs covering water quality, brush control, pollution, drought preparedness, and education.
The dust had blown. The law had passed. And the work of keeping Texas ground under Texas feet had finally found a home.
What the marker says
In the 1930s, in the midst of the Great Depression, one of the worst sustained ecological disasters in the nation's history devastated the southern plains. Long periods of drought mixed with strong winds robbed entire farms of topsoil and completely buried others. With confusion mounting as to the cause of the dust storms, a few early soil conservationists actively sought scientific and pragmatic solutions. One outspoken advocate, Hugh Hammond Bennett, was instrumental in the earliest federal efforts to address the soil erosion problem, but more was needed. In Texas, responses to the agricultural crisis began as early as 1931 when Gov. Dan Moody called for a special soil and water conservation committee. Following several years of failed legislation to create local conservation districts and a state board to oversee the system, Gov. W. Lee "Pappy" O" Daniel signed the Texas Soil Conservation Law in 1939. Proposed by Texas conservation advocate V.C. Marshall of Bell County and the "Committee of 100," the law established local districts controlled by landowners. One of the first orders of business was to establish the state board elected by delegates from each county in the state. V.C. Marshall was elected the first chairman of the board and the board's headquarters were established in temple. From the beginning, the agency worked directly with farmers, interest groups and political leaders to responsibly conserve and protect the environment with programs focusing on water quality, brush control, pollution, drought preparedness and education.