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56 Counties: The Drought of 1917-1920

Campbell's Soil Culture Manual by Hardy Webster Campbell
Campbell's Soil Culture Manual by Hardy Webster Campbell

The Depression hit Montana harder than many of the other western states in large part because of a drought that hit the state more than ten years before the Stock Market Crash, just after thousands of people had moved here to establish homesteads. Half of the banks in Montana closed during the 1920s, and we were the only state in the union to lose population during that decade. But there were a couple of important figures, John Wesley Powell and Hardy Campbell, that had a significant impact on the way events played out in the West before the Depression hit.

This month's episode features the music of Sean Devine of Livingston.

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