The Great Depression had a huge impact on New Mexico. Farmers, ranchers, artists and others were devastated when America sank into the great economic slump. The economic crisis, combined with a long drought, drought actually turned New Mexico into part of the Dust Bowl. A 1937 dust storm was so massive that it stretched a mile wide and 1,500 feet high.
From Oklahoma to eastern New Mexico, winds picked up the dry topsoil, forming great clouds of dust, so thick that it filled the air. On May 28, 1937, one dust cloud, or black roller, measuring 1,500 feet high, and a mile across, descended upon the farming, and ranching community, of Clayton, New Mexico. The dust blew for hours, and was so thick, that electric lights could not be seen across the the street. Everywhere they hit, the dust storms killed livestock, and destroyed crops. In the Estancia Valley, entire crops of pinto beans were killed, and that once productive area, was transformed, into what author John L. Sinclair has called, the Valley of Broken Hearts.
Additionally, there were other, ramifications for New Mexico. While families were torn apart, by massive economic losses, others faced the horrors of possible deportation, simply because of their Mexican heritage. But the land of enchantment, wasn't doomed. When Franklin Roosevelt took office, he set his sights on New Mexico, and began to rebuild the state's economy.
Now, The Mountain Voice, presents an in-depth look at how the Great Depression impacted our state, and how we rose from the ashes.