Ranching, Farming, and Crops

Garden City is great for farming. The major crops are corn, wheat, alfalfa, sweet clover, and sorghum. From the early teens through the 20's Garden City was best known for the sugar beet crops. In 1920 sugar beets were planted on 30,000 acres of land. In 1921 most of this land was for sale.

Corn Grew in Abundance

Wheat Harvest in June 1902

Livestock was also a good reason to come to Garden City. The land had excellent prairie grass for the cattle to graze on. But by 1886 most of the free range cattle were gone. Herd laws prevented cattle from running at large.

Cattle Pens

Cattle Sale- The cars in the backround belong to the people who at the sale.

Garden City has great land but sometimes "Mother Nature" ruined whole crops. The 1930's are best known for the Dust Bowl or "dirty thirties". Dirt would line the walls of a house to the roof. Wind would blow dirt so fiercely that you couldn't see out your window. This was called a "black blizzard". By 1934, 100 million acres had lost their top soil. In the 1934, 1936, 1938 and 1939 less than 10 inches of rain fell a year. In 1937 no precipitation fell at all! Other weather related losses were from tornadoes, floods, and blizzards.

Tornadoes in Garden City are one of the main reasons for loss of crops. One of the worst storms hit in and had up to six tornadoes with. It caused severe damage in the northern part of the city. Luckily only one person died in the storm. The storm lasted for 15 to 20 minutes. It was estimated that 125 homes in Garden City were a total loss, and 300 to 400 others sustained some damage. Garden City was very lucky because many towns or cities helped to pick up all the debris. They received a lot of help.

Damage caused by a tornado!

Garden City has dangerous weather, including floods. In June, 1921 a flood started in Pueblo Co. The water spread 103,000 cubic feet in one second. 78 people died and 669 buildings were torn from their foundations. Finney County had received warning of the flood, so they managed to move the cattle to higher ground, and the most damages were in crops and bridges.

Can you imagine a school bus driver and 5 students never making it back to their homes? They never made it home because they died in a blizzard. This was the Garden City's first. It happened on March 23, 1957. In a 48-hour period 12 inches of snow fell. Drifts of 10 to 15 feet were found outside of town. Helicopters took food to homes in the county. Many livestock died in this storm. This was the worst storm ever. In 1997 another snowstorm struck! 8-22 inches in drifts were measured, and more than 20,000 cattle died in the storm! Visibility was zero at times. This is called a white-out. Equipment operators couldn't see well enough to clear the roads.

Snow Drifts were piled high!

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