Ford County Historical Society
Dust Bowl Oral History Project Credits

The recording of the Dust Bowl oral history project was completed in the summer of 1998 through the services of an intern of the Ford County Historical Society, Brandon Case. Brandon was, at the time, working on a Masters in History at Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas. The organization of the project was started by Ann Warner, a FCHS board member. She outlined the general area of the project questions and arranged the interviews. Brandon received written permission from each interviewee, and releases for the publication of the material. No interviewee reviewed or edited their interviews. That more than one of our older participates was either ill or had hearing problems was reflected in a number of repeated questions, and sometimes confusion about events. Dr. Lynn H. Nelson, Professor Emeritus, History, University of Kansas, guided us on the limited editing of the interviews to reduce the redundant questions and the repeated answers. All of the interviewees have passed-on since the interviews.

In 2002, the FCHS applied for a grant to pay for transcription of the interviews. Two different transcribers started on the interviews, but both had to quit. Finally, in 2005, Erica Land was hired and trained to do the transcriptions. She had worked as a guide in our house museum for some years, and was somewhat familiar with the various persons, events and places involved. She is continuing the project past the end of the KHC grant, so that all of the available interviews are published.

We thank the Kansas Humanities Council for the funding of the project, Ann Warner for her early work and planning, and Darleen Clifton Smith, the KHC project consultant for her help and editing advice. Originals of the texts have been archived, along with the original audio cassettes. They are available by request from the Kansas Heritage Center, Dodge City, KS.

Web site editing and HTML formatting was done by George Laughead, who also created a Dust Bowl index for linkage to the FCHS project, and added links to hundreds of Kansas and Ford County related history sites. Future growth of the Dust Bowl Oral History Project site will include audio files with excerpts of the interviews, and the scanning of photographs to add a gallery of Dust Bowl era scenes. Both the Ford County Historical Society and the Kansas Heritage Center archives will be used for the gallery.