Great Dust Storm

Great Dust Storm - Woody Guthrie with his Guitar

On the 14th day of April of 1935

There struck the worst of

Dust storms that ever filled the sky

You could see that dust storm comin'

The cloud looked deathlike black

And through our mighty nation

It left a dreadful track

From Oklahoma City to the Arizona line

Dakota and Nebraska to the lazy Rio Grande

It fell across our city like a

Curtain of black rolled down

We thought it was our judgement

We thought it was our doom

The radio reported we listened with alarm

The wild and windy actions of

This great mysterious storm;

From Albuquerque and Clovis

And all New Mexico

They said it was the blackest that ever they had saw

From old Dodge City Kansas

The dust had rung their knell

And a few more comrades

Sleeping on top of old Boot Hill

From Denver Colorado

They said it blew so strong

They thought that they could hold out

But they didn't know how long

Our relatives were huddled into their oil boom shacks

And the children they was cryin'

As it whistled through the cracks

And the family it was crowded into their little room

They thought the world had ended

And they thought it was their doom

The storm took place at sundown

It lasted through the night

When we looked out next morning

We saw a terrible sight

We saw outside our window

Where wheat fields they had grown

Was now a rippling ocean of dust the wind had blown

It covered up our fences

It covered up our barns

It covered up our tractors in this wild and dusty storm

We loaded our jalopies and piled our families in

We rattled down that highway to never come back again