Last Man Club facts for kids
The Last Man Club was a special group for farmers in the Southern Plains of Texas during the 1930s. These farmers decided to stay and help each other, even though the Dust Bowl disaster made life incredibly hard. It was a time when many people faced tough choices.
During the Dust Bowl, many farmers in places like Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle suffered greatly. They were also dealing with the Great Depression, a time when jobs and money were scarce. By 1936, they had already faced huge dust storms. These storms blew away the valuable topsoil, making it impossible to grow crops.
Farmers also battled plagues of grasshoppers and hungry jackrabbits that ate any remaining plants. Many people also got very sick with Dust pneumonia, caused by breathing in all the dust. About a quarter of the people in the Panhandle region left their homes. They packed up their few belongings and headed to California, hoping to find work picking fruit.
California was sometimes called the "Peach Bowl" because of its fruit farms. However, most of those who left didn't find the jobs they hoped for. Even if they did, the pay was very low. These job-seekers were often called "Okies" because so many of them came from Oklahoma.
John McCarty, who worked as an editor for the Dalhart Texan newspaper, started the Last Man Club in Dalhart, Texas. He created it as a support group for farmers who chose to stay in the dry Great Plains. He called their determination to stay "Grab a Root and Growl."
Starting the Last Man Club
John McCarty truly believed in the Great Plains. He called it "the best damned country God’s sun ever shown upon." He published a special promise in his newspaper. He declared that he would stay in the area until everyone else was gone. Then, he challenged others to join him.
McCarty got the idea for the Last Man Club from a similar group during the Civil War. Members of his club had to promise to be the very last person to leave the Dust Bowl area. Their exact pledge was: "In the absence of an act of God, serious family injury, or some other emergency, I pledge to stay here as the last man and to do everything I can to help other last men remain in this country. We promise to stay here ’til hell freezes over and skate out on the ice."
McCarty worked hard to make club members feel proud of their home region. He even saw the dust storms as a way to show how brave the local people were. He believed their decision to stay proved their amazing strength and determination.
The Last Man Club in Movies
The Last Man Club was such an interesting idea that it even appeared in popular culture. The 1977 movie Catastrophe included a part that talked about Last Man Clubs.
