This Week in Odessa History

The wheat crop of 1930 in the Odessa area was the worst in history up to that time, but it was only the beginning of what was to be four tragic years of crop failures, drought and depression.

The nation was just beginning to experience the Great Depression, which would go on until the middle of 1934. By 1930, wheat prices had fallen to a 25-year low and would sink even lower by 1932 to only 32 cents a bushel.

Here is a report which appeared in The Odessa Record on July 4, 1930, telling of prospects for that year:

The wheat crop of the Odessa country is the shortest in history this year, the so...