?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(WEST--KANSAS.) Jar of dust gathered in Kansas during the Dust Bowl, with note. Glass jar, 5 inches high and 3 inches round, with moderately rusted metal lid, partly filled with about 2 inches of dust and a few plant fibers; with scrap of paper, 1 1/2 x 3 inches, inscribed in manuscript "Wednesday April 10th and 11th 1935, second dust storm at Rago, Kan., could not see half block, Minnie Owens." Rago, KS, 11 April 1935
Minnie Belle Macomber Owens (1870-1953) wrote this note and collected this dust in Kingman County, south-central Kansas, not far from the Oklahoma line. The storms of this date were regarded as the worst this part of Kansas had yet seen. The Dust Bowl received its name just 4 days later as part of the newspaper coverage of the yet larger "Black Sunday" storm.
Owens appeared in the 1930 census for Valley, KS (the township which contained the village of Rago). The widow of a farm laborer, she remained in Kansas and was buried with her husband in Kingman County.
