What does a drought leave behind after the rain finally returns? Join Champ as he traces how dry years have reshaped the Ozarks, from struggling apple orchards and tomato canneries to the farms his family has worked for generations. Drawing on Robert Flanders’s historical writing, newspaper accounts, and Vance Randolph’s collection of weather lore, Champ explores the hardship, humor, and ingenuity of people waiting for rain. Along the way come animal weather signs, a paid rainmaker, memories of the droughts of the 1950s and 1980, and his own plans for native grasses, a more diversified farm, and another hopeful year.

References mentioned in this episode

Robert Flanders, “When The Big Change Came In Here”
OzarksWatch, Vol. VII, No. 3, Spring 1994; the historical essay Champ reads and paraphrases.
https://sgcld.thelibrary.org/lochist/periodicals/ozarkswatch/ow703b.htm

Vance Randolph
The Ozarks folklorist whose collected weather beliefs anchor the episode’s folklore discussion.
https://historicmissourians.shsmo.org/vance-randolph/

Ozark Magic and Folklore
Randolph’s book, formerly titled Ozark Superstitions; Champ discusses its “Weather Signs” chapter.
https://iucat.iu.edu/iusb/1947258

Historical newspaper references discussed, located by Champ through Newspapers.com:

Springfield Press, October 26, 1929 — “Ozarks Aided by Canneries.”

Daily American Republic, Poplar Bluff, Missouri, May 1931 — “Fifty thousand acre tomato crop to be planted in the Ozarks this year,” with the subheading “Five million cases packed last year.”

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