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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Champ is in the tomato patch at the old Rabinaugh Stone House stock farm, gathering the last tomatoes before a hoped-for rain. After a hard stretch of drought, he offers a preview of an upcoming Wild N’ Woolly Ozarks episode on the droughts of the 1930s and 1950s, the dry summer of 1980, today’s conditions—and the folklore and a little magic that come with them.

Pick your tomatoes before it rains, then follow Wild N’ Woolly Ozarks on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts.

On the eve of the 1898 election, the old Webster County Courthouse was crowded with officials collecting ballots and preparing for the next day’s vote. Beneath its dome, a simmering feud between two Caddo neighbors erupted in gunfire.

David H. Shelby was a respected farmer, family man, and community leader. Richard D. Kazee was a once-successful stockman worn down by bereavement, financial troubles, political conflict, and rumors of theft from a church collection plate. When Kazee confronted Shelby in the courthouse hall, dozens witnessed what followed.

Champ traces the grievances that led to Shelby’s murder, Kazee’s swift conviction, and the extraordinary circumstances that allowed a condemned man to beat the rope. It’s a story of politics, personal ruin, frontier-era justice, and just how loosely the jailhouse doors could swing in nineteenth-century Missouri.

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• Tasty Acres Farm
• Penny Pinchers Grocery

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Listen to past episodes at WildNWoollyOzarks.com