Empire of Dust: Settling and Abandoning the Prairie Dry Belt

by David C. Jones

Book Overview

Settlers in 1912 knew it as Carlstadt, the "Star of the Prairie"; survivors remember it as Alderson, the ghost town. The history of this doomed village west of Medicine Hat is a life-sized saga of frothy boosterism, lightning expansion and utter miscalculations-a tragedy of drought, destitution and depopulation. It is the tale of the disaster that befell the prairie dry belt after the Great War, the untold sorrow of southwestern Saskatchewan and especially southeastern Alberta, an empire of dust.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0888641192
• ISBN13: 9780888641199
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Length: 316 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Outstanding and Unique

This book is very unique as it is one of the very few written on the subject of Alberta history. It is very interesting, and an excellent resource for teachers. I would also recommend the book "Feasting on Misfortune", also by David Jones, if this subject interests you. I have taken University courses from David Jones, and have never met a man more enthusiastic and having such love of subject as him.

Tracing the inevitable result of over-expansion

Empire Of Dust: Settling And Abandoning The Prairie Dry Belt by David C. Jones (Professor of History, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada) is an impressive compendium of Canadian agricultural history. Tracing the inevitable result of over-expansion in towns such as Alderson, Alberta, Empire Of Dust is a real-life cautionary tale of the dangers of depleting the land to the point where it can no longer nourish the livestock and the people. Carefully researched, engagingly presented, and, enhanced with black-and-white photography, Empire Of Dust is very highly recommended reading and a welcome addition to Agricultural Studies and Canadian History reference collections.