ABSTRACT
In his contribution to History of Kearny County Kansas Volume I, Foster Eskelund (1964, 363) tells his readers:
Writing in 1964, Eskelund displays a certain optimism about the future, an unshakable belief that technology will continue to advance and protect future generations from
Introduction ............................................................................................................ 105 Drought .................................................................................................................. 106
Federal Drought Policy ..................................................................................... 109 Drought in Kansas ............................................................................................. 110
The Water Crisis and the Ogallala Aquifer ............................................................ 112 Agriculture and Water Use ..................................................................................... 113
Water Quality .................................................................................................... 115 The Decline of Farming .................................................................................... 116 Beef-Packing’s Golden Triangle ....................................................................... 117
Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 119 References .............................................................................................................. 120
the hardships of previous decades. Such faith is unsurprising, given the technological innovations unfolding at the time Eskelund was writing; these advances would land a man on the moon 5 years later. Little could he know that, in stark contrast to a future shaped by the ability to quench thirst with a capsule, the twenty-first century is characterized by a water crisis and recurring droughts. In today’s Kearny County, even the youngest generations know what it is to live with, and without, the lifeblood, that is, water.
