An exhibit in the works at the Woody Guthrie Center will put visitors in the middle of one of the worst Dust Bowl–era storms.
The Dust Bowl Experience uses virtual-reality headsets to show the April 14, 1935, dust storm that came to be known as Black Sunday.
"It’s not something that we have created in a studio that isn’t based on facts. Everything is based on the actual, historical events, and this is actually what people had to live through," said Woody Guthrie Center Executive Director Deana McCloud.
They’re building a prairie home front porch inside the museum you’ll sit on as the storm approaches, and the railings will show up in the VR headsets.
"And we’re, of course, using period, Dust Bowl–surviving wood that we’re getting from the panhandle from some old buildings, so it’s very authentic," McCloud said.
Kansas may have been hit harder by the Dust Bowl than Oklahoma was, but the man-made ecological disaster was a transformative experience for Guthrie.
"Those migrants that came from this region and went to California were the people that Woody saw whenever he got there, and that was his moment of becoming a social activist, a spokesperson for those disenfranchised workers," McCloud said.
The Dust Bowl Experience will open to the public April 24, coinciding with the Woody Guthrie Center's fifth anniversary.
