The Historic Adobe Museum’s display of the 1930s, from Dust Bowl to gas exploration, is one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas History because it tells the story of human hardship to industrial boom.

The Dust Bowl, often known as the Dirty Thirties, is said to have been the worst ecological and human disaster in modern times. The museum is in a 1938 WPA building constructed of adobe, a sign of the troubled times. 

One room showcases a collection of scrap quilts, feed sack quilts, and friendship quilts to illustrate the impressive role that quilts and quilting played during the Great Depression.

A Royal Gray photo exhibit includes an image of Ulysses on Black Sunday, April 14, 1935, at 3:10 p.m., when daylight went to total darkness in one minute as the town was engulfed by dust. Gray’s images, from deserted farmsteads to faces expressing every emotion, tell the story of the Dust Bowl. 

Museum exhibits also tell the story of success, which started in the late 1930s when Grant County began developing is natural gas resource.   

At the museum, see displays about gas camps and ask for “ghost gas camp” locations around the county. 

LOCATION: Historic Adobe Museum, 300 E. Oklahoma, Ulysses 67880  

HOURS
: Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m.;  Saturday 1-5 p.m.

CONTACTS: 620.356.3009; ulyksmus@gmail.com