Major drought, high summer temperatures, excessive cultivation, strong prairie winds, rock-bottom wheat prices, and the Great Depression combined to create the Dirty Thirties. In the 1930s, winds whipped Kansas topsoil into sun-darkening clouds and wheat crops withered. Not everyone suffered equally, and many farms managed marginal harvests and stayed afloat, but times were lean throughout the region. President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs helped local communities endure these hardships. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the Works Progress Administration hired local men for construction projects that included many bridges in Barton County, seven built from native limestone, and municipal buildings such as the auditorium in Great Bend and the high school in St. John. The Works Progress Administration also funded regional artists, leaving a legacy in the 1938 Wheat Center mural in the Hoisington post office. During the 1930s, farmers received federal funds to plant and maintain shelterbelts to reduce soil erosion, continuing a longer Kansas tree-planting tradition that dated to 1865, when Kansas became the first state to create a tree bounty, offering 50 cents an acre for every five acres of trees planted. Although local limestone had largely fallen out of use in construction by the 1920s as easier-to-use materials became available, the Great Depression brought a resurgence, and local Works Progress Administration bridge projects paired native limestone with meticulous workmanship.