Little remains of Dead Ox Flats, a tiny town out on the sagebrush prairie just outside of Ontario. It was a tiny farming community born from practically nothing but a will to settle the arid West and make the land productive. In the early 1900s, local governments and private corporations tried building pumps strong enough to bring water into the desolate valley. The town owes its origin to the Dead Ox Flat water district. This amounted to a pumping station, canals, and a miles-long water pipeline built in 1937 by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Few records of this short-lived town exist, other than the photos taken by Dorothea Lange. Lange is now famous for her depression era photographs and her work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). President Roosevelt created the FSA in 1937 to aid poor farmers, sharecroppers, and migrant workers. It promoted government planning and intervention to improve living conditions in rural America.

The FSA was one of the New Deal’s most progressive and controversial agencies. It moved poor farmers onto more productive land, promoted soil conservation, provided emergency relief, and loaned money to small farmers. In so doing, Dead Ox Flat was born. Practically nothing is left of the town today. The dugout homes and sagebrush hay barns are all gone. The only things still standing are the old water pipes and ancient pump building.

The Schroeder Family stands by a strawberry patch in front of their Dead Ox Flat house in 1939. Large image of the Schroeder's courtesy of Library of Congress​.

Mr. and Mrs. Wardlow stand at the entrance of their dugout basement home in Dead Ox Flat in 1939. Large image of the Wardlow's courtesy of Library of Congress​.