Montana Medicine Show: Thomas Campbell

Welcome to the Montana Medicine Show. I'm Derrick strong. Thomas Campbell broke more sod in Montana than anyone else. He was Montana's wheat wizard the plough or of the plains and the wheat king of America. Born in 1882 in Grand Forks North Dakota Campbell was managing his family's farm by age 17. According to historian Don spritzer he concluded that only through mechanization could the Great Plains achieve their true potential. Journalist Joseph Kinsey Howard characterized Campbell as a natural born promoter smart as hell and not afraid of anything. During World War One he promoted large scale farming to overcome global food shortages. Campbell leased arid lands on the Crow reservation proclaiming mechanization is the farmer's answer to weather. Campbell developed the world's largest wheat farm near Hardin Montana adopting the maximum efficiency through standardization he employed an army of plows and super sized tractors to work nearly a hundred thousand acres. Campbell boasted we are engineers and businessmen who operate on the

same basis as a manufacturer. We manufacture wheat. The Great Plains prophet advised governments in Russia England and France are grateful Crow tribe called Campbell God a known all over the world. Critics complain that Campbell singlehandedly killed the family farm but when he died in 1966. Time magazine declared what Henry Ford was to motor cars Tom Campbell is to farming. From K GLT studios. I'm Derek strong. Montana medicine show is supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. A private corporation funded by the American people.