070813-13 RM.
The economy in Catoula, Texas was already failing when the 1980 drought arrived to make matter even worse. Catoula is in the heart of the state's "Winter Garden," a region, orignally named after a thriving truck farming economy. When the water table dropped and the farms dried up, Catoula became a virtual ghost town. The problem grew with the drought, when ranchers' grasslands died out. Today, corporate agricultural giants have renewed much of the irrigation farming. However, corporate management neither patronizes local barber shops nor purchases supplies at local feed stores, so Ghost town economies remain economically haunted.
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