September 24 has marked inflection points for U.S. agriculture, from market shocks that rippled across the nation’s farms to landmark conservation decisions and moral appeals that still shape debates over labor, land, and climate. Three moments stand out for how they changed the way food is grown, traded, and governed.
1869: A gold panic that slammed farm markets
On Friday, September 24, 1869—remembered as Black Friday—Wall Street financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk’s attempt to corner the nation’s gold supply collapsed when the U.S. Treasury intervened. As the government sold gold into frothy markets, prices whipsawed and then plunged. The financial crisis did not stop at the New York gold room: grain and cotton markets convulsed, credit tightened, and confidence in commodity trading eroded just as farmers were moving their post–Civil War harvests to market.
For producers and country merchants across the Midwest and South, the immediate fallout was painful. Wholesalers and grain dealers faced margin calls and broken contracts; country elevators and shippers struggled to finance purchases; and farmgate prices for staple crops sagged in the weeks that followed. The episode added fuel to rising agrarian distrust of speculative finance and helped energize organizing already underway, including the Grange movement, which pushed for fairer railroad rates, market transparency, and cooperative marketing. Black Friday’s lesson—that financial instability can quickly ricochet into the farm economy—has echoed through later eras, from the 1920s agricultural depression to the 1980s farm crisis and modern bouts of commodity volatility.
1906: America’s first national monument and the future of working lands
On September 24, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Devils Tower in northeastern Wyoming the nation’s first National Monument, using the new Antiquities Act passed earlier that year. While the designation is best known as a milestone in U.S. conservation, it also foreshadowed a century of negotiation over how public lands intersect with working lands—especially rangelands—across the American West.
Monuments and other conservation areas sit within broader mosaics of federal, state, tribal, and private ownership where cattle and sheep grazing, water infrastructure, timber, and recreation overlap. The Devils Tower proclamation signaled a federal commitment to preserve landscapes of scientific and cultural value, and it became a template for later monuments across the West and Southwest. Over time, these designations helped catalyze debates over grazing allotments, predator control, invasive species, wildfire, and watershed health, and they pushed agencies and ranching communities toward more collaborative range management. Today’s range monitoring, adaptive grazing plans, and cross-boundary invasive species work trace part of their policy lineage to this early conservation moment.
2015: A moral lens on climate and farm labor
On September 24, 2015, Pope Francis became the first pontiff to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress. His remarks—urging environmental stewardship and humane treatment of migrants—landed squarely on two realities of modern American agriculture: climate risk and a labor force in which a majority of hired field workers are foreign-born.
For producers, the environmental message dovetailed with accelerating adoption of climate‑smart practices: precision nutrient management, cover crops, rotational grazing, soil carbon projects, and water‑efficient irrigation. For legislators, the address added moral urgency to debates over disaster aid, crop insurance, drought resilience, and conservation incentives. On labor, it highlighted longstanding tensions in farm labor policy—from the H‑2A visa program’s rapid expansion to state and federal efforts to balance wages, housing, and employer compliance with the seasonal realities of perishable crops. While the speech did not change statutes on its own, it helped frame subsequent policy conversations in terms of stewardship and dignity—language that continues to shape farm bill conservation titles, disaster packages, and immigration proposals.
Why these anniversaries still matter
Taken together, the events of September 24 underscore three durable truths about U.S. agriculture. Markets and money matter: financial instability can transmit to the countryside with speed and force. Land and law matter: conservation decisions ripple across communities that make a living from those lands. Values matter: the way leaders talk about workers, climate, and stewardship influences how policies get written, funded, and implemented.
As farmers and ranchers head into harvest and fall shipping seasons, those lessons remain practical. Risk management is not just about weather but also financial shock. Long-term profitability often hinges on soil, water, and range health decisions made today. And resilient food systems depend on the people who plant, pick, pack, and process—along with the policies that shape their work and lives.
On this date
- 1869: Black Friday gold panic sends shockwaves through U.S. grain and cotton markets.
- 1906: Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower the first U.S. National Monument, anchoring a century of conservation-and-grazing debates.
- 2015: Pope Francis addresses Congress, elevating climate stewardship and migrant labor as national priorities with direct implications for agriculture.