The "They're Everywhere...Just Everywhere!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading about something known as tumbleweed.  Seems that tumbleweed starts out as a live green plant that soaks up rainwater as it grows.  

As the soil dries, the thistle dies and detaches from the root.  The dead balls of thistle are then moved around by the wind and breezes.  And, that is the problem!  Tumbleweed is native to southeastern Russia and western Siberia.  Plants very similar to them have been introduced into the USA by Russian immigrants as a contaminant in flax seed.  They start out as live, green plants that soak up rainwater and grow.  As the soil dries, the thistle dies and detaches from the root.  The ball then is moved around by the wind and breezes.  And, that is the problem!  Recently, Mr. Chris Williams, who lives in South Jordan,  used his aerial drive to take video and photos of the tumbleweed.  He reported that it was gathering everywhere.... under cars and trucks and trailers.  "We've seen tumble weed in the area before, but that was an anomaly."  Many people used shovels to remove the tumbleweed from in front of their homes.  Mr. Williams said, "I don't think anybody was in real harm.  I still think you could walk through them if you had to.  Tumbleweeds are not real heavy."  Another resident, Brett Chummy, owns a Mom & Pop diner in Pahrump, Nevada.  For visitors to the area, the sight of tumbleweed swarms are strange to see.  Chummy said that for longtime residents of Pahrump, they are "just a normal occurrence.  When it rains the weeds grow like crazy." he said.  In 2014, mini-storms of tumbleweeds swamped the drought-stricken prairie of southern Colorado, blocking rural roads and irrigation canals, and briefly barricaded homes and an elementary school.  Parts of Victorville, California nearly were buried in 2018 by the large balls of the dried weeds.  Three consecutive windy storms in 2021 also brought in tumblers to South Jordan, but Saturday's event was something to behold.  Tumbleweed from the entire Salt Lake County made it's way into South Jordan.  Tumbleweeds have become entrenched in western U.S. culture and how many people view the Old West.  They also figure prominently in "Tumbling Tumbleweeds," a song recorded by Sons of the Pioneers in the 1930s, said Brooks Hefner, professor of English at James Madison University.  "That song gives one of the biggest metaphors that the tumbleweed is like the version of a drifter," Hefner said. "The lyrics identify the singer with the drifting tumbleweed, rolling through these empty western spaces.  That vile dimension of the rolling tumbleweed through desert space is so poetic."  I can't imagine what it must be like to have to drive through tumbleweed as it swarms all around you.  Could be scary!  At first, some thought it was an invasive Russian thistle that was sent to conquer the Western United States.  Luckily for both us and Russia, that was not the case.  I guess those of us who live in areas that are not threatened by tumbleweed are lucky.  I just can't imagine what it must be like to see beach-ball sized masses of tumbleweed heading down the highway toward you, knowing there is no way to stop it.  But, if you live in areas where it is a yearly occurrence, I guess you grow up knowing exactly how to handle it.  I am one of the lucky ones who have never had to experience it!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.