Joseph Hutton was a professor of agronomy at South Dakota College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts from 1911 until he died in 1939. He became professor of agronomy in charge of soil investigations, which included conducting the first soil survey of South Dakota. Throughout his career, Hutton promoted soil and water stewardship. As early as 1911, Hutton began issuing warnings that the soil would not stand up to the abuse of intensive cultivation. Farming, he urged, “must be adapted to the soil and rainfall conditions for the area.” Hutton, an avid photographer, documented the damage caused by the dust storms of the 1930s in South Dakota. He took this photograph on Sept. 10, 1935, showing conditions in Plainview Township, Tripp County, Winner-Dixon area. Blowing soils and drifts surrounded buildings and buried the windbreak to a depth of 20 feet.
In his notes, he mentioned that the house was furnished but abandoned.