As the Great Depression took hold in the late 1920s, many farmers saw their milk prices drop, and by 1933, prices were less than half what they had been just three years prior. Farmers reacted with milk strikes, and the protests often turned violent. This is the scene after a crowd of pickets stopped a Soo Line freight train near the city limits of Burlington by throwing ties across the tracks and firing shots. The pickets broke open seven cars and dumped the cans of milk along the tracks.