Some families who left their dust-buried farms moved to California to work on the commercial farms there. These migrant families were called "Okies," since many of them were from Oklahoma, and they lived in migrant camps like this one in California.

Territorial Governor Andrew Reeder fled the territory disguised as a woodcutter because the proslavery Border Ruffians threatened to hang him.

Asaf Muhammad was just twelve years old when Saddam Hussein's troops invaded his Kurdish village at the end of Operation Desert Storm. He went with his family into Turkey, where they received help at a Coalition refugee camp. According to Asaf, "The Americans saved our lives."