Ryan Fischer

October 21, 2014

3: What was the Dust bowl?
4: Where did it take place?
5-6: What caused the Dust bowl?
7: Black Blizzard
8-9: Devastation
10: Government Response
11: Cultural Response
12: Long-term impact
13-16: Timeline of the Dust bowl
17: Reference Page


The Dust Bowl, also known as the
Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe
dust storms during the 1930s.

These dust storms greatly damaged
the agriculture and ecology of the
prairies in the United States.

The drought came in three main
waves: 1934, 1936, and 1939-40. But a
few regions in the High Plains (A sub
region of the Great Plains in the
Western US) suffered through
drought conditions for as many as 8
years.
The Dust Bowl was the name
given to the Great Plains region
devastated by drought in the
1930s.

The Dust Bowl encompassed a
150,000-square-mile area.

It spanned from the panhandles of
Oklahoma and Texas, to the
neighboring sections of Kansas,
Colorado, and New Mexico.
The main contributors to the Dust Bowl
were poor agricultural practices and years
of severe, sustained drought.

The farmers at the time and during the
previous decade didnt have enough
understanding of the ecology of the plains.

Most early settlers simply used their land
for livestock grazing, but agricultural
mechanization combined with high grain
prices during WW1 enticed farmers to
plow up millions of acres of natural grass
cover to plant wheat.

During the years with adequate
rainfall, the land produced
bountiful crops. But when the sever
droughts came, the ground cover
that held the soil in place was gone.

The unanchored soil turned to dust,
and heavy winds blew away in
huge clouds that would blacken the
sky, creating black blizzards.

The plain grasslands (virgin
topsoil) had been deeply plowed,
displacing the native, deep-rooted
grasses that would normally trap
soil and moisture even during long
periods of drought.


http://www.history.com/topics/dust-
bowl/videos/black-blizzard
Many families were forced
to flee from their homes.
John Steinback wrote in his
novel The Grapes of Wrath,
The dispossessed were
drawn west from Kansas,
Oklohoma, Texas, New
Mexico; from Nevada and
Arkansas, families, tribes,
dusted out, tractored out.
Car-loads, caravans,
homeless and hungry; 20
thouand and 50 thosuand
and 100 thousand and 200
thousand.
Over 500,000 Americans were left homeless. Tens
of thousands left their homes and migrated to
California only to find that the Great Depression
had rendered economic conditions there little
better than those they had left.
On April 14, 1935, a day known as Black Sunday,
20 of the worst black blizzards occurred across the
Great Plains all the way from Canada to Texas. The
storms cause extensive damages and turned day to
night. Witnesses reported not being able to see 5
feet in front of them.
The federal government implemented several New Deal policies, the main one being
the Soil Conservation service. On the local level, the gov instructed farmers to plant
trees and grass to anchor the soil. The government also purchased 11.3 million acres
of sub marginal land to keep it out of production.
The crisis was documented by photographers, musicians, and authors, many hired
during the great depression by the government. The work of independent artists such
as John Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath) and Woody Guthrie (Folk
singer) were influenced by the Dust Bowl and Great Depression.
In many regions, more than 75% of the
topsoil was swept away by the end of
the decade.

By 1940, areas that had experienced
the worst levels of erosion had a larger
decline in agricultural land values. In
high-erosion counties, the per-acre
value decreased by 28%; in median-
erosion counties, the per-acre value
decreased by 17%.

Even over the long term, the
agricultural value of land often failed
to recover to pre-Dust Bowl levels.
1931: Harsh drought strikes the Midwestern and
southern plains. Crops start to die and the black
blizzards begin. Dust from the over-plowed and over-
grazed land begins to blow.
1932: The number of
dust storms across
the country
increases. 14 are
reported in this year.
1933: The Emergency Farm Mortgage Act allotted
$200 million for refinancing mortgages to help
farmers who were faced with foreclosure. The
Farm Credit Act of 1933 established a local bank
and set up local credit associations. In the San
Joaquin Valley of California, the largest
agricultural strike in history took place after many
farmers fled from the plains, seeking migrant farm
work.
1934: Great dust storms spread from the Dust Bowl
area. The drought was the worst in US history,
covering more than 75% of the country and
severely affecting 27 states.
1935: The federal government formed a Drought
Relief Service and FDR approves the Emergency
Relief Appropriation Act, which provides $525
million for drought relief, and authorizes the
creation of the Works Progress Administration,
which employed 8.5 million people. Black Sunday.
1937: Roosevelt addresses the Dust Bowl in his 2
nd

inaugural address. FDRs Shelterbelt Project begins
which called for a large-scale planting of trees in a
100-mile wide zone to protect the land from
erosion.
1938: With the help of the extensive work in re-
plowing and the conservation methods, there
was a 65% reduction in the amount of soil
blowing, but the drought continues.
1939: Rain falls!
"Dust Bowl." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d.
Web. 21 Oct. 2014.
"About The Dust Bowl." About The Dust Bowl. N.p., n.d.
Web. 19 Oct. 2014.
"Dust Bowl During the Great Depression - American
Memory Timeline- Classroom Presentation | Teacher
Resources - Library of Congress." Dust Bowl During the
Great Depression - American Memory Timeline- Classroom
Presentation | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress.
N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.
"The Dust Bowl of the 1930s." The Dust Bowl of the
1930s. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.
"Dust Bowl." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Oct.
2014. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.