Dust storms in the Dust Bowl area wreaked havoc on the Great Plains and Southwestern United States and caused the death of many. Once upon a time (The 1930’s to be exact), there was a bright young fellow named Bob. His family consisted of six people: Bob, June (his sister), Billy (his one year-old brother who was very sick), his older brother (Eric), Bob’s dad, and Bob’s mom. They lived in a rural area of Oklahoma. In the “Dirty Thirties,” their lives changed drastically. It was like they were put into an enclosed cave and they were stuck in there with nobody to help them. They were a wealthy family, but when the Dust Bowl came, and it terrorized their land, they were never able to dig themselves out of the hole that the Dust Bowl caused. Billy died from a dust-inflicted illness, Eric became a hobo, and …show more content…
One of those farmland problems was “over managing” of the farmland and fields. This was a major cause of the Dust Bowl because it is what loosened up the soil. For example, farmers over-plowed the fields and as a result, pulled up the native grasses that had previously held the soil in place. They exchanged planting the prairie grass for instead attempting to harvest wheat, which they were unable to do because of external/natural factors. Turning to some effects of the farmland, the land was completely smothered in dust. This was not just a sprinkle of dust that you get when you cut some wood, this is total blanketing or carpeting of the whole area. The wood houses built back in the old days were always covered in dirt and sand. The dust crawled and wormed its way in every crack and crevice. The wind blew everywhere constantly, displacing the hearty topsoil that was so valuable for farming. It snatched up seeds and just pitched them away. These factors made it nearly impossible to farm. Agriculture in the “Dirty Thirties” was depressing, but some revolting illnesses actually took
The poor farming practices that were put in place by profit farmers disregarding the state of the land coupled with the sudden explosive growth in farming technology allowing these farmers to farm much larger plots of land with much more ease left the topsoil completely vulnerable. While it was natural phenomena that sparked the Dust Bowl, it was not the cause, as these natural phenomena on their own would not have been nearly enough to cause anything on the scale of the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl was a direct causation of the poor farming methods of the farmers of the
This over farming diminished the nutrients in the ground and removed all of the grass and sod holding the dirt in place which resulted in it creating the giant dust storms. Storms like this have happened in the past but not to the same degree. He mentions how the climate in the Southern Plains is problematic as there is little rain and every so many years there are big storms that tear throughout the area. The difference between the storms that occurred before the Dust Bowl, is that there was grass and sod keeping the soil in place instead of just bare earth with shallow roots for anything that managed to cover the earth. Worster claims capitalism and the farming practices are responsible for this as the farmers strive to make a profit without caring about the state of the land is in.
Eight, six, four, two--the Dust Bowl makes them go achoo. The articles “Letters for the Dust Bowl” by Caroline A. Henderson and "The Untold Stories of Those Who Survived The Great American Dust Bowl” By Timothy Egan describe the living conditions the civilians had to live through. Numerous people were affected by the living conditions of the Dust Bowl(Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture). First and foremost, the Dust Bowl affected the lives of the people who had to live through it because they were trying to keep the dust out of their houses so they would not get sick. Henderson stated, “Wearing our shade hats, with handkerchiefs tied over our faces and vaseline in our nostrils…”
The drought killed the grass which made the soil lack the roots as an anchor, “So the winds easily picked up the loose topsoil and swirled it into dense dust clouds, called black blizzards”(“Dust Bowl”). This dust wasn't just destructive it was also deadly. The dust could kill if people inhaled enough of it. The dust was more deadly to infants and elderly people.
The Dust Bowl is a classic tale of humans pushing too hard against nature and nature pushing back (The Dust Bowl). The narrator of the film said it was the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history (The Dust Bowl). The groups of people that choose to live in this region choose to ignore the history of the land that included droughts and severe winters. Ignoring the severe winters of the 1880’s caused the “Beef Bonanza” to close and a severe drought in the 1890’s that pushed farmers off the land. Farmers ignored the ecosystem by ridding the land of the vegetation that had evolved.
Simple necessities such as cooking, eating, bathing, and even walking to a neighborhood store became difficult. In the eight years of the dusty drought, the soils that farmers valued most were depleted and damaged. Here’s why. The Dust Bowl occurred in the Great Plains of America, specifically harming Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico. There were four waves of droughts, but often times the people did not have healing time to recover for their losses.
The prairie turf that had been in the Plains for 35,000 years was destroyed to grow wheat. Hordes of insects and long droughts made farming almost impossible even before the Dust Bowl. The land simply could not take the punishment of all these factors. (USA Today) In summary, the combination of farmers migrating to harsh lands and over farming is a primary reasons for the beginning of the Dust
During the Great Depression a Midwestern phenomenon called the Dust Bowl affected many lives of newly settled Americans throughout the Great Plains region. Otherwise known as the “Dirty Thirties”, a storm of dry weather caused farmers and villagers to abandon their homes in hope to survive the deadly threat of the storm. The Dust Bowl was a big contributing factor to the Great Depression agriculturally, and economically. During the 1930’s America suffered extreme temperatures. A drought forming across all farm lands due to failure of successful crop rotation cause dust to form.
The three main causes of the Dust Bowl was Drought, amount of land being harvested on, and death of the shortgrass prairie. All of these reasons have to tie in with soil and water. The Dust Bowl was truly the Worst Hard Time in American history. It affected the great plains of america forever and would go down in
Surviving the dust bowl, many people left since the living conditions were so harsh. Some people tried to stay but in the end they had to leave since they lost their land in bank foreclosures. By 1940 about 2.5 million people have moved to the flatland; of those 200,000 moved to California. Landing in California, the migrants were confronted with an existence practically as troublesome as the one they had cleared out. The dust bowl exodus was the largest migration in American history.
The Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936, however in some places it lasted until 1940. The Dust Bowl was caused by a severe drought also coupled with decades of extensive farming without crop rotation or other techniques to prevent erosion. Deep plowing of the top soil of the Great Plains had killed the natural grass that normally kept the soil in place and trapped moisture even during the period of droughts and high winds.
People who work on farms and own farms have tough times, sometimes crops are not blooming well or the work force is not the best. The Dust Bowl was probably one of the times when farmers had it worst. With the Dust Bowl happening along with the depression farmers could barely keep their crops alive, let alone survive themselves. The Dust Bowl affected farmers because it affected the land.
Farmers were forced to sell livestock or machinery and borrow money from banks to try to keep their farm running. In 1932, one thousand families a week were losing their farms. If farmers couldn’t pay the bank, a tractor would be sent to destroy their farmhouse and they would say the land was “tractored out.” By 1937, the unemployment rate in Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas was 30%. As Jerry Stanley said in his book Children of the Dust Bowl, “The Okies were broke, they were without land, and they were hungry,” (Stanley 3-10).
The story starts off by telling you to imagine what it’d be like to live in the 1930’s when the Dust Bowl had taken effect. When dust storms came everyone in the area had to prepare quickly to withstand them. The wind combined with the dust and gravelly dirt was very strong and loud, easily getting into houses and cutting off fresh oxygen. Dust storms of the 1930’s were supposedly one of the worst natural disasters. They had affected everyone and everything in the area, so many Migrated West.
The two things that contributed to the start of the dust bowl are, over-farming and drought. The dust bowl was a terrible dust storm that devastated lives of thousands in the Southern Great Plains. The dust bowl occurred in the 1930’s. People called this time the blackest year.