The Dust Bowl
"The Dust Bowl drought of the 1930s was one of the worst environmental disasters of the Twentieth Century anywhere in the world" (Cook). The Dust Bowl had a huge impact on the people of New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and the rest of the great plains, and the families living there, including my family. My great grandmother was a teenager during the Dust Bowl, she would often share of her experience and what happened during that time. She told us so we would continue her legacy, and the stories of the Dust Bowl, and the sickness and the hardship of the farming families, and how America pulled out of this disaster. Because the government had sold all this land to farmers they were all planting and turning and working the
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Another big factor of the Dust Bowl was the drought. The National Drought Migration Center that is in Nebraska said: "Many crops were damaged by deficient rainfall, high temperatures, and high winds, as well as insect infestations and dust storms that accompanied these conditions" (University of Nebraska). Nebraska was hit hard by the dust storms and was and is still a big farming community, the drought feed the effects of the Dust Bowl hugely, with high temperatures, dying crops, insect problems and of course the giant dust storms. These things made it extremely hard to live there and to farm, this drove people out for the land looking for new work and frankly, a less dusty place. The drought made it hard to go to school, to make dinner, it made people sick and combined with the over plowing of the topsoil it made dust storms unforgettable to …show more content…
Even getting to school was a challenge, Lola Adams Crum recounts, "Well many days, we didn’t even have school." She was a teacher at a school in Dodge City. "And the janitor would go down the halls and sweep out the windows, off the windowsills every hour all day long. They would just get coated with dust again." She said in an interview with Brandon Case (Case). Surviving the Dust Bowl was hard, nature was literally against these people, between the wind the dust, the sickness. Many people left the plains and headed to the west coast for work. This left more land open and just sitting there, abandoned. The people of the plains were strong willed and often depended on government aide. Those who stayed were staying with
The livestock was another group that was affected in the dust bowl. When the AAA demanded the farmers to plow over there land they killed 6 million young pigs were slaughtered. Many of those pigs just starved because the farmers were no longer working so they could not feed them. When the dust bowl came money farmers and ranchers livestock were killed and when they cut them open there was only dust in there lungs and guts. The cattle grazing was reduced and millions of more acres were plowed and planted.
Dust Bowl, The Southern Plains in the 30’s written by Donald Worster and published in 1979, is an informative text on the Great Plains during the Great Depression. Donald Worster is a credible author because he not only earned a Ph.D. from Yale in environmental history, but he also had previously written a book on the environment and the economy. This book was written well and Worster did a good job of revealing how people and how they live have effected the areas environment. He spoke of places including, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and many more.
The Dust Bowl made many people migrate to places like California, where the air was fresher and the food was more plentiful. They all believed that maybe one day it would be over, and that kept them going even when they maybe shouldn’t have. Kids and adults developed Dust Pneumonia, some suffocated, and others even committed suicide. Crops were almost gone, and wheat was the only reliable source of food. Families hung wet sheets from their windows in hopes of catching the dirt before it came into their houses, and people swept and wiped dust off from almost
The Dust Bowl negatively affected people in an economic way. How Drought played a big role in The Dust Bowl “ Federal aid to the drought-affected states was first given in 1932, but the first funds marked specifically for drought relief were not released until the fall of 1933. In all, assistance may have reached $1 billion (in 1930s dollars) by the end of the drought (Warrick et al., 1980). “ ( Source - http://drought.unl.edu/DroughtBasics/DustBowl/EconomicsoftheDustBowl.aspx )
Dust Bowl and Economics of the 1930s The Dust Bowl was a very desperate and troublesome time for America. The southwestern territories were in turmoil due to the arid effect of the drought causing no fertile soils. As the rest of America was being dragged along with the stock market crash and higher prices of wheat and crops since the producing areas couldn't produce. This was a streak of bad luck for the Americans as they were in a deep despair for a quite some time.
The Dust Bowl was an economic event that happened in the Great Plains during the Great Depression in the 1930’s. The causes of the Dust Bowl was the dry farming technique, the drought, and high winds. The dry farming technique helped the farmers grow more food in the Great Plains because the land was somewhat dry. The drought made the soil loose, and turn into a powdery substance. The high winds started blowing in 1934, which carried the dirt through the air.
Nineteen states in the United States became a vast dust bowl (Ganzel). Many homes became uninhabitable because of how terrible the dust storms were. Massive drifts of dirt buried pastures, grazing lands, and barnyards, piled up in front of homestead doors, came through window cracks, and sifted down from ceilings (Dust). “Some 850 million tons of topsoil blew away in 1935 alone. ‘Unless something is done,’ a government report predicted ‘the western plains will be as arid as the Arabian Desert.’”
The dust bowl was considered the “Worst hard time” in american history. The Dust Bowl was a big cloud of dust that took place during the 1930’s in the middle of the Great Depression. The dust bowl was located in the southern great plains as it affected states like Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. The three main causes of the Dust Bowl were drought (Doc E), amount of land being harvest (Doc D), and the death shortgrass prairie (Doc C).
It has been 76 years since the dust bowl had ended. The dust bowl swept across Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas throughout 1930-1940. Before the dust bowl many people traveled to these states for good land. The dust bowl was caused by a drought and strong winds. The dust from the drought was being blown around by the strong winds and covering everything.
The Struggle Through the Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl left the Great Plains with dry land and nowhere to farm. This led many people to move in search of jobs or new technology purchased using credit. Although everyone struggled, African Americans took the hit harder, as they were discriminated and lost jobs to whites. All residents of the Great Plains were affected, but African Americans were most significantly impacted.
The Dust Bowl took place in the 1930’s, which was also referred to as the “Dirty Thirties” lasted nearly a decade. During this time there were severe dust storms that caused major agriculture devastation primarily in the southern plains. Tens of thousands of families were forced to abandon their homes and farms, and relocated westward.
The Dust Bowl had impacted farmers and their techniques. The Dust Bowl, also known as the Dirty Thirties, was a period of acute and dangerous dust storms in the midwest that greatly damaged the farming and agriculture of the American people in the 1930’s. The dust bowl was caused by major droughts in the area. The farmers were the people who were affected the most by the dust storms because there entire living was destroyed. The dust bowl affects the areas of Oklahoma, Kansas, and northern Texas because of the severe soil erosion, during that time period which forced people to move.
The Dust Bowl was a hard time during the great depression. The Dust Bowl negatively affected people in a personal way. The dust was hard to keep away. People fled and left everything. The drought made things worst and the environment was horrible to live in.
In a very bad way. The dust bowl was very hard for the people living in it. They could do nothing because it was very hard to go outside and have something to do. It was even harder to get away from the dust because it could get through the cracks in your
Livestock could not breath or find food sources. Thousands of people lost their homes due to the storm. Changes in farming and agriculture in the early 1900s altered the landscape and soil creating the perfect environment for the Dust Bowl and impacted living conditions and economic policy. First, changes in farming and agriculture over the years led to the conditions that caused the Dust Bowl and impacted the Great Plains. “Wind and drought alone did not create the Dust Bowl.