1

• The drought that began in the early 1930s
  wreaked havoc on the Great Plains. During the
  previous decade, farmers from Texas to North
  Dakota-the region that became known as the Dust
  Bowl-had used tractors to break up the grasslands
  and plant millions of acres of new farmland. They
  exhausted the land through overproduction of
  crops, and the grasslands became unsuitable for
  farming. When the drought and winds began in the
  early 1930s, little grass and few trees were left
  on the plains to hold the soil down. Dust
  traveled hundreds of miles. One windstorm in 1924
  picked up millions of tons of dust from the
  plains and carried it to East Coast cities. Even
  ships far out in the Atlantic Ocean reported dust
  on their decks.

2
The Dust Bowl
3

• The southern plains, including Kansas, Oklahoma,
  and Texas were hardest hit. Plagued by dust
  storms and evictions, thousands of farmers and
  share croppers left their land behind. They
  packed up their families and their few belongings
  and traveled west, following Route 66 to
  California. Some of these migrants-known as Okies
  (a term that originally referred to Oklahomans
  but came to be used negatively for all the
  migrants)-found work as farm hands. But others
  continued to search for work. By the end of the
  1930s, the population of California had grown by
  more than a million.

4
The Migration West
5

• American author, John Steinbeck, wrote The Grapes
  of Wrath about an Okie family that migrated west.
  The following two slides have quotes from the
  book about the migration. The last slide is a
  song and lyrics by Kris Kristofferson that is
  based on a story in the book.

6

• Highway 66 is the main migrant road 66 is the
  path of a people in flight, refugees from the
  dust and shrinking land, from the thunder of
  tractors and shrinking ownership, from the
  deserts slow northward invasion, from the
  twisting winds that howl up out of Texas, from
  the floods that bring no richness to the land and
  steal what little richness is there 66 is the
  mother road, the road of flight.

7

• In the daylight they scuttled like bugs to the
  westward and as the dark caught them, they
  clustered like bugs near to shelter and to water.
  And because they were lonely and perplexed,
  because they had all come from a place of sadness
  and worry and defeat, and because they were all
  going to a new mysterious place, they huddled
  together they talked together they shared their
  lives, their food, and the things they hoped for
  in the new country In the evening a strange
  think happened the twenty families became one
  family, the children were the children of all.
  The loss of home became one loss, and the golden
  time in the West was one dream.

8

• The scene was a small roadside cafe, The
  waitress was sweeping the floor.Two truck
  drivers drinking their coffee.And two Okie kids
  by the door."How much are them candies?" they
  asked her."How much have you got?" she
  replied."We've only a penny between us.""Them's
  two for a penny," she lied.And the daylight
  grew heavy with thunder,With the smell of the
  rain on the wind.Ain't it just like a
  human.Here comes that rainbow again.One truck
  driver called to the waitress,After the kids
  went outside."Them candies ain't two for a
  penny.""So what's it to you?" she replied.In
  silence they finished their coffee,And got up
  and nodded goodbye.She called "Hey, you left
  too much money!""So what's it to you?" they
  replied.And the daylight was heavy with
  thunder,With the smell of the rain on the
  wind.Ain't it just like a human.Here comes that
  rainbow again.