The Dust Bowl An American Tragedy

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The Dust BowlAn American Tragedy

• Jim McNeill
• Silver Bluff High School
• 64 DeSoto Drive
• Aiken, SC
• For NCHE

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What were the causes of the Dust Bowl?

• There was no
• single cause
• for one of the
• greatest
• environmental
• disasters in the
• history of the
• United States.

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The Great Plains have always suffered from
repeated drought cycles.

• However, the natural
• vegetation of the plains,
• a combination of deep-
• rooted grasses
• Including buffalo
• grass, were able to
• withstand the
• dry periods when
• they occurred.

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With continued westward expansion, settlers
arrived in the region, many of them to farm.
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• Wheat was the preferred crop for many farmers,
  especially when World War I broke out in Europe
  in 1914. The demand for grain overseas was high,
  and prices rose from less than a dollar a bushel
  to over two dollars a bushel in 1917.

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Increased profits brought new economic options

• Not everyone believed that such a narrow focus
  was sensible. Wisely or other-wisely, this
  region has permitted wheat growing to become its
  main concern, said author
• Caroline A. Henderson, a farm wife from Eva,
• Oklahoma. Farmers purchased tractors, disc
  harrows and combine harvesters to expand their
  tilled fields and continue reaping large profits
  from their crops.

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• The lands were planted to
• wheat year after year
• without a thought as to
• the damage that was
• being done. Grasslands
• that should have never been
• plowed were plowed up.
• Millions of acres of farm
• land in the great plains were
• broken.

• 1930 was dry but most of the
• farmers made a wheat crop.
• In 1931 the wheat crop was
• considered a bumper crop
• with over twelve million
• bushels of wheat. Wheat was
• everywhere, in the elevators,
• on the ground and in the road.
• The wheat supply forced the
• price down from sixty-eight
• cents/bushel in July 1930 to
• twenty-five cents/bushel in
• July 1931. Many farmers went
• broke and others abandoned
• their fields.
• http//www.ccccok.org/museum/dustbowl.html

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• With prices low, money tight, and drought
  affecting more
• than half of the nation, all it took was one more
  factor wind
• to create disaster on the plains . . .As
  historian Vance
• Johnson writes, Every wind was destructive, and
  the wind blew
• almost every day. . .Acre by acre, the crops were
  torn out by their
• roots and carried away.
• http//www.ccccok.org/museum/dustbowl.html

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• Many farmers who stayed on their land switched
  to raising cattle. That met with, at best,
  limited success since the animals required large
  amounts of range land for feed.

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• Droughts began in 1930
• 1931.
• Planting was delayed in
• 1932 and winds destroyed
• much of the crops.
• 1933 saw over 100 dirty
• Days.
• 1934 was a calmer year, but
• did see wind storms that
• carried dirt all the way to New
• York City and beyond.

• 1935 was a severe year with
• early storms lashing the
• region. On April 14, a dust
• storm so large arose that it
• had an impact on Washington
• D.C. This day was called
• Black Sunday.

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• Wheat production continued to decline.

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• During 1936, the number of
• dirt storms increased and the
• temperature broke the 1934
• record high by soaring above
• 120 degrees in parts of Kansas.

• 1937 was another year of
• unprecedented dirt storms.
• Day after day, Dust Bowl
• farmers unwillingly traded
• farms as the land moved back
• and forth between Texas and
• Kansas.
• 1938 was the year of the
• "snuster". The snuster was a
• mixture of dirt and snow
• Reaching blizzard proportions.
• http//www.ccccok.org/museum/dustbowl.html

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How did the people cope with the conditions?

• When the wind blew in the dust bowl, something
  as ordinary as
• breathing became a challenge. . .it (dust) would
  just coat the inside of
• your nose literally. And sometimes your mouth
  would just get cottony
• dry because . . .you spit out dirt. . .It looked
  like tobacco juice. . .But
• just thought that was part of livin.
• http//www.ppld.org/AboutYourLibrary/Events/appr20
  08/curriculumguideLifeDuringTheDustBowl.pdf

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• The blowing dirt made daily
• routines burdensome and
• depressing. Whether one was
• trying to keep house, run a
• small business, go to school,
• or go to church, the impact of
• The dust was serious.

• Everything that had a
• surface became dusty.
• Clothes hanging on the line to
• dry ended up stiff with dirt.
• Families went to sleep on
• clean sheets and pillowcases
• and awoke to find everything
• dirty but the spots where they
• had lain.

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Many chose to leave, abandoning their homes and
history to seek a new life in California and
other west coast states, lured by the opportunity
for work.
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• Many of the migrants struggled to reach their
  destinations and met obstacles along the way.
  The experiences of these Okies and Arkies
  became the basis for John Steinbecks novel, The
  Grapes of Wrath.

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A return of more abundant rainfall beginning in
1938 and a focus on the nations needs during
World War II helped bring the region out of its
crisis.
The Dust Bowl taught farmers new farming methods
and techniques. The 1930's fostered a whole new
era of soil conservation. Perhaps the most
valuable lesson learned form the Dust Bowl - take
care of the land.
http//www.ccccok.org/museum/dustbowl.html
http//www.newint.org/issue378/earth.htm
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• The Soil Conservation Service (SCS)now
• The Natural Resources Conservation Service
• began to stress soil conservation
• measures. Through their efforts, the first
• soil conservation districts came into being,
• and demonstration projects were carried
• out to show the benefits of practices such
• as terracing, contour plowing, conservation
• tillage and the reintroduction of windbreaks.

http//drought.unl.edu/whatis/dustbowl.htmcoping
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Wind Break or Shelter Belt
http//www.forestry.ok.gov/windbreaks-shelterbelts
Contour Plowing
http//www.cottoninc.com/Soil-Resources/Controllin
g-Soil-Erosion/
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But, Could It Happen Again?
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deal.feri.org/hopkins/hop27.htm http//memory.loc.
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