Dust Bowl Essay

During the “dirty thirties”, people in the Great Plains region of the United States greatly suffered. Dust storms wreaked havoc on the dry land and people barely got by with next to nothing to call their own. Out of all the natural disasters in America’s history, The Dust Bowl was one of the worst. There was a miscellany of reasons for the deficient environment and economy of the Dust Bowl. People living in the Dust Bowl region faced agony and distress during this trying time. Even after this difficult chapter in America’s history, civilians still feel the impact of this monumental event in our lives today. The Dust Bowl was one of America’s greatest disasters because of the economical and environmental contributors, events during the Dust

During World War I, The government urged farmers to grow more crops to help the war effort, which lowered the price of crops. Farmers needed to harvest more for the same amount of profit and small family farms turned into large enterprises. This mass elimination of Five million acres of prairie grass to make farmland became known as the Great Plow-Up. With all the grass gone, there was nothing left to keep the soil from blowing. New ways to farm also harmed the land. Tractors could till six times as much as normal horse drawn plows and by 1925, thousands of people owned a tractor. New plows increased the risk of blowing soil, a key factor in the Dust Bowl. Along with the environment, the financial state of the nation was depleted. On October 29, 1929 the stock market crashed. This day became known as Black Tuesday. On Black Tuesday, stock prices inflated and fell eighty percent. Investors lost 4 billion dollars and 16,410,030 stocks were sold. Millions lost their jobs. This led to the abundance of people living in poverty during the Dust

The Government became more involved in farming and new techniques were used. Terracing, planting crops on stair-like levels became popular, and farmers became more conscious of soil conservation. All of these actions paid off when the wheat harvest surpassed pre-Dust Bowl harvests. Future Droughts in the Great Plains were not as severe. In 1998 through 2002, the Great plains had thirty percent less rain than the 1930’s, and farmers turned their farmland into grass to keep afloat. Because the Great plains’ climate is easily predictable, Scientists can predict that there will be droughts every 20 years.

“I wonder if in the next 500 years - or the next 1000, there will be summers when rain will fall…”(Hartwell). Hartwell illustrates how the Dust Bowl is remembered as a terrible meteorological phenomenon. After one of the worst droughts in history, America found ways to learn from their mistakes and had a much more prosperous future. Even in today’s society, the effects of the Dust Bowl are still prevalent. Farmers use new techniques to keep soil healthy and conserve water. If a drought ever curses the land of the Great Plains again, we are now prepared to do all things necessary to prevent a second Dust