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Dust Bowl In American History

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The worst man made ecological disaster in American history; The Dust Bowl. During The Great Depression, jobs, money, and food were scarce it forced the farmers to over work the soil because there was very little money and food them. So,they had to plant more crops to make ends met. But they did not realize that they were braking up the dirt creating the dust bowl. The first dust blizzard was in 1931.And there was also a drought in 1931-1939 that dried the area. It was said that it got up to 115°f. In 1939 during the fall rain came bring the end of the drought. And with the coming of world war two, pulling the country out of the great depression that made to plains golden with wheat once again. The natural weather blew the loose topsoil into …show more content…

And just slowly just came closer and closer. But in the beginning there was no sound but eventually we heard a sweeping sound a sort of accelerations the wind was picking up the earth closer and closer to us, you know. And it um as it got so close about a quarter of a mile or a half we all went in side. And that was the experience. That was the first really bad dust storm. That we remember.”.Earl V. Stager from Castro county Texas said it was completely black and it sent birds flying for safety, people and him as well feared the end of the …show more content…

In 1937 Roosevelt addressed the nation in his second inaugural address, stating, "I see one-third of the nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished. . .the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." FDR 's Shelterbelt Project begins. The project called for large-scale planting of trees across the Great Plains, stretching through a 100-mile wide zone from Canada to northern T.X, to protect the land from erosion. Native trees, such as red cedar and green ash, were planted along fence rows separating properties, & the farmers were paid to plant & cultivate them. The project was estimated to cost 75 million dollars over a period of 12 years. When disputes arose over funding sources the project was considered to be a long-term strategy, and therefore ineligible for emergency relief funds,the FDR transferred the program to the WPA, where the project had

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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).

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Poor land management prior to the years of the Dust Bowl left top soil prone to the forces of wind. This all lead to the start of the Dust Bowl where tons of top soil was blown off of the fields. In this area topsoil was one of the most valuable resources. The Storms lasted for about nine years and effected 19 states during the

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Many corporations and administration acts were created as a part of the New Deal, all improving the state of disaster in the U.S. However, his greatest accomplishment of his lifetime not only was saving America from physical and mental damage from the Great Depression and the World War, but was contributing to stop the Dust Bowl. President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), new farming methods and techniques (influenced by the New Deal), and the construction of the “shelter belt” introduced in 1935, where local farmers planted more than 200 million trees on almost all farms located in the dust bowl area. By doing this, overtime the Dust bowl disappeared, which “forever changed the face of America.” The stock markets and businesses were saved as restoration continued as lives of many people became more intricate but understandable.

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Just as was taught in class, a main reason for the Dust Bowl was World War I. Production demands rose greatly during World War I which meant that more land was being plowed and overplanted to keep up with the needs. A common idea was that tearing up the prairie grass on the farm land would help the soil receive more moisture. However, the grass was an evolutionary mean to keep the soil from blowing away, as was seen later. Then, when World War I ended, the demand for wheat and other crops fell as did the prices. To compensate for this loss, farmers dug up more land and planted more crops which only further hurt the soil.

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Did you know there was a major catastrophe in United States history that no one knows that much about. This horrible event had many names, but the most recognizable one may be the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl was a dark moment in America’s history that brought on disease, destruction, loss of jobs, and overall tragedy. The Dust Bowl’s origins, reasons for happening, affect on the people of the 1930s, its relief efforts, and how it has affected America today will be explored.

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The Dust Bowl was an event that occurred in the United States of America during the 1930’s. The Dust Bowl really affected the states of Colorado, Kansas,Texas and Oklahoma, and New Mexico. The Dust Bowl was some of the worst dust storms that has ever happened in the United States of America. The Dust Bowl severely crippled the economy of the United States because a lot of the wheat that was being used was being made is the areas that were affected the worst by the dust bowl. The worst day in the history of the dust bowl was a day called Black Sunday where the entire sky was black with dirt.

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Many farmers had to find new jobs and some even lost homes because the shortage on crops to sell. From 1931 to 1939 the Dust Bowl went on. Finally, in 1939 rain came down and ended the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl were severe storms in the midwest.

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The Dust Bowl is an area that was devastated by extreme drought, soil erosion, and economic depression during the 1930’s. The worst of it struck 50 million acres , mainly in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. The Dust Bowl did a lot of destruction to farm land and caused a lot of problems for farmers. Some farmers called “suitcase farmers” are people who lived and only visited during harvesting time. About 40 big storms swept through the Dust Bowl in 1935.

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The Dust Bowl of the 1930 's caused devastation for the mid-west at the time. It went on in Oklahoma,Texas,New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas; however, slimmer areas were actually affected by the Dust Bowl like the Oklahoma panhandle, the Texas panhandle, the Northeast of New Mexico, the Southeast of Colorado, and the western third of Kansas. The drought that caused the Dust Bowl affected about 27 states and covered about 75% of the country. It was in April of 1934 that Black Sunday, the worst storm of the Dust Bowl, occurred. Shortly after President Franklin D. Roosevelt passed the Conservation Act.

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John Wesley Powell, the great Western explorer determined that “20 inches of rain annually was the minimum for a successful farming on the plains.” A graph from Baylor University, shows that nine out of ten of the years from 1931-1940 were below the required minimum And the one year that met the bar, got 20.09 inches of rain, so it was barely there. This lack of rain greatly added to the perfect conditions for dust storms that we saw in the 1930’s. To sum it all up, the 30’s were a perfect time for dust storms to grow and plague America.

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The Dust Bowl occurred in the 1930’s to 1940. The worst day of the Dust Bowl was on April 14th, 1935. Due to the Endangered Species Act being broken a ton of smelts (fish) were dying, so connection to the water got cut off and the drought began. Since the smelt were dying people were leaving, going miles and miles away for water and work. It was so hot that trees were dying.

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“With the gales came the dust. Sometimes it was so thick that it completely hid the sun. Visibility ranged from nothing to fifty feet, the former when the eyes were filled with dirt which could not be avoided, even with goggles ”( Richardson 59). The Dust Bowl was a huge dust storm in the 1930s that stretched from western Kansas to New Mexico. People that lived in that area could not step outside or they would get dust in their lungs.

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Also because the tractor was so good they could now plow land that before was so difficult to plow. Now there is a huge amount of land, being over worked. Then when The Great War ends there is a huge amount of land left alone. They did not put the grass back to hold the earth together. Then the winds came and created these huge dust storms caused by these huge amounts of grassless land.

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The Dust Bowl era existed as a time of despair and decay. The Dust Bowl came from a drought that naturally resulted from a numerous amount of poor farming practices, such as destroying grass that let the soil stay in place (“Dust Bowl”). Many dust storms combined with high winds ravaged farmland and even people’s personal belongings and homes (“Dust Bowl”). The Dust Bowl mainly affected the midwest, specifically Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Texas (“Dust Bowl”). More than 350,000 people fled the Great Plains during the 1930s (“Dust Bowl”).

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The dust storms of the 1930s forced farmers and the federal government to utilize all of the technical expertise and financial resources they could command to bring the wind erosion problem under control. When drought and dust storms returned to the region during the 1950s, the technology and conservation practices that Dust Bowl farmers had been using for twenty years prevented the region from reverting to the severe conditions of the

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