The Dust Bowl was caused by a variety of unfortunate circumstances at the worst time. The dust bowl refers the 1930’s when during the Great Depression, powerful winds ripped off the top soil (the soil that is best used for farming) and killed many crops. The farmers that were hit the hardest were the ones in the southern great plains. This region was soon known as the Dust Bowl. In the off season, farmers would plant grass to keep the topsoil from being taken with the wind. Document B states “Grass is what counts. It’s what saves us all – far as we get saved…. Grass is what holds the earth together.” This clearly refers to the fact that grass hold the soil in place. However, when it was time to farm farmers had to plow their land in order
The winds were growing stronger. The sun was shining brighter. It had not rained for many days and the soil was dry. Then the winds whipped up the dust and soil. The wind blew everywhere and so did the dust. The air was filled with dust and dirt. Many mammals died from swallowing and breathing too much dust and dirt. It was during the Great Depression so animals were valued. Animals gave them money from their milk and meat. The Dust Bowl lasted a terrible ten years that changed many people's lives.
The Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936, however in some places it lasted until 1940. The Dust Bowl was caused by a severe drought also coupled with decades of extensive farming without crop rotation or other techniques to prevent erosion. Deep plowing of the top soil of the Great Plains had killed the natural grass that normally kept the soil in place and trapped moisture even during the period of droughts and high winds.
he early 20th century was a period of social change and urbanization which followed by the Great Depression. The dust become a way of life. A dust bowl survivor described what daily life was like during the dust bowl: “ In the morning the dust hung like fog, and the sun was as red as ripe new blood. All day the dust sifted down from the sky, and the next day it sifted down. An even blanket covered the earth. It settled on the corn, piled up on the tops of the fence posts, piled up on the wires; it settled on roofs, blanketed the weeds and trees” [2]. Strong wind blowed all the time. The sky was cloudy and dusty. The sun hides between the thick layers of dust. Dust blown everywhere and covered everything including houses. Layer of dust piled
The two things that contributed to the start of the dust bowl are, over-farming and drought. The dust bowl was a terrible dust storm that devastated lives of thousands in the Southern Great Plains. The dust bowl occurred in the 1930’s. People called this time the blackest year.
The 1930s was a defining decade in America's history it was a test of the nation's strength and resulted in many changes, both good and bad. One of the many challenges America faced was the disastrous dust storms in the southern Great Plains. In the years before the dust storms began, farmers cleared the land of the grass in order to plant wheat when the drought came the wheat failed, resulting the Dust Bowl ("Dust Bowl 1931-1939" 3). These storms caused the greatest migration in U.S. history, with about 2.5 million farmers and their families leaving the plains ("Dust Bowl 1931-1939" 3). The Dust Bowl was an enormous struggle that resulted in many economic and agricultural problems that were going to be extremely strenuous to fix. Because
“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. 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.
Although there are many causes of the Dust Bowl the three most significant causes were the drought, removal of grass and the overproduction of crops in the Great Plains. The drought greatly dried out the land in the Great Plains. Removal of grass was also crucial during World War I because of the demand for wheat, but it was not during the Dust Bowl. By removing the grass it created much more room for storms to pick up the dirt and destroy
The Dust Bowl was a terrible experience during a horrible time. In the 1930s post World War I America had a total collapse of the stock market causing the Great Depression affecting the economy on a global scale, but hitting hardest at home in the United States. However, the economy wasn’t the only thing that was hit hard during this time; seemingly unstoppable dust storms ravaged farming land from the west to east coast hitting hardest in the great plains in the middle section the the US became known as the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl was not entirely a causation of bad luck on nature, it was caused by an increasing demand for crops, advancements in farming technology, while the final nail in the coffin was a lack of rain.
The Dust Bowl Have a minute, great. Because this may be the only chance for you to hear about this great disaster the dust bowl or known as the dirty thirties. In the 1930’s there was an horrible disaster called the dust bowl. The people who lived through the dust bowl, lived through a nightmare, that nightmare didn’t end till ten years later. Ten years, of drought wind dirt that’s a long time for a storm (Campbell __).
Donald Worster is an environmental historian and his book Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s helped to define the environmental history movement as it was the first environmental history book published. He breaks the stereotype of how the Dust Bowl was viewed by writing it from an environmental standpoint instead of writing a social history by focusing solely on the people and their experiences. How it helped to define the environmental history movement is that it opened up this avenue for others to write about environmental issues. He is also an anti-capitalist and this book combines his interest in the environment with the effect that capitalism has on the environment.
During the Great Depression a Midwestern phenomenon called the Dust Bowl affected many lives of newly settled Americans throughout the Great Plains region. Otherwise known as the “Dirty Thirties”, a storm of dry weather caused farmers and villagers to abandon their homes in hope to survive the deadly threat of the storm. The Dust Bowl was a big contributing factor to the Great Depression agriculturally, and economically.
The three main causes of the Dust Bowl was Drought, amount of land being harvested on, and death of the shortgrass prairie. All of these reasons have to tie in with soil and water. The Dust Bowl was truly the Worst Hard Time in American history. It affected the great plains of america forever and would go down in
The dust bowl was a man-made and natural disaster that devastated America and messed with millions of lives. To begin the dust bowl lasted for many years. To follow, Farmers plowed fields when there was no water and dried up the land, the crops took all the water, and the drought killed crops. Furthermore, One-third of people lived on farms, they were being kicked of the land because WW1 made the prices fall, and raised how many crops were made.
During the Dust Bowl some people made the decision to stay at their farms. Huge drifts of dirt piled up on homesteaders’ doors, came in the cracks of windows and came down from the ceilings. Barnyards and pastures were buried in dirt. After about 850 million tons of topsoil was blown away in 1935 alone. The government responded to this by saying “Unless something is done, the western plains will be as arid as the Arabian desert.”