The Stage:
What were some natural or environmental factors that led to the Dust Bowl?
Average of 20 inches of rain or less per year. Kansas is a very windy state. There was no natural land forms to stop the wind. Buffalo grass held the dirt together.
The Events:
What were some of the events that led to the Dust Bowl?
The invention of new appliances such as tractors led to too much farming. More and more people came to Kansas because people were advertising the land. There was a higher demand for wheat and wheat was cheap and easy to plant (world war one).
The Life:
What was is like for people that lived through the Dust Bowl?
There was a lot of dust every where around the house. Places that were just clean would be as dirty as they were
The Dust Bowl was severe dust storms that happened in three waves. These dust storms occurred in 1934, 1936, and 1939 - 1940. The Dust storms were centered in a 150 thousand square area. This area stretched from the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles to the neighboring states of Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. The extensive deep plowing of the topsoil in the Great Plains during the previous decade was the main factor for these storms.
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. During World War
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.
Dust Bowl Could you have lived during the time period of the dust bowl? The dust bowl was a hard time for many farmers. The drought made it nearly impossible to grow anything for people to sell or eat. The dust bowl was created by the drought when it struck in 1934-1937.
“ The story highlights a very real and relatable experience about a family driven out of their home due to economic hardship and drought. Also known as “The Dirty Thirties,” the Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms causing major agricultural damage to the American west—especially the Oklahoma panhandle area, Kansas, and northern Texas. Farming methods at the time contributed to the severity of the problem. The arrival of farmers to the Great Plains created conditions for significant soil erosion during naturally occurring periods of cool sea surface water temperatures that regulate precipitation. “ http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/legacy/ 3.
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.”
Dust Bowl and Economics of the 1930s The Dust Bowl was a very desperate and troublesome time for America. The southwestern territories were in turmoil due to the arid effect of the drought causing no fertile soils. As the rest of America was being dragged along with the stock market crash and higher prices of wheat and crops since the producing areas couldn't produce. This was a streak of bad luck for the Americans as they were in a deep despair for a quite some time.
Farmers across the great plains longed for rain. Day after day the weather offered on relief for anyone. The Dust Bowl covered three hundred thousand square miles of territory. It banked against houses and farm buildings snow and buried fences. All of the dirt penetrated into the engines of cars and clogged vital parts.
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. During the 1930’s America suffered extreme temperatures. A drought forming across all farm lands due to failure of successful crop rotation cause dust to form.
“The sky would darken for days, and even the most well sealed homes could have a thick layer of dust on furniture. In some places the dust would drift like snow, covering farmsteads. ”("About The Dust Bowl")Everyone was trying so hard to let no dust in their house and even the best made house in there time still got dust in them, some people just wanted to give up trying to keep the dust out and it had an impact on everyone in was living in the house. “People spat up clods of dirt as big around as a pencil.
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
It has been 76 years since the dust bowl had ended. The dust bowl swept across Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas throughout 1930-1940. Before the dust bowl many people traveled to these states for good land. The dust bowl was caused by a drought and strong winds. The dust from the drought was being blown around by the strong winds and covering everything.
The rain trickled down my window as I stared at my books, thinking about the stories my grandparents used to tell me about Japan. They had many good times there, but when they came to the United States they were blessed with my Mama. They started a small furniture store when they moved down here, which Mama and Pa took over when my grandparents got too old to run it. I helped out when they needed me too. It was a normal life for a Japanese-American.
In a very bad way. The dust bowl was very hard for the people living in it. They could do nothing because it was very hard to go outside and have something to do. It was even harder to get away from the dust because it could get through the cracks in your
“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.