Out Of The Dust by Karen Hesse …an introduction to the Dust Bowl

What was the Dust Bowl? The Dust Bowl was the name given to the Great Plains region devastated by drought in 1930s depression-ridden America. The 150,000-square-mile area, encompassing the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles and neighboring sections of Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico, had little rainfall, light soil, and high winds--a potentially destructive combination.

What was the Dust Bowl? When drought struck from 1934 to 1937, the soil lacked the stronger root system of grass as an anchor, so the winds easily picked up the loose topsoil and swirled it into dense dust clouds, called “black blizzards.” These dust storms wreaked havoc, choking cattle and pasture lands and driving 60 percent of the population from the region. Most of these people went to agricultural areas first and then to cities, especially in the Far West.

How did it happen? Ranchers and farmers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries aggressively exploited the land and set up the region for ecological disaster. Most early settlers used the land for livestock grazing until agricultural mechanization combined with high grain prices during World War I enticed farmers to plow up millions of acres of natural grass cover to plant wheat. With no natural cover, the soil was exposed to the harsh effects of the sun along with the drought, making the soil vulnerable. It became dry and the winds blew the once fertile soil across the country.

What were the long term effects/what did the farmers learn? Many farmers went bankrupt Many families moved out of the region--by 1940, more than 2.5 million people had fled from the regions affected by the Dust Bowl. Nearly 10 percent moved to California Farmers let portions of the lands lie fallow each year so that the soil could regenerate Farmers realized that they needed the grasslands to help anchor and support the soil