1. The dust bowl 1931 – 1939 What was it? What caused it?
What were consequences?

2. What caused the Dust Bowl disaster?
Severe drought
Overgrazing by cattle
Overplowing by farmers
High winds

3. Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl lasted about 10 years.
Main area of impact = southern Great Plains
STILL, effects seen and felt across the nation

4. Buffalo Grass: Before the Farmers Came
Great Plains
So for thousands of years the Great Plains region was covered by buffalo grass
Buffalo grass = incredibly important to environment of Great Plains
- helps keep moisture in the ground
- very deep roots; 5 feet deep
- protects the soil from erosion

5. Great Plains Wheat Fields
During the first 2 decades of the 1900s farmers rushed to the Great Plains and the Great Plow-Up began = turned 5.2 million acres of thick native grassland into wheat fields
Plowing destroyed the grasses that held the soil in place; soil just sitting on surface.
***Takes 2 months for roots to grow 8 INCHES deep
When WWI broke out, demand for wheat rose, and the price of wheat rose to $2.00 a bushel.
After the war, demand dropped and the price dropped to $1.00 a bushel.

6. Supply and Demand
If an item is rare & people want or need it, price goes up
World War I: wheat sold in Europe & US for $2.00 a bushel (demand high)
If there is an abundance of an item, price drops
After World War I: farmers sold wheat only in US; price dropped because there was less demand
BUT: farmers still needed to pay their bills, so they plowed more land.
When prices fell even further, "suitcase farmers" who had moved in for quick profits just abandoned their fields.
Huge swaths of land in eight states lay exposed to the elements.
Then the drought began
- lasted 8 straight years
- no rain to keep soil moist, no roots to keep it in place
Then the winds picked up
- Dust storms: 850 million tons of topsoil blew away in 1935 alone

7. Who did the drought hit the hardest?
Migrant workers
Poor farmers from Oklahoma & Arkansas headed west to escape Dust Bowl
Many moved to west coast to find jobs on farms
Not welcomed by locals
Locals feared migrants would take local jobs
Lived in terrible conditions (tents, no water or electricity)

8. The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
"And then the dispossessed were drawn west- from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out. Carloads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless - restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do - to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut - anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land.”
Dispossessed: without property, wandering, displaced
he Dust Bowl of the 1930s lasted about a decade. Its primary area of impact was on the southern Plains. The northern Plains were not so badly effected, but nonetheless, the drought, windblown dust and agricultural decline were no strangers to the north. In fact the agricultural devastation helped to lengthen the Depression whose effects were felt worldwide. The movement of people on the Plains was also profound.

9. Already struggling because of the overproduction of crops
How did the Dust Bowl make problems of the Depression worse for farmers?
Already struggling because of the overproduction of crops
Lack of rain and overuse of land
Conditions forced farmers of the Great Plains to migrate west
- unwelcome
- even harder life
Many were left displaced/homeless as farm land became useless

10. The Dust Bowl
What is this?

11. Cimarron County, Oklahoma.
1936

12. Dust Bowl Farmer raising fence
April 1936

13. Son of a farmer in Dust Bowl Area
April 1936

14. The Lincoln Memorial
21 March 1935

15. Newspaper clippings
1930’s

16. Oklahoma dust bowl refugees. San Fernando, California
June 1935

17. Farmer and sons walking in the face of a dust storm
Farmer and sons walking in the face of a dust storm. Cimarron County, Oklahoma
April 1936

18. Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. Age 32
March 1937