1. The Dust Bowl An American Tragedy
Events and Ideas #5
US History
Unit 4

2. This PowerPoint must be watched in PowerPoint mode

3. Essential Question:
What caused the Dust Bowl and what were the immediate and long-term effects?

4. The Great Plains
The Great Plains often suffered from repeated drought cycles.
The natural vegetation of the plains, a combination of deep-rooted grasses including buffalo grass, were able to withstand the dry periods when they occurred.

7. Westward Expansion
With continued westward expansion, settlers arrived in the Great Plains to farm.

8. Wheat
Wheat was the preferred crop for many farmers, especially when World War I broke out in Europe in 1914.
The demand for grain overseas was high
Prices rose from less than a dollar a bushel to over two dollars a bushel in 1917.
Why was the demand for wheat high in 1917?

9. Increased profits brought new economic options…
Farmers purchased tractors, disc harrows and combine harvesters.
They expanded their tilled fields and continued reaping large profits from their crops.
How were farmers able to purchase more land and equipment?

11. Farmland Grasslands that should have never been plowed were plowed up.
Millions of acres of grassland in the great plains were tilled under to farm.
The lands were planted with wheat year after year without a thought as to the damage that was being done.

12. Wheat Crop 1930 was dry but most of the farmers produced a wheat crop.
In 1931 the wheat crop was considered a bumper crop with over 12,000,000 bushels of wheat.
Wheat was everywhere, in the elevators, on the ground and in the road.
The wheat supply forced the price down from:
$.68/bushel in July 1930 to… $.25/bushel in July 1931.
Many farmers went broke and many abandoned their fields.

13. The Dust Bowl Begins…
With prices low, money tight, and drought affecting more than half of the nation, all it took was one more factor: wind, to create disaster on the plains .
As historian Vance Johnson writes,
“Every wind was destructive, and the wind blew almost every day. . .acre by acre, the crops were torn out by their roots and carried away.”

14. Only video – Write the questions on the left, answer them on the right
What were the advances in farming technology?
From the amount of farmland______
the amount of cultivated land ____
What eliminated the natural grasses?
What region/states were most effected by the drought?
How many acres were affected?
How far east did the dust storms reach?
What efforts were made to correct the conditions?
What technics were farmers taught?
How much topsoil was blown away?

15. Dust Bowl
Uncultivated fields and a drought caused most soil to turn to dust.
Tons of topsoil were blown off barren fields and carried in storm clouds for hundreds of miles.
From Dakota to Texas, a “Dust Bowl” was created.
The most visible evidence of how dry the 1930s became was the dust storm. Tons of topsoil were blown off barren fields and carried in storm clouds for hundreds of miles. Technically, the driest region of the Plains – southeastern Colorado, southwest Kansas and the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas – became known as the Dust Bowl, and many dust storms started there. But the entire region, and eventually the entire country, was affected.
Father and Sons…
living in the Dust Bowl

16. Dust Bowl The drought had begun in 1930
Planting was delayed in 1932 and winds destroyed much of the crops.
1933 saw over 100 “dirty days.”
1934 was a calmer year, but did see wind storms that carried dirt all the way to New York City and beyond.
1935 was a severe year with early storms lashing the region.
On April 14, a dust storm so large arose that it had an impact on Washington D.C. - this day was called “Black Sunday.”

17. Add to your list… Causes of the Great Depression:
Unwise Agricultural practices
Severe Drought
Dust Bowl

19. Dust Storms In 1932, 14 dust storms were recorded.
In 1933, there were 38 dust storms
By 1934 an estimated million acres of farmland had lost all of its topsoil to winds.
Many farmers and their families migrate to California and other western states.
The Dust Bowl got its name after Black Sunday, April 14, More and more dust storms had been blowing up in the years leading up to that day. In 1932, 14 dust storms were recorded on the Plains. In 1933, there were 38 storms. By 1934, it was estimated that 100 million acres of farmland had lost all or most of the topsoil to the winds.
By April 1935, there had been weeks of dust storms, but the cloud that appeared on the horizon that Sunday was the worst. Winds were clocked at 60 mph. Then it hit.

20. Dust Storms
"The impact is like a shovelful of fine sand flung against the face, people caught in their own yards grope for the doorstep. Cars come to a standstill, for no light in the world can penetrate that swirling murk... We live with the dust, eat it, sleep with it, watch it strip us of possessions and the hope of possessions."
"The impact is like a shovelful of fine sand flung against the face," Avis D. Carlson wrote in a New Republic article. "People caught in their own yards grope for the doorstep. Cars come to a standstill, for no light in the world can penetrate that swirling murk... We live with the dust, eat it, sleep with it, watch it strip us of possessions and the hope of possessions. It is becoming Real."
In the central and northern plains, dust was everywhere.
Avis D. Carlson in a New Republic article.

21. A dust storm approaches Stratford, Texas, in 1935

22. The Drought of the 1930’s was the worst in the climatological history
By 1934 it had desiccated the Great Plains, from North Dakota to Texas, from the Mississippi River Valley to the Rockies. Vast dust storms swept the region.
Farmer and sons, dust storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma, The drought that helped cripple agriculture in the Great Depression was the worst in the climatological history of the country.
Photographer: Arthur Rothstein
After a dust storm, May 1936, South Dakota

23. Wheat production continued to decline

24. Many farmers who stayed on their land switched to raising cattle.
That met with limited success since the animals required large amounts of range land for feed.

25. Cattle are slaughtered to ease the financial burdens on farmers
The federal government forms a Drought Relief Service to coordinate relief activities.
The DRS buys cattle in emergency areas
50 % are unfit for human consumption and are destroyed
January 15: 1935
The federal government forms a Drought Relief Service to coordinate relief activities. The DRS buys cattle in counties that are designated emergency areas, for $14 to $20 a head. Those unfit for human consumption – more than 50 percent at the beginning of the program – are destroyed. The remaining cattle are given to the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation to be used in food distribution to families nationwide. Although it is difficult for farmers to give up their herds, the cattle slaughter program helps many of them avoid bankruptcy. “The government cattle buying program was a God-send to many farmers, as they could not afford to keep their cattle, and the government paid a better price than they could obtain in local markets

26. Remaining cattle are given to the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation to be used in food distribution to families nationwide.
It is difficult for farmers to give up their herds, but it helps many of them avoid bankruptcy.

27. 1936… During 1936, the number of dirt storms increased
The temperature broke the 1934 record high by soaring above 120⁰ in parts of Kansas.

28. 1937… 1937 was another year of unprecedented dirt storms.
New Mexico 1937
1937 was another year of unprecedented dirt storms.
Day after day, Dust Bowl farmers unwillingly traded farms as the land moved back and forth between Texas and Kansas.

29. 1938… 1938 was the year of the "snuster".
A snuster was a mixture of dirt and snow reaching blizzard proportions.

30. Stories from the Dust Bowl
“When the wind blew in the dust bowl, something as ordinary as breathing became a challenge. . .it (dust) would just coat the inside of your nose literally. And sometimes your mouth would just get cottony dry because . . .you spit out dirt. . .It looked like tobacco juice. .”

31. Stories from the Dust Bowl
“The blowing dirt made daily routines burdensome and depressing. Whether one was trying to keep house, run a small business, go to school, or go to church, the impact of the dust was serious.”

32. Stories from the Dust Bowl
“Everything that had a surface became dusty. Clothes hanging on the line to dry ended up stiff with dirt. Families went to sleep on clean sheets and pillowcases and awoke to find everything dirty but the spots where they had lain.”

33. Looking for Work in the West
Many chose to leave the Great Plains
They abandoned their land and homes
Many headed for California and other states lured by the opportunity for work

34. Many of the migrants struggled to reach their destinations and met obstacles along the way.
The experiences of these “Okies” and “Arkies” became the basis for John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath.

35. Soil Conservation Service (SCS) now the Natural Resources Conservation Service
1935 – Congress established the SCS
They began to stress soil conservation measures.
The first soil conservation districts began
Demonstration projects were carried out to show the benefits of practices such as terracing, contour plowing, conservation tillage and the reintroduction of windbreaks.
On April 27, 1935 Congress passed Public Law 74-46, in which it recognized that "the wastage of soil and moisture resources on farm, grazing, and forest lands  is a menace to the national welfare" and established the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) as a permanent agency in the USDA. In 1994, SCS’s name was changed to the Natural Resources Conservation Service to better reflect the broadened scope of the agency’s concerns. In doing so, Congress reaffirmed the federal commitment to the conservation of the nation's soil and water resources, first made 75 years ago, that continues to this day.

36. Wind Break
or Shelter Belt
Contour Plowing

37. Rainfall!! A return of more abundant rainfall beginning in 1938
A focus on the nation’s needs during World War II helped bring the region out of its crisis.
The Dust Bowl taught farmers new farming methods and techniques.
The 1930's fostered a whole new era of soil conservation.
Perhaps the most valuable lesson learned from the Dust Bowl - take care of the land.

38. Answer the Essential Question completely describing what caused the Dust Bowl and what were the immediate and long-term effects?