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The Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl. What is a Dust Bowl??!??. The term “Dust Bowl” refers to the time period of agricultural devastation during the Great Depression. The Dust Bowl occurred in the early 1930’s & ended in the early 1940’s.

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The Dust Bowl

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  1. The Dust Bowl

  2. What is a Dust Bowl??!?? • The term “Dust Bowl” refers to the time period of agricultural devastation during the Great Depression. • The Dust Bowl occurred in the early 1930’s & ended in the early 1940’s. • A drought hit the Midwestern & Western states where many thought the Midwestern & Western states were blowing away.

  3. This is the main area called the “Dust Bowl” but other states were also affected.

  4. What states were severely effected? • Texas • Oklahoma • Colorado • Kansas • New Mexico • Even though the states in yellow were not severely effected, they did suffer damage from the storms.

  5. Major Causes of Wind Erosion • Clear Cutting, cutting all trees from an area in order to plant crops or graze animals. Without root systems of trees to hold the dirt in place, what happens? • Tillage practices, Heavy tillage like plows vs No-till • Surface Roughness, Ridging and Clodiness reduce erosion and trap moving soil particles. • Cover Crops, Used for cover when low residue crops are grown. • Amount of Grazing, if animals eat all the grass, what is left? • Annual Rainfall, dry cropland will blow on dry years, even with good land management practices. • Timing of tillage, Land heavy tilled soon after harvest will erode more than those that delaying tillage closer to seeding time. • Irrigation, wet soil blows less.

  6. Crops could not be grown due to lack of water so animals were sold or abandoned. • Houses had to be sealed or boarded up to avoid dust getting inside. • Many people simply moved West to California to look for work.

  7. How did people survive? They left. • They became migrant workers. The word Migrant means mobile, or moving from place to place looking for work or a different habitat.

  8. Could You Imagine….

  9. Their worldly possessions piled on two rundown vehicles, a migrant family pauses en route to California

  10. It is estimated that 2.5 million people left the Plains states • They went west. Looking for work and looking for a home of their own.

  11. When they left they took their families.

  12. Liberal, KS April 14, 1935

  13. A black blizzard Prowers Co. CO. 1937

  14. Black Sunday April 14, 1935. The dust storm that turned day into night. Many believed the world was coming to an end. Dodge City, KS

  15. Prowers Co., CO 1937

  16. June 4, 1937, at Goodwell, OK

  17. Stratford, TX April 18, 1935

  18. Dust storm approaching Stratford, TX April 18, 1935

  19. Approaching dust storm at Powers Co., CO Storm lasted from 4:15 PM to 7:00 PM

  20. Dust storm at Sheridan Lake, CO

  21. A dust cloud approaching a small town in OK

  22. Farmer Arthur Coble and sons walking in the face of the dust storm. April, 1936 “Fleeing a dust storm”

  23. Sometimes it was deep.

  24. Garden City, KS at 5:15 PM (note the street lights photo 1) and compare to photo 2. Photo 2 was just 15 min. later after the dust blotted out the sun. Photo 2 Photo 1

  25. Dust storm approaching Elkhart, KS May, 1937

  26. Red Cross volunteers wearing dust masks. Liberal, KS

  27. The Dust Bowl and drought devastated some farm families in the early 1930’s, such as this 32 year old mother of seven. “Migrant Mother” 1936

  28. What would you do?

  29. George and Lennie traveled across California looking for work.

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