Farmer and two sons during a dust storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma, 1936

The Dust Bowl, or the "dirty thirties", was a period of horrible dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936 (in some areas until 1940), caused by severe drought coupled with decades of extensive farming without crop rotation or other techniques to prevent erosion. It was a mostly man-made disaster caused when virgin top soil of the Great Plains was exposed to deep plowing, killing the natural grasses - the grasses normally kept the soil in place and moisture trapped, even during periods of drought and high winds. However, during the drought of the 1930s, with the grasses destroyed, the soil dried, turned to dust, and blew away eastwards and southwards in large dark clouds. At times the clouds blackened the sky, reaching all the way to East Coast cities like New York and Washington D.C., with much of the soil deposited in the Atlantic Ocean. The Dust Bowl consisted of 100 million acres, centered on the panhandles of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 612 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (952 × 933 pixel, file size: 182 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Date April 1936 Author Arthur Rothstein, for the Farm Security Administration Permission (Reusing this image) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 612 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (952 × 933 pixel, file size: 182 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Date April 1936 Author Arthur Rothstein, for the Farm Security Administration Permission (Reusing this image) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as... Cimarron County is a county located in the state of Oklahoma. ... Year 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... “Sandstorm” redirects here. ... For other uses, see Prairie (disambiguation). ... Fields outside Benambra, Victoria, Australia suffering from drought conditions A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. ... Satellite image of circular crop fields in Haskell County, Kansas in late June 2001. ... For morphological image processing operations, see Erosion (morphology). ... Loess field in Germany Surface-water-gley developed in glacial till, Northern Ireland For the American hard rock band, see SOiL. For the System of a Down song, see Soil (song). ... For other uses, see Great Plains (disambiguation). ... Look up dust in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Regional definitions vary from source to source. ...

The storms of the Dust Bowl were given names such as Black Dark Blizzard and Black Roller because visibility was reduced to a few feet. The Dust Bowl was an ecological and human disaster. It was caused by misuse of land and years of sustained drought. Millions of acres of farmland became useless, and hundreds of thousands of people were forced to leave their homes. Degradation of dry lands claimed peoples' cultural heritage and livelihoods. Hundreds of thousands of families from the Dust Bowl (often known as "Okies," since so many came from Oklahoma) traveled to California and other states, where they found conditions little better than those they had left. Owning no land, many traveled from farm to farm picking fruit and other crops at starvation wages. John Steinbeck later wrote the classic ]-winning novel "The Grapes of Wrath" about For other members of the family, see Steinbeck (disambiguation). ... This article is about the novel. ...

There was more than one cause of the Dust Bowl. The major one was the expansion of agriculture. The catastrophe, which began as the economic effects of the Great Depression were intensifying, caused an exodus from Texas, Oklahoma, and the surrounding Great Plains, with more than 500,000 Americans left homeless, one storm causing 356 houses to be torn down.^[1] Many Americans migrated west looking for work while many Canadians fled to urban areas like Toronto. Two-thirds of farmers in "Palliser's Triangle", in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, had to rely on government aid. This was due mainly to drought, hailstorms, and erratic weather rather than to dust storms such as those occurring on the U.S. Great Plains.^[2] Some residents of the Plains, especially in Kansas and Oklahoma, fell prey to illness and death from dust pneumonia and malnutrition. For other uses, see The Great Depression (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Texas (disambiguation). ... The Oklahoma Panhandle is the extreme western region of the state of Oklahoma, comprising Cimarron County, Texas County, and Beaver County. ... Pallisers Triangle is a geographic area mostly in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. ... For other uses, see Saskatchewan (disambiguation). ... This article is about the precipitation. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... A Dust Bowl-era dust storm in Texas (1935) Dust pneumonia describes disorders caused by excessive exposure to dust storms, particularly during the Dust Bowl in the United States. ... Percentage of population affected by malnutrition by country, according to United Nations statistics. ...

The Dust Bowl is closely associated with the Great Depression as the two events were contemporaneous. For other uses, see The Great Depression (disambiguation). ...

Geographic Characteristics

The Dust Bowl area principally lies west of the 100th meridian on the High Plains, characterized by plains which vary from rolling in the north to flat in the Llano Estacado. Elevation ranges from 2500 feet in the east to 6000 feet at the base of the Rocky Mountains. The area is semi-arid, receiving less than 20 inches of rain annually; this rainfall supports the Shortgrass prairie biome originally present in the area. The region is also prone to extended drought, alternating with unusual wetness of equivalent duration.^[3] During wet years, the rich soil provides bountiful agricultural output, but crops fail during dry years. Furthermore, the region is subject to winds higher than any region except coastal regions.^[4] (Redirected from 100th meridian) Sign marking the 100th meridian in Cozad, Nebraska The 100th meridian west is a line of longitude passing through North America and the Pacific Ocean. ... The High Plains are a subregion of the Great Plains in the central United States, located in eastern Colorado, western Kansas, western Nebraska, central and eastern Montana, eastern New Mexico, western Oklahoma, northwestern Texas, and southeastern Wyoming. ... Shaded Relief Image of the Llano Estacado Llano Estacado (or Staked Plains) is a region in the southwestern United States that encompasses parts of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas. ... For individual mountains named Rocky Mountain, see Rocky Mountain (disambiguation). ... Semi-arid generally describes regions that receive low annual rainfall (25 to 50 cm /10 to 20 in) and generally have scrub or grass vegetation. ... The shortgrass prairie ecosystem of the North American Great Plains is a prairie that formerly encompassed lands from the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains east to Nebraska, including rangelands in Colorado and Kansas, and extending to the south through the high plains of Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. ...

Agricultural and settlement history

During early exploration of the Great Plains, the region in which the Dust Bowl occurred was thought unsuitable for agriculture; indeed, the region was known as the Great American Desert. The lack of surface water and timber made the region less attractive for settlement and agriculture. However, following the Civil War, settlement in the area increased, encouraged by the Homestead Act and westward expansion^[5][6] An unusually wet period in the Great Plains led settlers to believe that "rain follows the plow" and the climate of the region had changed permanently.^[7] The initial agricultural endeavors were primarily cattle ranching with some cultivation; however, a series of harsh winters beginning in 1886 coupled with overgrazing followed by a short drought in 1890 led to an expansion of land under cultivation. Immigration began again at the beginning of the 20th century, with a return of unusually wet weather which confirmed the previously held attitude that the "formerly" semi-arid area could support large-scale agriculture. Technological improvements led to increased automation, which allowed for cultivation on an ever greater scale. World War I increased agricultural prices, which encouraged farmers to drastically increase cultivation. In the Llano Estacado, farmland area doubled between 1900 and 1920, and land under cultivation more than tripled between 1925 and 1930.^[8] Finally, farmers used agricultural practices which encouraged erosion; for example, cotton farmers left fields bare over winter months, when winds in the High Plains are highest, and burned their wheat stubble, which deprived the soil of organic matter and increased exposure to erosion. For other uses, see Great Plains (disambiguation). ... The Great American Desert was an inaccurate term that described the area west of the Missouri River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the 19th century. ... Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America (Confederacy) Commanders Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee Strength 2,200,000 1,064,000 Casualties 110,000 killed in action, 360,000 total dead, 275,200 wounded 93,000 killed in action, 258,000 total... The Homestead Act was a United States Federal law that gave freehold title to 160 acres (one quarter section or about 65 hectares) of undeveloped land in the American West. ... Rain follows the plow is the conventional name for a now-debunked theory of climatology that was popular throughout the American West during the late 19th century. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... Shaded Relief Image of the Llano Estacado Llano Estacado (or Staked Plains) is a region in the southwestern United States that encompasses parts of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas. ...

Drought and Dust Storms

Dust storm in Spearman, Texas, April 14, 1935

The unusually wet period which encouraged increased settlement and cultivation in the Great Plains ended in 1930 with the beginning of an extended and severe drought. The drought caused crops to fail, leaving the plowed fields exposed to wind erosion. The fine soil of the Great Plains was easily eroded and carried east by the strong winds of the region. Description: Dust storm approaching Spearman, Texas April 14, 1935 Credit: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Source: http://gimp-savvy. ... Description: Dust storm approaching Spearman, Texas April 14, 1935 Credit: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Source: http://gimp-savvy. ... “Sandstorm” redirects here. ... Spearman is a city located in Hansford County, Texas. ... is the 104th day of the year (105th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar). ...

On November 11, 1933, a very strong dust storm stripped topsoil from desiccated South Dakota farmlands in just one of a series of bad dust storms that year. Then on May 11, 1934, a strong two-day dust storm removed massive amounts of Great Plains topsoil in one of the worst such storms of the Dust Bowl. The dust clouds blew all the way to Chicago where filth fell like snow. Several days later, the same storm reached cities in the east, such as Buffalo, Boston, New York City, and Washington, D.C. That winter, red snow fell on New England. is the 315th day of the year (316th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Topsoil is the uppermost layer of soil, usually the top six to eight inches. ... Official language(s) English Demonym South Dakotan Capital Pierre Largest city Sioux Falls Area  Ranked 17th in the US  - Total 77,116[1] sq mi (199,905 km²)  - Width 210 miles (340 km)  - Length 380 miles (610 km)  - % water 1. ... is the 131st day of the year (132nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Great Plains (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Chicago (disambiguation). ... Nickname: Location of Buffalo in New York State Coordinates: , Country State County Erie First Settled 1789 Founded 1801 Incorporated (City) 1832 Government  - Mayor Byron Brown (D) Area  - City 52. ... Boston redirects here. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... For other uses, see Washington, D.C. (disambiguation). ... This article is about the region in the United States of America. ...

On April 14, 1935, known as "Black Sunday", twenty of the worst "Black Blizzards" occurred throughout the Dust Bowl, causing extensive damage, turning the day to night. Witnesses reported that they could not see five feet in front of them at certain points. The dust storms were so bad that often roosters thought that it was night instead of day and went to sleep during them. is the 104th day of the year (105th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar). ... This article is about the novel. ...

Migrations

Buried machinery in barn lot. Dallas, South Dakota, May 1936

The Dust Bowl exodus was the largest migration in American history. By 1940, 2.5 million people had moved out of the Plains states; of those, 200,000 moved to California.^[9] With their land barren and homes seized in foreclosure, many farm families were forced to leave. Migrants left farms in Kansas, Texas, and New Mexico, but all were generally referred to as "Okies". The plight of Dust Bowl migrants became widely known from the novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2400 × 1800 pixel, file size: 1. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2400 × 1800 pixel, file size: 1. ... Dallas is a town located in Gregory County, South Dakota. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... Foreclosure is the equitable proceeding in which a bank or other secured creditor sells or repossesses a parcel of real property (immovable property) due to the owners failure to comply with an agreement between the lender and borrower called a mortgage or deed of trust. ... Official language(s) None Spoken language(s) English 68. ... Rear view of an Okies car, passing through Amarillo, Texas, heading west, 1941 Okie, also known as a Pafundi in Northern Oklahoma, is a synonym, dating from as early as 1905, denoting a resident or native of Oklahoma. ... This article is about the novel. ... For other members of the family, see Steinbeck (disambiguation). ...

Government response

During President Franklin D. Roosevelt's first 100 days in 1933, governmental programs designed to restore the ecologic balance of the nation were implemented. The U.S. Government formed the Soil Conservation Service, which is now the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Federal courts Supreme Court Circuit Courts of Appeal District Courts Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Local Government Other countries Atlas  US Government Portal      For other uses, see President of the United States (disambiguation). ... FDR redirects here. ... The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is a relatively small government agency in the United States Department of Agriculture currently comprised of about 12,000 employees. ...

Influence on the arts

The human crisis was documented by photographers, musicians, and authors of the time. Photographer Dorothea Lange made a name for herself while working as a photographer with the Farm Security Administration, capturing the impact of the storms on film. Independent artists like folk singer Woody Guthrie and novelist John Steinbeck both became famous for their depictions of life during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. A photographer at the Calgary Folk Music Festival Paparazzi at the Tribeca Film Festival A photographer is a person who takes a photograph using a camera. ... For the popular-music magazine, see Musician (magazine). ... For other uses, see Author (disambiguation). ... Dorothea Lange (May 25, 1895 – October 11, 1965) was an influential American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). ... Photo of a sharecropper by Walker Evans for the U.S. Resettlement Administration Initially created as the Resettlement Administration in 1935 as part of the New Deal, the Farm Security Administration was an effort during the Depression to combat rural poverty. ... Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and of the people. ... Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (July 14, 1912–October 3, 1967) was a prolific American songwriter and folk musician. ... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ... For other members of the family, see Steinbeck (disambiguation). ...

Footnotes

Not to be confused with Public Broadcasting Services in Malta. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 70th day of the year (71st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Radio-Canada redirects here. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 70th day of the year (71st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... PDF is an abbreviation with several meanings: Portable Document Format Post-doctoral fellowship Probability density function There also is an electronic design automation company named PDF Solutions. ... Year 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for web pages. ... is the 239th day of the year (240th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for web pages. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for web pages. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for web pages. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for web pages. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ...

Further reading

• The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived The Great American Dust Bowl, Timothy Egan, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, 2006, hardcover, ISBN 0-618-34697-X.
• The Dust Bowl: Men, Dirt, and Depression, Paul Bonnifield, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1978, hardcover. ISBN 0-8263-0485-0
• Survival in the Storm: The Dust Bowl Diary of Grace Edwards, Dalhart, Texas, 1935, Katelan Janke, Scholastic (September 2002), ISBN 0-439-21599-4
• Out of the Dust, Karen Hesse, Scholastic Signature. New York First Edition, 1997, hardcover (paperback January 1999). ISBN 0-590-37125-8

The University of New Mexico (UNM) is a public university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. ... Albuquerque redirects here. ... Official language(s) None Spoken language(s) English 68. ... Out of the Dust is a novel written by Karen Heisse. ... Karen Hesse, born August 29, 1952 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, is an author of childrens literature and literature for young adults. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ...

Bibliography

• Woody Guthrie, The (Nearly) Complete Collection of Woody Guthrie Folk Songs, Ludlow Music,New York (1963).
• Alan Lomax, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Hard-Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People, Oak Publications, New York (1967).
• C.Vann Woodward, The Origins of the New South, Louisiana State University Press (1967).

This article is about the town in Shropshire, England. ... This article is about the state. ... Lomax playing guitar on stage at the Mountain Music Festival, Asheville, North Carolina, sometime between 1939 and 1950. ... Peter Seeger (born May 3, 1919), better known as Pete Seeger, is a folk singer, political activist, and a key figure in the mid-20th century American folk music revival. ...

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Dust Bowl

• 1936 North American heat wave
• Woody Guthrie
• Rain follows the plow
• The Plow That Broke the Plains
• Timeline of environmental events
• Natural disaster
• Desertification
• Ogallala Aquifer
• [[Letters from the Dust Bowl by Caroline Henderson. A first hand account]]

Summer (June-August) 1936 Temperature, in degrees Fahrenheit. ... Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (July 14, 1912–October 3, 1967) was a prolific American songwriter and folk musician. ... Rain follows the plow is the conventional name for a now-debunked theory of climatology that was popular throughout the American West during the late 19th century. ... The Plow That Broke the Plains is a 1936 short documentary film which shows what happened to the Great Plains region of the United States and Canada when uncontrolled plowing led to the Dust Bowl. ... The timeline of environmental events is a historical account of events that have shaped humanitys perspective on the environment. ... Mount Pinatubo eruption, 1991 A natural disaster is according to or provided by nature. ... Ship stranded by the retreat of the Aral Sea Desertification is the degradation of land in arid, semi arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various climatic variations, but primarily from human activities. ... The Ogallala aquifer underlies portions of eight states. ...

External links

• NASA Explains "Dust Bowl" Drought
• The Dust Bowl photo collection
• The Dust Bowl (EH.Net Encyclopedia)
• Black Sunday, April 14, 1935, Dodge City, KS
• The Bibliography of Aeolian Research
• Surviving the Dust Bowl, Black Sunday (April 14, 1935)
• The Plow That Broke The Plains
• Youtube Video: "The Great Depression, Displaced Mountaineers in Shenandoah National Park, and the Civilian Conservation Corps (C.C.C.)"
• Farming in the 1930s (Wessels Living History Farm)
• The Dust Bowl (University of South Dakota)

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