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Works Cited

Gideon, Thomas. “The Plow That Broke the Plains: National Archives and Records Administration : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, January 1, 1970. https://archive.org/details/gov.archives.arc.13595.dup.

Lange, Dorothea. “Migrant Mother.” Dorothea Lange | OMCA COLLECTIONS. Accessed March 11, 2022. http://collections.museumca.org/?q=category%2F2011- schema%2Fart%2Fdorothea-lange.

Taylor, Frank J. “California's Grapes of Wrath,' by Frank J. Taylor. Issued by Associated Farmers of Fresno County, Inc.” Calisphere. UC Berkeley, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment Collections. Accessed March 11, 2022. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk0003z5s05/.

Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, April 25). Dust bowl. Wikipedia. Retrieved May 4, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl

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The Dust Bowl Post 6

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The Dust Bowl Post 6

The invasive dust storms forced many people from the Great Plains to head west, in search of a better life. These people became nicknamed the "Okies" because many of them were from Oklahoma. They headed west to California, only to find that many people did not want them there. So, after being forced out of their homes and traveling to a new place, these people still were faced with many struggles. As one can see, the Dust Bowl had great effects on all people in the United States during the 1930s. It is important for historians and all people to be educated on historical ecological disasters that greatly impacted the people of the United States not very long ago. I hope that after reading my series of blog posts that you have been educated on the Dust Bowl and learned valuable information.

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The Dust Bowl Post 5

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The Dust Bowl Post 5

The Dust Bowl had many long lasting effects on the millions of people who lived in the Great Plains. One very large effect was the health issues. The people suffering from these clouds of dust overtaking their homes were faced with Dust Pneumonia, cancer, extreme coughing, and many other health conditions. Many people committed suicide, too, because of the burdens these dust storms faced on them and their families. Farmers could no longer make a living and feed their families. All of their livestock died in addition to the crops. Mass burial grounds had to be created to get rid of the tons of dead cattle who were suffocated by dust. The poor families became poorer and starved. Children could not go to school. Dust covered their beds, their silverware and all of the food they managed to accumulate, no matter how many times a day the house was cleaned. Banks took the homes and the farms of the families who were not able to pay their bills, leaving millions of people homeless, jobless, and hopeless.

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The Dust Bowl Post 4

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The Dust Bowl Post 4

During the years of the extreme drought, massive wind storms of dust and dirt started occurring in the states of the Great Plains. The first dust storm happened on November 11, 1933. The very thin topsoil was easily swept away into clouds of dust that turned the days into nights. During a typical dust storm, the wind could blow anywhere between forty and sixty miles per hour. When people would see the dust storms forming, they had to immediately take shelter. It was said that during the heart of a dust storm, one could not see their own hand in front of their face. The roaring clouds of dust over took the small towns and turned them pitch black even in the middle of the day. Families would have to take shelter and wait for the storm to pass, even though there was not a true way to escape the mounds of dust hurling around them. If people were not able to take shelter, the sand and dirt pelted their skin or completely filled their lungs with dust, resulting in extreme illness or death. In the photo I have included, one can see how these people are covered in dust, even though they were inside during a dust storm.

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The Dust Bowl Post 3

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The Dust Bowl Post 3

Because there was such a high demand for crops, in combination with the fact that the farmland was already not the most suitable for the crops being grown, it is argued that the Dust Bowl was a man-made disaster. The farming practices taking place were causing the land to erode and loose topsoil, along with overworking the land quicker than the land could keep up with. When the Great Plains were faced with years of severe drought, this is ultimately what caused the massive dust storms.

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The Dust Bowl Post 2

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The Dust Bowl Post 2

The Great Plains, which is the region of the United States where the Dust Bowl took place, was originally not suitable for the type of agriculture that ultimately took place there. This region had very dry years where it never rained which was then followed by very wet years where it rained constantly. There was an unusual wet period which mistakenly led settlers to believe this land was the perfect land for farming. They believed that the climate had permanently changed. Waves of hopeful farmers began to travel to the Great Plains to make a living farming, because they believed the land could support large-scale agriculture. There was a high demand for wheat and other crops which resulted in an influx of farmers over working the farm lands to keep up with the demands. Well, just had it had happened several years prior, the very wet years were followed by a series of incredibly dry years.

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The Dust Bowl Post 1

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History 222 Final Project

The Dust Bowl refers to a time period in the 1930s where immense dust storms devastated large portions on the Midwest United States. The states of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas received some of the harshest damages during the Dust Bowl. The massive dust storms killed people, livestock, crops, and dreams of many people living in the great plains. These storms left many people dead, homeless, or forced them to head west in search of food, shelter, and work. The Dust Bowl was one of the worst man-made ecological disasters in the United States’ history. The disaster forever changed the lives of millions of American people, and it is important for Americans today to understand the hardships that were faced by families not much older than our generations today.