The Dust Bowl

Causes of the Dust Bowl

• Millions of acres of farmland tilled during 1920s from North Dakota to Texas

• One-crop farming exhausted the land• Drought in the 1930s• Winds picked up–Little grass and few trees were left to

hold the soil down

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2CiDaUYr90

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TH_4lL_DjEDust Storm

I remember a day at noontime, standing with my dad in what seemed like a dim twilight or an eclipse of the sun.

They sky was choked with dust driven toward the east by a howling wind. “There goes Kansas,” Dad said.

Page 38 & 46

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_nG9LX0Ioo

Effects of Dust Bowl

• Nearly impossible to farm successfully

• Can’t pay bills

• Many farmers faced with foreclosure

• Families become migrants

“Okies” – Migrants from Oklahoma

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYFJmm0aK-8Grapes of Wrath