The Dust Bowl
U.S. History
PHS 2012
Dust Bowl
• An environmental disaster that hits
the mid-west
• Lack of rain and high winds cause
crops to fail
• Farmers lose everything and head for
California
Causes of the Dust Bowl
• Drought - In the early 1930’s rain
stopped falling on the Great Plains.
• Overproduction
• Farmers exhausted the land through
overproduction of crops
• Grasslands – grass + no rain = desert
Before the effects of overproduction, the
grasses of the Great Plains naturally held the
soil down during droughts and wind storms.
Effects of the Dust Bowl
• When the
drought and
winds began
to blow in the
early 1930’s,
huge dust
storms
swept the
area.
The dust traveled hundreds
of miles.
Thousands of farmers left
their land.
Many people headed west to
California, to work in the Central
Valley.
“Okies” were people from
Oklahoma who migrated to
California
Effects of the Great
Depression on Men
• After years of
unemployment
1. many men
abandoned
their families.
2. 300,000
hoboes
wandered the
country.
Effects on Women
1. Women took care of the now
fatherless family - canned food,
sewed clothes, managed household
budgets.
2. Married women were discriminated
against for jobs.
3. Many suffered out of sight.
Many worked outside of the home.
Children Suffer Hardships
1. Malnutrition and diet-related
diseases rise.
2. By 1933, 2,600 schools close.
3. Thousands of children go back to
work in sweat shops.
Hundreds of thousands of teenagers
hop trains to search for work around
the country.
• “Zoot Suits”
become a
fashion
craze.
• Great
Depression