Dust Bowl: Migration to California
4th Grade
Lange, Dorothea, 1935. “Along the highway near Bakersfield, California. Dust bowl refugees.”
Photograph. From Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection,
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b26859
Written by Lisa Hutton
The History Project, CSU Long Beach & Dominguez Hills
Overview
Fourth grade students will explore the push/pull factors involved in the migration of nearly 300,000
people from the Southern Great Plains to California in the 1930s. Students will explore the multiple
causes that resulted in this migration including the push factors of drought, dust storms, the Great
Depression, and the pull of “golden” California including reports of jobs. This migration experience
can also be compared to the experiences of other groups who have come to California.
Teacher Background/Secondary Source:
Between 1935 and 1939 nearly 300,000 southwesterners migrated to California. Most of them
came from the lower Plains states, notably Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, and Texas but were
generally dubbed “Okies.” A variety of factors accounted for this migration. Years of drought had made
their small farms unprofitable, especially when the depression hit. The New Deal Agricultural
Adjustment Act (AAA) programs that paid farmers not to plant grain or cotton allowed landowners to
evict tenant farmers. Mechanization made larger holdings more efficient, eliminating other tenant
farmers. The great dust storms of the mid-1930s ruined large areas for farming. Poverty-stricken,
“Blowed out,” and “tractored out,” the Okies moved their families west.
California was a logical destination, given the image of the state created by years of boosterism.
Moreover, favorable reports from friends and relatives of good wages picking cotton and fruit
encouraged the move west and transportation was easy (by automobile on Route 66). Like the
migrants of the 1920s, nearly half settled in metropolitan areas, primarily Los Angeles, where they
were quickly absorbed. The rest, however, turned north to the San Joaquin Valley where they sought
work in the complex, industrialized agricultural system. Ineligible for relief for a year because they
were new to the state, they accepted the low wages that the Mexican work force would not, and in a
short time almost completely displaced the Mexicans as California’s harvest laborers. When the Okies
became eligible for unemployment relief, the state relief administration under Governor Merriam cut
off relief payments if work was available in an agricultural harvest, forcing them into the old relief,
harvest labor, relief cycle that essentially subsidized low farm wages.
Important distinctions between the Okies and traditional harvest labor were not only that the
migrants were white Anglo-Saxon Protestants but also that they sought permanence. They settled in
Central Valley towns, sent their children to local schools, and registered to vote. Their poverty could
not be ignored. Living in shocking conditions in tent camps along irrigation ditches, they exposed the
exploitation of farm labor in California’s peculiar agricultural system and became a national scandal
with the publication of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Carey McWilliams’s Factories in the
Field.
Grower satisfaction with the Okies was short-lived. The flood of migrants in 1937 had created
an embarrassing oversupply of labor, and the squalor of their camps reflected on the industry…
Organized labor might well have expected to capitalize on the disappointment and anger of the
Okies at their treatment. But they brought with them such a strong individualism and antiradical
patriotism that proletarian rhetoric about collectivism and class struggle was lost on them…Ironically,
then, the ideologies of the Okies led them to sympathize with arm owners and they frequently
appeared among the ranks of strikebreakers. Their arrival actually impeded the union movement in
agriculture and contributed to lowering the already insufferable standard of living for farm workers.
Richard B. Rice, William A. Bullough, Richard J. Orsi, The Elusive Eden: A New History of
California (Boston: McGraw Hill, 1996), 442-43.
2
Primary Sources
Riggs, Robert, (Date unknown) “Dust storm.” Photograph. From Library
of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540
USA
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002697517/
Rothstein, Arthur. “The winds of the "dust bowl" have piled up large
drifts of soil against this farmer's barn near Liberal, Kansas.”
Photograph. 1936. Office of War Information Photograph Collection,
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington,
DC 20540
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c29049
Insert Image Here
Rothstein, Arthur. “Abandoned farm in the dust bowl area”
1)
Use Chicago Manual
Stylethe
citations.
Photograph.1936.
From
Farm Security Administration - Office of
War Information Photograph Collection, Library of Congress Prints
and Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540 USA
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b38293
Lange, Dorothea, 1937. “Auto camp north of Calipatria, California.
Approximately eighty families from the Dust Bowl are camped here.
They pay fifty cents a week. The only available work now is
agricultural labor.” Photograph. From the Farm Security
Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection,
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington,
DC 20540 USA
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b31757
Lange, Dorothea, 1935. “More Oklahomans reach Calif. via the
cotton fields of Ariz.; "We got blowed out in Oklahoma." Sharecroppers family near Bakersfield, Apr. 7, 1935.” Photograph. From
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington,
D.C. 20540 USA
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c31588
3
Lange, Dorothea, 1935. “Along the highway near Bakersfield,
California. Dust bowl refugees.” Photograph. From Farm Security
Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection,
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington,
DC 20540
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b26859
Lange, Dorothea, 1936 “Part of migrant family of five, encamped near Porterville,
California, while waiting for work in the orange groves. Photograph. From Farm
Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection, Library
of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540
http://memory.loc.gov/cgibin/query/r?ammem/fsaall:@FILREQ%28@FIELD%28DOCID+@LIT%28fsa19980
21847/PP%29%29+@FIELD%28COLLID+fsa%29%29
Lange, Dorothea, 1936 “Child of migratory worker. American River camp near
Sacramento, California.”. Photograph. From Farm Security Administration - Office of
War Information Photograph Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Division Washington, DC 20540
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b29878
Lange, Dorothea, 1936 “Cotton picker. Southern San Joaquin Valley, California.”.
Photograph. From Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information
Photograph Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Washington, DC 20540
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b29898
Sullivan, Mary, 1941. “Sunny California” Song (Audio Playback) From the American
Memory Library of Congress Collection.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgibin/query/r?ammem/toddbib:@field%28DOCID+@lit%285100a1%29%29
Text Transcription: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/lyrical/songs/california.html
Transcript:
4
Unit Investigative Question: Why did nearly 300,000 people leave their homes in the Southern Great
Plains area to move to California between 1935 and 1939?
Additional Question: What was life in California like for most of the migrants when they arrived?
Standards:
4.4.5: Discuss the effects of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and World War II on California.
History and Social Sciences Analysis Skills
Chronological and Spatial Thinking

Students place key events and people of the historical era they are studying in a chronological
sequence and within a spatial context; they interpret time lines.

Students explain how the present is connected to the past, identifying both similarities and
differences between the two, and how some things change over time and some things stay the
same.
Research, Evidence, and Point of View
Students differentiate between primary and secondary sources.
2. Students pose relevant questions about events they encounter in historical documents,
eyewitness accounts, oral histories, letters, diaries, artifacts, photographs, maps, artworks, and
architecture.
1.
Historical Interpretation

Students summarize the key events of the era they are studying and explain the historical
contexts of those events.

Students identify and interpret the multiple causes and effects of historical events.
Vocabulary
Go over vocabulary (in the context of sentences—called contextual redefinition) then start a unit word
wall that can be utilized throughout the unit. Continue to add vocabulary as it comes up throughout
the unit. Add pictures/visuals next to the word wall whenever possible to support English Learners.
Sample Vocabulary:
migrant
o
o
o
o
migrate
Great Depression
Great Plains
drought
poverty refugee
My dad’s mom was a migrant to California from Indiana.
My grandparents migrated from Kansas to California after my mom was born.
During the Great Depression in the 1930s, many people lost their jobs and were very poor.
The American Indians hunted buffalo or bison on the Great Plains. A large area grassland between
the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains,.
5
o The long period of drought caused all of the plants and animals to die.
o There was extreme poverty during the Depression. Many people did not have enough to eat or
places to live.
o The people who moved away from the Southern Plains were sometimes called “dust bowl refugees
because they were forced to move due to the dust storms.”
Part I
Objective: The students will examine three photographs of the dust storms and begin to ask questions
about how these images are connected to migration to California.
Materials:
Have these materials ready before the activity:






Photograph #1: Overhead, projected for enough copies for the students.
Print enough copies each of the first three photographs (above) so that small groups have a set.
Copies of the Library of Congress: Primary Source Analysis Tool:
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/guides.html
Create LoC Primary Analysis Tool on chart paper
U.S. Map
Timeline
Directions:
1. Tell the students that they will be looking at some photographs. They will make some
observations and ask questions about what they see in the photographs. If students have not
worked with primary sources in the past, introduce the idea of primary source to the students
as detailed in the box below.
What are primary sources?
Primary sources are things created in the past such as documents, photographs, artifacts,
and interviews. Historians use primary sources to understand what happened in the past.
2. Examine photograph #1 as a whole group. Make copies of the photograph for the students or
project the photograph so that all of the students can see it. Recreate the LoC Primary Source
Analysis Tool on a large piece of chart paper with guiding questions (see chart below). Guide the
students through the questions as you examine the photograph. Encourage students to ask
questions and make inferences about what might be happening in the photograph.
6
Observe
What do you see?
Reflect
What is happening in this
image? Why do you think this
image was made?
Question
What do you wonder about?
What do you want to know more about?
3. Place the students in small groups of 2-3 students. Ask the students to repeat the same process
with photographs #2 and #3 and record their thoughts using the Library of Congress: Primary
Source Analysis Tool.
4. Discuss what the groups found and then ask the students, “What story do the three
photographs tell?” Share the citations from the three photographs and find the dates on the
timeline and the places on a U.S. map. Ask the students if this information helps them
understand what the photographs are about.
5. Post and read the investigative question: Why did nearly 300,000 people leave their homes
in the Southern Great Plains area to move to California between 1935 and 1939?
6. Locate the Southern Great Plains on the U.S. Map (Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri).
7. Locate the 1930s on the timeline and place a timeline card that states that 300,000 moved from
the Southern Great Plains to California. Ask the students if they know of other things that were
happening during this time. Bring up the Great Depression that started in 1929 and continued
through the 1930s and early 1940s.
8. Ask the students to speculate on the answer to this question based on the three photographs
they have seen so far. Tell the students that they will be investigating what these dust storms
had to do with so many people moving to California.
Part 2
Objective: The students investigate the push and pull factors in the migration of people from the
Southern Great Plains to California by reading primary and secondary sources.
Materials:
Have these materials ready before the activity:

Oral Interviews—Appendix 1
7




Song Recording: Sullivan, Mary, 1941. “Sunny California” Song (Audio Playback) From the
American Memory Library of Congress Collection. http://memory.loc.gov/cgibin/query/r?ammem/toddbib:@field%28DOCID+@lit%285100a1%29%29
Text Transcription: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/lyrical/songs/california.html Also in
Appendix 2.
Secondary Source Excerpt-Appendix 3
Push or Pull Graphic Organizer-Appendix 4
Directions:
1. Tell the students that they will continue their investigation into why so many people came to
California (Refer to the posted investigative question: Why did nearly 300,000 people leave
their homes in the Southern Great Plains area to move to California between 1935 and
1939?)
2. Review or introduce the idea of push and pull factors.
Push/Pull Factors
Push factors are events or circumstances that motivate an individual to leave their home, city,
or country. Common push factors are war, poverty, lack of employment opportunities, famine,
natural disasters and discrimination.
Pull factors are factors that pull a person to settle in a particular place
Examples of pull factors include better opportunities, jobs, education, better housing, and
climate.
3. Tell the students that they are going to read some primary and secondary sources to learn
about the push and pull factors involved in this large migration of people in the 1930s.
4. Pass out the excerpts from interviews with California migrants (appendix 1). Tell the students
that these are excerpts or parts of interviews with people who migrated to the Central Valley of
California during the 1930s. These oral histories are considered primary sources.
5. Read and discuss Source 1 together. What is this source saying? Do we find out any information
about why this person moved to California? What other details do we find out? Are these
reasons push factors or pull factors? Refer to the map and timeline as those details come up in
the discussion.
6. Pass out the Push/Pull Graphic Organizer (appendix 4) and work with the students to fill out
the information from Source 1.
7. Give the students time to read Source 2 and Source 3 and fill out this information on the graphic
organizer (this may done whole group if needed).
8. Pass out the song lyrics (appendix 2) and tell the students that they are going to listen to a
recording of a woman named Mary Sullivan singing a song called “Sunny California” about her
experience moving west from Texas to California. This recording is also considered a primary
source and can tell us about history. Play the song recording http://memory.loc.gov/cgi8
bin/query/r?ammem/toddbib:@field%28DOCID+@lit%285100a1%29%29 , discuss the
recording, and fill out the box on the graphic organizer.
9. Pass out the secondary source (appendix 3). If students have not been introduced to the idea of
secondary sources, take a few minutes to introduce secondary sources and tell how they are
different than primary sources. Read the secondary source and fill out the last part of the
graphic organizer.
10. Discuss what the students found. What insights do they have about why so many people moved
to California?
Option: Read the additional secondary sources (appendix 6) before the examining the primary
sources to provide more historical context or read them after the lesson as an extension.
Culminating Activity/Assessment:

Pass out the assessment graphic organizer (appendix 5). Students will use their Push/Pull Graphic
Organizer to fill out this culminating graphic organizer and then write a response to the
investigative question. Discuss one push or pull factor together and show students how to cite the
source or sources. For example, dust storms would be considered a push factor. Students might
write, “People left the Great Plains because of the dust storms.” Under reasons. They found this
reason in Source 1 as well as the photographs.
Part 4 (Optional)
Objective: The students investigate what life was like for the migrants to California by looking at a
series of photographs (primary sources)
Materials:
Have these materials ready before the activity:


Copies of Photographs 4-9. Include bibliographic information with photographs (Use pages 3-4
to make labels).
Six copies of the LoC Primary Source Analysis Tool on chart paper (see below). Post the six
photographs and the chart paper around the room.
Observe
What do you see?
Reflect
What is happening in this
image? Why do you think this
image was made?
Question
What do you wonder about?
What do you want to know more about?
9
Directions:
1. Tell the students that they will be investigate what life was like for the migrants to California by
looking at a series of photographs (primary sources) that show people traveling to California
and living in California. Review the secondary source from the previous lesson. What did the
Dust Bowlers expect life to be like in California? Post the question: What was life like for the
migrants as they traveled to California? What was life like when they got here?
2. Divide the students into six groups. Give each group a marker of a different color. Have the
students complete a “gallery walk” by rotating around the room. While at each photograph,
students will discuss the photograph and record their observations. After the first photograph,
students should read what the other groups wrote and then add additional comments or new
insights.
3. Discuss the question, asking students to explain their reasons and evidence. You might also
discuss how the people must have felt when they got there (when they expected great jobs and
free fruits and vegetables). Talk about how they might find out the answers to their questions
(read additional primary and secondary sources).
Additional Resources:

Oral Interviews: http://www.csub.edu/library/special/dustbowl/interviews.shtml

PBS Resources: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/generalarticle/dustbowl-mass-exodus-plains/

Stanley, Jerry (1992). Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch
Camp. Crown Publishers, New York.
Available at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Children-Turtleback-School-LibraryBinding/dp/0785716750/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277865365&sr=8-2
10
Appendix 1: Excerpts from Interviews with Migrants to California
Source #1: Interview with Juanita Everly Price
S.J.:
Could you tell me why you wanted to come to California?
Price:
We came to California because the dust bowl had devastated all of the crops. Everything
was gone. You couldn’t see half a mile. It was just horrible. So my husband had been
working in Stillwater—that’s the county seat for Payne County, Oklahoma—and the job
was running out so we came to California and started working in the cotton field out
there. It was September 7, 1936 when we got here.
The dust storm was the major reason for leaving because it killed the crops and no work
could go on. If a person worked for a construction company he couldn’t even see the
work. It was just awful. Then the water wells went dry. At the place where we lived the
water was just down to a little mud so we had to go over on the next farm and get
drinking water and laundry water and haul it back…I can remember carrying water and
I have to tie a handkerchief over my face to keep the dust from strangling me while I’d
be walking to get the water.
Oral Interview of Juanita Everly Price by Stacey Jagels as part of the California Odyssey
Project at California State University, Bakersfield. Accessed at:
http://www.csub.edu/library/special/dustbowl/interviews.shtml
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Source #2: Interview with Lula May Quinn Martin
J.G.:
So what made you decide to come to California?
Martin:
To get work.
J.G.:
Your husband decided there must be work in California?
Martin:
Yeah, he had brothers and sisters out here and they told him that they could surely get
him a job, so when he got out here they got him a job.
Oral Interview of Lula May Quinn Martin by Judith Gannon as part of the California
Odyssey Project at California State University, Bakersfield. Accessed at:
http://www.csub.edu/library/special/dustbowl/interviews.shtml
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11
Interview with Reverend Billie H. Pate
M.N.:
And then you came to California?
Pate:
Yes, from this place we came to California.
M.N.:
In what year was that that you came to California?
Pate:
1935, in the fall.
M.N.:
The year or two just prior to coming to California, do you remember what kinds of
things that happened that made your family decide to leave?
Pate:
Yes, as I mentioned, Dad was a poor sharecropper and times were really hard for
him to make a living….
M.N.:
Were times hard for everyone?
Pate:
Yes, everyone.
M.N.
Was there a dust problem?
Pate:
Not where we were, but you see this was the heart of the Depression.
M.N.
What effect did that have on you? How did things change?
Pate:
I don’t remember anything before the Depression. I just remember this part and thought
everyone (was the same). (We lived) in a small area which was fifty miles from Dallas,
but I had never been to Dallas.
Oral Interview of Reverend Billie H. Pate by Michael Neely as part of the California
Odyssey Project at California State University, Bakersfield. Accessed at:
http://www.csub.edu/library/special/dustbowl/interviews.shtml
12
Appendix 2
Mary Sullivan, a farmer from Texas, wrote "Sunny California" about the hardships she endured during
the long, dangerous journey west, and was recorded singing her song in a government camp in
California.
The Library of Congress
Lyrical Legacy
Sunny California
I left Texas one beautiful day
I made up my mind that I would not stay
No longer in Texas the place that I love
Though it was like giving up Heaven above.
My old dad was growing old
His body was bent from hard work and toll.
My mother was sleeping in a gay little town
Where friends and her loved ones had seen her laid down.
My sisters and brothers they hated so bad
To see me go West like someone gone mad
To leave all my loved ones and kiss them goodbye
Just hoping I’d meet them in the sweet by-and-by.
I thought at first that I would not go
No further West than New Mexico
But the work it was scarce and the weather was bad
I felt like I’d left all the friends that I had.
We landed at Peori’ one sad, lonely day
No place for a shelter but a rag house to stay
I felt like Arizona was too much for me
I cried ‘til my heart ached and I scarcely could see.
Our next stop was California where the sun always shines
I know that is a saying [but?] I’ll tell you my [mind?]
In the little town of Colton hemmed up on a knoll
And the black water splashing ‘til the hearts had grown cold.
Now I know you all heard of this awful fate
So many were drownded in this awful state
The state of California where the sun always shines
How I did wish for Texas that old state of mine.
The black water rolled and the homeless were brought
To this little knoll at Colton for shelter they sought
The radios broadcastin’ begging people to stay
Off of the streets and off the highways.
The rain finally ceased and the sun shined out bright
How I prayed to Heaven and thanked God that night.
For our lives had been spared and all was made right
13
But I did wish for Texas and the old folks that night.
Further on in California over mountains and plains.
To the San Joaquin Valley we drew up our reins
For four years today we’ve lived it just fine
In the state of California where the sun always shines.
Now in the state of California I guess you all know
The President built homes for people to go
Who were homeless and broke and just travelin’ around
Tryin’ to find work and a place to settle down.
Now this little camp it stands here today
The little rag homes for people to stay
From there they find work and it really isn’t bad
Although it is different from the lives they have had.
14
Appendix 3: Secondary Source
Excerpt from Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp
California! California! California! To the Okies the word “California” was magical, describing a
place where they could go to better their lives. It was said that thousands of workers were needed to
harvest a hundred different crops—peaches, pears, tomatoes, potatoes, beans, apples, and oranges—
the list seemed endless. It was said that no one ever went hungry in California because lush orchards
were everywhere and people helped themselves to whatever fruits and vegetables they wanted. It was
said that no one ever got sick out there, ever, and it was big news if anyone died in California before
their 2ooth birthday!
Above all, the Dust Bowlers believed they would find work in California—if they could get
there. They believed this because growers in California sent thousands of handbills to Oklahoma and
other Dust Bowl states, handbills that said things like 300 WORKERS NEEDED FOR PEACHES—
PLEMTY OF WORK—HIGH WAGES and 500 MEN FOR COTTON-NEEDED NOW!—START WORK RIGHT
AWAY! When the Okies read these advertisements nailed on tress and old telephone poles, there was
but one things to do. As one man in Porum, Oklahoma, put it, “ All you could hear was ‘Goin’ to
Californ-I-A! Goin’ to Californ-I-A’ Nobody talked about nothin’ else ‘cept goin’ to Californ-I-A.”
Stanley, Jerry. Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp. (Crown
Publishers, New York, 1992), 11.
15
Appendix 4: Why Did People Move to California? Push or Pull Factors?
Oral Interviews (Primary Sources) & Song Lyrics (Primary Source)
Source #1
Source
Juanita Everly
Price
Source #2
Lula May Quinn
Martin
Source #3
Source #4
Reverend Billie H.
Pate
“Sunny
California” Song
Why did
they move
to
California?
Other
Details
Push or
Pull?
Secondary Source
Source
Why did
people
move to
California?
Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp
Other
Details
Push or
Pull?
16
Appendix 5
Name: _____________________________
Why did so many people migrate to California from the Southern Plains states from
1935-1939?
Push Factors
Reason
Evidence (Source)
Pull Factors
Reason
Evidence (Source)
Explain why people migrated to California from the Southern Plains states from 19351939 using the information from above:
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
17
Appendix 6: Additional Secondary Sources
Excerpt from The Elusive Eden: A New History of California
Between 1935 and 1939 nearly 300,000 southwesterners migrated to California. Most of them
came from the lower Plains states, notably Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, and Texas but were
generally dubbed “Okies.” A variety of factors accounted for this migration. Years of drought had made
their small farms unprofitable, especially when the depression hit…The great dust storms of the mid1930s ruined large areas for farming. Poverty-stricken, “Blowed out,” and “tractored out,” the Okies
moved their families west.
California was a logical destination, given the image of the state created by years of boosterism.
Moreover, favorable reports from friends and relatives of good wages picking cotton and fruit
encouraged the move west and transportation was easy (by automobile on Route 66). Like the
migrants of the 1920s, nearly half settled in metropolitan areas, primarily Los Angeles, where they
were quickly absorbed. The rest, however, turned north to the San Joaquin Valley where they sought
work in the complex, industrialized agricultural system.
Richard B. Rice, William A. Bullough, Richard J. Orsi, The Elusive Eden: A New History of
California (Boston: McGraw Hill, 1996), 442-43.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Excerpts from Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp
In 1931 it stopped raining in the Panhandle. The sky became bright and hot, and it stayed that
way every day. Cornstalks in the fields shriveled from the sizzling heat. Shoots of wheat dried and fell
to the ground. The farmers were caught in an impossible situation. They were already suffering from
the effects of the Great Depression, which had started in 1928 when the stock market collapsed. The
Depression caused the price of wheat and corn to fall so low that it made growing these crops
unprofitable…When the prices for their crops fell, many couldn’t make their payments to the
banks…and now it had stopped raining in the Panhandle, and the crops themselves were failing.
Then when it seemed that things couldn’t get any worse, they did. The year was
1936. It hadn’t rained for five straight years. One day the wind started to blow, and every
day it blew harder and harder, as if nature was playing a cruel joke on the Okies. The
wind blew the dry soil into the air, and every morning the sun rose only to disappear
behind a sky of red dirt and dust. The wind knocked open the doors, shattering windows,
and leveled barns.
It became known as the great Dust Bowl, and it was centered in the Panhandle
near Goodwell, Oklahoma. From there it stretched to the western half of Colorado, the
northeastern portion of New Mexico, and Northern Texas. In these areas, and especially
in the Panhandle, the dry winds howled for four long years from 1936-1940. Frequently
the wind blew more than fifty miles an hour, carrying away the topsoil, and leaving only
hard, red clay, which made farming impossible.
Stanley, Jerry. Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp.
(Crown Publishers, New York, 1992), 3-4.
18