Name: _____________________________
Date: __________________ Period: _____
Historical Nature – The Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that caused major ecological and agricultural damage
to the American and Canadian prairies from 1930 to 1936 (in some areas until 1940). The phenomenon was
caused by:
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Severe drought – which dried out the soil and led to crop failures
Decades of extensive farming – which without crop rotation or other techniques to prevent
erosion, depleted the nutrients in the soil and prevented growth
Deep plowing – which uprooted of the virgin topsoil, turning it from a solid mass to loose
particulates.
When farming first came to the plains, it was during a relatively wet period. Unknowingly, people
believed this weather pattern was the norm and therefore were caught flatfooted as the climate slowly reverted to
its normal arid condition during the early 1920s. In order to grow crops, farmers needed to break-up the heavily
packed soil, ripping up the roots of local grasses. During wet periods, the broken-up soil remained in place.
However, as the climate warmed (and without those anchors in place), the soil quickly dried, turned to dust, and
blew away eastward and southward in large dark clouds. As one eyewitness stated at the time, entire farms “just
blew away with the wind.”
These immense dust storms, often called "Black Blizzards" and "Black Rollers", often reduced visibility
to a few feet and occasionally blackened the sky as far east as New York City and Washington, D.C. Famously,
in May 1934 a strong two-day dust storm on the Great Plains blew east, dropping “dirt that felt like snow” in
Chicago, Buffalo, Boston, New York City, and Washington, D.C. That winter, when snow fell in New England,
it was often colored red. The worst event occurred on April 14, 1935 (known as "Black Sunday"). That day,
twenty separate "Black Blizzards" occurred throughout the Great Plains, causing extensive damage and turning
the day to night. The dust storms were often so bad that often roosters thought that it was night instead of day.
Many people and animals died during these storms of suffocation and "dust pneumonia."
As millions of acres of
farmland became useless, hundreds
of thousands of people were forced to
leave their homes. In many cases,
this environmental disaster finished
off the few farmers who had survived
the low agricultural prices after
World War I, the stock market crash,
and the bank failures that had started
in the late 1920s. With their land
barren and homes seized in
foreclosure, many farm families were
forced to leave. Migrants left farms
in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Iowa,
and New Mexico, but all were
generally referred to as "Okies".
The Dust Bowl exodus was the largest migration in American history within a short period of time. By
1940, 2.5 million people had moved out of the Plains states. Of those, 200,000 moved to California. Once
arriving, many of these migrants (with what few possessions they had left) traveled from farm to farm – picking
fruit and other crops at starvation wages. Families often lived in tar-paper shacks with no floor or plumbing. The
plight of Dust Bowl migrants became widely known from the novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
Map #1
Questions (for Map #1)
1. What two regions of the country saw the largest increase in population during the Great Depression? Who
two regions of the country saw the largest decrease in population during the same time?
2. Given your knowledge of America during this time period, name two “push factors” that caused migration
from the “net loss” states to the “net gain” states.
3. Given your knowledge of America during this time period, name two “pull factors” that caused migration to
the “net gain” states from the “net loss” states.
4. Based on the Dust Bowl map found on the other page, rank the eight states that were affected by the Dust
Bowl in order of “largest net loss” to “smallest net loss”.
5. What businesses do you think attracted people to the top five “net gain” states (California, Washington,
Michigan, Ohio, and Florida)
6. Do you think people along the Appalachian Mountains left for the same reason as those who left from the
Dust Bowl region? Explain why or why not.
Questions (for Map #2)
7. What states saw the lowest unemployment numbers during the Great Depression? Why do you think that
was the case? (There are four)
8. What states saw the highest unemployment numbers during the Great Depression? Why do you think that
was the case? (There are eleven)
9. What can you tell about Delaware, regarding its unemployment numbers and its relief numbers? Based on
this information, who provided the most jobs there?
10. Both the South and the West Coast have relatively low unemployment numbers. Why do you think they
have different numbers of people receiving relief?
11. In the photo on the left, what emotion is the photographer trying to elicit from the viewer? Do you think it
is effective? Why or why not?
12. In the photo on the right, what emotion is the photographer trying to elicit from the viewer? Would you
want this car driving down your street? Why or why not?
13. What problems do you think faced these people when they arrived in California? Do you think they were
better or worse than the problems they left? Explain.
14. Although taken by government photographers, one of these photos is staged and one is not. Which one is
staged and why do you think it was?