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Written for the KidsKnowIt Network by:
Debora Dyess
Imagine winds blowing so hard that seeds blow from the ground, and trucks are blown 30 feet down the road. Imagine clouds of dirt and dust as high as five miles into the sky rolling in like thunderstorms, making it so dark in the middle of the day that chickens go to roost because they think it's night and no lights can cut the blackness. That’s what happened during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
Before farming began in the Central Plains states, herds of buffalo grazed there. Grass was long and thick. But in the mid-1800s, settlers arrived. Excited by the thick, lush growth of grass, they plowed the ground and planted wheat. Farming wasn’t always easy, and farmers took advantage of good growing years. They never let the fields go fallow (crop-free), never rotated crops and didn’t know to put ‘cover crops’ (something to keep the dirt in place in between wheat seasons). |
Disaster struck in the form of a drought. With no significant rainfall, crops were harder to grow successfully. Land became bare. When winds began to blow at higher than normal speeds, a new disaster was created: Black Blizzards.
Black Blizzards happened when topsoil began to blow across the land. It picked up more and more dust and dirt as it blew. Not only was the wind stronger, but it seemed to grow with each year that passed. In 1932, fourteen dust storms were reported in the Plains. In 1933, the number grew to 38. One hundred million acres of farmland were believed to have lost all or most of their topsoil by 1934. Black Blizzards were even seen in Washington D.C., and most of the precious topsoil was dropped into the Atlantic Ocean.
The dust storms increased the drought. Studies found that dust particles bounced sunlight back into the atmosphere. This cooled the Earth and fooled it into slowing the evaporation process. Not only was dirt blowing away, but it was preventing rain, which would have solved the problem.
This might explain why dust storms became more common over the early years of the drought. Fourteen Black Blizzards rolled across the Plains states in 1932. 1933 saw 38 storms. The windswept regions of Colorado, Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma were hardest hit, but parts of other states and even Canada saw damage due to the cruel combination of drought and wind. But the worst was to come.
On April 13, 1935, the worst storm to hit the U.S. to date hit the Central Plain states hard. People called it Black Sunday because the dust was so thick that no one could see. The next day, a reporter for the Associated Press referred to the crisis as ‘the Dust Bowl’ for the first time. The name stuck.
Farms began to fail, and towns that supported farmers suffered, too. Banks closed in this region faster than any others during the Great Depression (a world-wide economic downturn lasting from 1929-1941). Businesses were hard hit when their business lost farmers as customers. Land value fell, and families began to look for work in other states.
In all, an estimated 5 million people left the Dust Bowl during the drought. Many went to California. Many became migrant workers for farmers there, surviving on wages that barely fed their families. Others sought refuge with family members in other areas. Only a few stayed, and these were mostly larger farms with the ability to sit out the disaster.
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The government began to take steps to help farmers. President Franklin Roosevelt employed hundreds of men to plant trees from Canada to Texas to slow the winds. Experts moved to the ravaged states to teach farmers a new way to plow and plant. These new techniques preserved water and held soil in place. They allowed soil to rest between plantings. While farmers were a little unwilling to try the new methods, the government paid for each acre plowed and planted in the new ways. They also bought cattle at above market value and gave the meat to needy families. Other crops were purchased by the government to help those in need. The measures slowly began to help farmers crippled by the drought.
Lawmakers passed new regulations about land management. The measures were intended to prevent Dust Bowls in the future. They also enacted legislation (laws) to help farmers succeed financially and help needy families.
In the fall of 1939, rain began to fall. The drought that lasted almost ten years and cost millions of dollars was over. Effects of the disaster lasted into the 1990s, which means its influence on the Central Plain states lasted more than 60 years.
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| The Dust Bowl years were also known as the Dirty Thirties. The dust storms would arise so fast that farmers would sometimes get lost in their own fields and suffocate in the thick dust. |
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