Dust Bowl

What was the impact of the Dust Bowl?

During the 1930s, the Midwest experienced so much blowing dust in the air that the region became known as the Dust Bowl. The term also refers to the event itself, usually dated from 1934 through 1940. The heart of the Dust Bowl was the Texas panhandle and western Oklahoma, but atmospheric winds carried the dust so far that East Coast cities sometimes found a powdery layer of dirt on windows, streets, sidewalks and automobiles. On the Great Plains, however, dust storms were so severe that crops failed to grow, livestock died of starvation and thirst and thousands of farm families lost their farms and faced severe poverty.

Factors of the Dust Bowl

Most authorities cite two factors as the cause of the Dust Bowl. In the 1920s, with the coming of tractors and mechanical farm implements, farmers on the Great Plains plowed up huge tracts of land once covered with grasses that held the soil in place and helped to keep in moisture in the topsoil. Without the grass cover, the wind could lift dirt particles into the atmosphere where they were carried east by the prevailing winds. During the summers of 1934, 1936 and 1939-40, little rain fell, creating drought conditions in Iowa and across the Midwest. Extreme high temperatures topped 100 degrees sometimes for weeks at a time. Crops withered in the field and again, the soil was left with no cover to prevent the topsoil from blowing into the air.

The result was that the huge clouds of dust formed, often so strong that they blocked the sun creating darkness and limited visibility even during the day. Even when families stuffed rags under the doors and around the windows, dust filtered into homes covering everything. One woman recalled that when she sat up in the morning, she could see the silhouette of her head outlined in dust on her pillow.

The Dust Bowl and The Great Depression

The extreme weather came on top of farmers struggling to survive during the Great Depression. Guaranteed high prices during WWI and government appeals to farmers’ patriotism encouraged many to expand their herds and their cropland. When the war ended and demand for extra production fell, farmers continued to produce at record levels. Surpluses developed, and farm prices fell sharply making many farmers unable to pay their mortgages. Farm foreclosures across the Midwest skyrocketed and the situation looked desperate. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal boosted farm prices by paying farmers to limit production. While those programs were just beginning, however, the drought years of 1934 and 1936 made life even more difficult for farm families and the small towns that depended upon them. In Oklahoma and nearby regions, many families joined a mass migration to California, piling up whatever they could onto their automobiles. They became known as the "Okies."

Conservation Efforts

The Dust Bowl taught the United States to explore better approaches to land management. Western lands with too little rainfall to support grain crops like corn or wheat should be left as pasture to maintain a grass cover that can retain moisture and keep topsoil in place. The federal government began support for programs to plant trees as windbreaks, to terrace hillsides, and to implement other land management programs. It also produced a famous film, "The Plow That Broke the Plains," that dramatically illustrated the relationship between farming practices and the Dust Bowl.

Both weather and human efforts contributed to the Dust Bowl. Iowans who lived it remember the frightening appearance of dark clouds of descending dirt. They suffered through it but also learned some valuable lessons about the need to respect the natural environment.

Supporting Questions

What was the Dust Bowl?

• Dust Storm in Baca County, Colorado, 1935 (Image)
• Dust Storm in Eastern Colorado, c.a. 1936 (Image)
• Heavy Black Clouds of Dust Over Texas Panhandle, March 1936 (Image)
• Destroyed Orchard in Cimarron County, Oklahoma, April 1936 (Image)
• Dust Bowl Farmer in Cimarron County, Oklahoma, April 1936 (Image)
• Interview with Flora Robertson about Dust Storms in Oklahoma, August 5, 1940 (Audio)

How did people respond to the Dust Bowl?

• Proposed Migrant Camps in California for Relocated Dust Bowl Families, 1935 (Map)
• Dust Storm in Amarillo, Texas, April 1936 (Image)
• Oklahoma Farm Family on Highway between Blythe and Indio, California, August 1936 (Image)
• Dust Bowl Family from Paris, Arkansas, Leaves on Highway No.1, June 1938 (Image)
• "Why We Come to California," 1940 (Document)
• "Dust Control Treatment of Center's Land Area Slated," June 3, 1943 (Document)

How did the Dust Bowl affect Americans?

• "Dust Storm Headline Montage," between 1935 and 1942 (Document)
• "Migrant Mother" Florence Thompson with Her Children in Nipomo, California, February/March 1936 (Image)
• Farmer's Son Playing on a Large Soil Drift in Liberal, Kansas, March 1936 (Image)
• Manzanar Free Press Special Anniversary Edition, March 20, 1943 (Document)
• "Big Dust Storm Hits Project Sun. Afternoon" Newspaper Article, July 19, 1943 (Document)
• Iowa Public Television's "The Dust Bowl," 1979 (Video)
• Iowa Public Television's "The Depression, the Family Farm and the New Deal," April 28, 2015 (Video)

Additional Resources

• Voices from the Dust Bowl
  This Library of Congress online gallery, known as the "Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection," contains selections that documented the everyday life of residents of Farm Security Administration (FSA) migrant work camps in central California in 1940 and 1941.
• The Dust Bowl Primary Source Set
  This primary source set about the Dust Bowl from the Library of Congress includes a number of photos of Americans during the Dust Bowl. 
• Stanford History Education Group – The Dust Bowl
  This website contains education materials about the Dust Bowl for teachers to use in the classroom. 
• Wessels Living History Farm – The Dust Bowl
  This webpage from Wessels Living History Farm in Nebraska focuses on the effects of the Dust Bowl in the Midwest in the 1930s. 
• Library of Congress Dust Bowl Teaching Guide
  This Library of Congress teaching guide works in tandem with the LOC's primary source set on the Dust Bowl. 

Iowa Core Social Studies Standards (9-12th Grade)

Listed below are the Iowa Core Social Studies content anchor standards that are best reflected in this source set. The content standards applied to this set are high school-age level and encompass the key disciplines that make up social studies for 9th through 12th grade students.

• SS-Geo.9-12.13. Employ maps to display and explain the spatial patterns of human and environmental characteristics.
• SS-Geo.9-12.18. Evaluate the impact of human settlement activities on the environmental and cultural characteristics of specific places and regions.
• SS-Geo.9-12.19. Analyze the reciprocal relationship between historical events and the spatial diffusion of ideas, technologies, cultural practices and the distribution of human population.
• SS-Geo.9-12.21. Analyze how changes in the environmental and cultural characteristics of a place or region influence spatial patterns of trade and land use.
• SS-Geo.9-12.23. Analyze the consequences of human-made and natural catastrophes on global trade, politics, and human migration.
• SS-Geo.9-12.24. Identify and evaluate Iowans or groups of Iowans who have influenced Iowa’s environmental or cultural geography.