Stinging Dust Documentary Summary

The documentary “Stinging Dust, Forgotten Lives” depicts how the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s affected the lives of those involved, the events that built up to this travesty, and the recovery of the families that were at the center of this defining event.
In the 1930’s vast lands were available across Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. Crops were planted and harvested. The economy was strong as the land was producing and then the economy crashed. There was a drought and thousands struggled to provide daily needs and food for their families. It was a scene like no other, farms and equipment buried in dust/dirt, much like a desert. This was an extraordinary event in human history and environmental history.
In May of 1804 land was explored west of the Mississippi river. Explorers saw and increase in grassland and decrease in forest. The farmers from the east moved west to “The Promised Land” to reap the benefits of the prairie lands. To increase the development congress passed the Homestead Act of 1862. This act gave people the ability to obtain 160 acres of prairie as long as they occupied and developed the land for five years. The population of the U.S. was increasing and the government needed to set the stage for commercial agriculture. …show more content…
This was an opportunity that people could not pass up. Farming in the east was difficult due to the forest landscape. The Great Plains was the answer, green, lush, and fertile. The consequences of cultivating the land were not considered and this was also a different type of land, farmers were unfamiliar with how to cultivate it. The methods from the east failed and were devastating to the land, due to the lack of moisture in the soil and the unpredictability of rain. This characteristic was unlike what they had experienced in the