The Dust Bowl: A Natural Disaster?

Improved Essays
There have been many events of unprecedented importance in American history. Everything from the Industrial Revolution’s transformation of the American infrastructure to the World Wars’ strengthening of American political presence throughout the world have helped propel the United States to the great nation it is today. There is one incident that occurred in the 1930’s, though, that is often overshadowed by the occurrence World Wars and Great Depression; the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl was a massive drought centered on the states of Texas and Oklahoma caused by over tilling of farmland. Due to the farmland being over tilled, the vegetation that held the soil in place was no longer present, releasing immense amounts of dust into the air. Though it was technically a “natural disaster”, the Dust Bowl played an important role in helping shape America into the nation it is today, primarily seeing the implementation of many important government policies which led to the shift of modern, more effective farming methods. …show more content…
As many as 2.5 million people (Mass Exodus…) abruptly left the area, causing the collapse of around 9,000 banks over the course of its existence (Ganzel). Many people go to Kansas City, Dallas, and St. Louis. The farmers who decided to remain behind ended up struggling to find buyers for their crops, producing low crop prices and unlivable wages. As a result, the government decided to intervene in an attempt to ease the effects of the Dust Bowl, changing the American government and farming practices

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Dust Bowl DBQ

    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In the 1930s, America went from a prospering world power to a struggling nation in need of assistance. After the start if the Great Depression in 1929, America’s financial situation was suffering; unemployment rates reached as high as twenty five percent during the depression and millions of families lost their incomes, while thousands of small businesses closed their doors. Therefore, wWhen an envionmental crisis known as the Dust Bowl began in the 1930s, those living in farms were not keen on the idea of moving to larger cities, in fact, most people living in the Dust Bowl region chose not to move to other regions despite how destructive, dangerous, and common dust storms were. Avid Carlson described the scene during the Dust Bowl at night.…

    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When they were moving they had to leave their homes most people left whatever they had behind and if they didn’t leave what they had behind they would pack it in their cars and leave. When moving to other states families lost their jobs and were living off of beans, cornbread, and milk and were starving and would do anything for food. This period of time was a very rough period. Most of all of the families had to migrate during The Dust Bowl.…

    • 874 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the 1930s, a devastating drought strike the Great Plains known as the Dust Bowl. The environmental disaster of the dust bowl is resulted from high wind erosion, low soil moisture, poor agriculture practices, and the replacement of drought resistant grasslands.[1] The dust bowl is one of the worst environmental disasters in the American history. [3] In 1939, the rain returned and ended the greatest drought in North American history. [1] Those who survived the stress, hopelessness and starvation finally see the light.…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The California Dust Bowl

    • 346 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Not everyone moved away, most actually stayed right where they were and waited it out. They most likely didn’t have the money to move. Farmers seemed to be the main cause of the Dust Bowl due to the way they went about farming. They learned the hard to pay attention to how they farm and think smart about what equipment to…

    • 346 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For many years now people have been trying to figure out what caused these terrible storms. According to the background essay and Donald Worster (Doc A.), the dust bowl was one of the hardest times. The storms ruined farmer’s crops, so then farmers could not get paid because they had nothing to sell. These dust storms also, caused people to get dust in their houses and ruin their belongings. Many people moved to try and get a new life, but many more people could not move because they did not have enough money to do so.…

    • 751 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Both events resulted in troubled times for people and workers. People lost their homes, suffered from malnourishment and seemed to be struggling to make it through the day. This book focuses on the problems and results of the Dust Bowl, “the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history”. The Dust Bowl followed The Great Plow-up, which “turned 5.2 million acres of thick native grassland into wheat fields”. Eventually, the United States began to enter into the time of the depression and prices for crops began to sink.…

    • 1186 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The U.S. had major problems in the 1930’s and 40’s. Weather is what caused the dust bowl. Farmers had major struggles from the dry weather and dust storms. “Farmers and landholders in the Great Plains had to migrate in the 1930s during a period of drought, irregular rain, and erosion. ”"Sander"All farming was ruined because of the weather farmers couldn't grow crops and the topsoil was ruined.…

    • 1304 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Dust Bowl was bad, because their drought lasted for longer than the Depression did for the city dwellers, but personally I think it was worse for the city dwellers. The farmers could eat their animals, eat animal products like eggs, and can things from their orchards which lasted a little longer than the crops, whereas the city dwellers only source of food was shipped in, or through the soup kitchens. During the Depression most of the workers could not afford anything from the store to feed a family 3 meals a day. Most of the farmers moved out to attempt to find work after a few years of the drought, so they did not starve as long as the city dwellers even though theirs lasted longer. The farm dwellers also did not have to pay as much for heating their homes.…

    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dust Bowl Research Paper

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Dust Bowl and Life in The 1930ś Introduction: The Dust Bowl was a tragic event in the Southern states that impacted families as many people died and had creased financial responsibilities, but different laws were put in place to help people in the Dust Bowl. The Great Plains suffered a drought between 1930-1940. This drought was caused by changes in weather, farming techniques, economic and cultural factors. Many people suffered during the Dust Bowl including crops and animals.…

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Dust Bowl Dbq

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In 1896 when The East St. Louis tornado hit Missouri, ten million dollars worth of land and buildings were destroyed (noaa.gov). America had witnessed the capability of a single natural disaster, and the economic effect was monstrous. The same thing was true for the Dust Bowl. The fact that such a huge natural disaster could seemingly come out of…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dust Bowl Dbq

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The 1930’s was a struggling time for people in the West because of the Dust Bowl, causing lots of problems with the way the people live and their land. This essay is going to explain how the Dust Bowl had developed and the different problems and effects on the people living in the West. To start off, the development of the Dust Bowl started off in 1930 but getting its name in April 15, 1935. The Dust Bowl as stated in passage 1 “The drought hit first in the eastern part of the country in 1930.…

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Dust Bowl Dbq

    • 105 Words
    • 1 Pages

    The Great Plains of the 1930’s was given the name dust bowl because of the massive dust storms caused by the failure to apply dryland farming methods to prevent wind erosion. Most people don't know that grass is an anchor for our soil. When farmers plow the grass up for miles at a time to plant wheat. These tactics mixed with the factors of drought, light soil and high winds cause a catastrophic chain of events known as the “black blizzards” or dust storms. These storms drove off over half of the Great Plain population because of the deaths of cattle and their ravaged pastures.…

    • 105 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    The dust bowl was one of the harshest and most destructive man made “natural” disasters in its time period. The Dust Bowl negatively affected people who lived there in a personal way. The lives of people were at stake during. When people could not handle the weather or had their homes taken from them, they moved westward to California. Not only were the people of this area struggling, so was the economy.…

    • 1550 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Human played a Huge role in the creating of the “Dust Bowl”. Our government attempted to “lure” farmers to the South and to farm as much land as they wanted. The government would put up signs of farmers with potatoes the size of cars and cabbage to large to carry, this got farmers excited because this was during the great depression and they saw it as a way to help their family. The invention of tractors that would farm and plow land also caused tons of damage towards the Dust Bowl. Instead of farmers being able to plow one acre a day with a horse they could not plow up to fifty.…

    • 521 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dust Bowl Research Paper

    • 314 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The demand for economic demand for agricultural products played a part in the Dust Bowl because there was much of a demand for Ag products that the farmers kept on plowing in the fields and not caring much about protecting the land. The dust from the fields flew around at high velocity of air. This caused deaths by dust getting in the lungs. The dust would get into the house. They said that before they could eat…

    • 314 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays