...The Dust Bowl Essay Where was the Dust Bowl? The Dust Bowl was in southeastern Colorado, southwest Kansas, the extreme northwestern of Oklahoma, and Texas. What was the Dust Bowl? The Dust Bowl, also known as the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the town's and the fields. Severe drought and a failure to apply dryland farming methods to prevent wind erosion caused the curiosity of the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl forced many families to move. Some families didn’t leave because they still wanted to see if they could produce goods to make money. One common question asked is when did the Dust Bowl start? The Dust Bowl started in 1931. Another common question asked is how long did the Dust Bowl...
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...Name Professor Course Date The Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl refers to the 1930 period when adverse storms resulted in socio-economic and ecological destruction to the Canadian and American economies. The disaster lasted for six years, from 1930 to 1936, but in some areas, it lasted till 1940. The extent of Dust Bowl’s impacts intensified in North America following the event’s concurrence with the Great American Depression. States affected by the weather adversities included the Canadian South, South Eastern region of Montana, South Western parts of North Dakota, and Texas, North Eastern regions of Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, and major regions of South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. The causative factors for the development of the Dust Bowl were attributed to two main factors; drought and famine condition in existing in Central America and poor farming methods on the vast dry lands from the Canadian prairies in the South to the US, acreage of over 400,000 km2 (Langston-George, 2015). Based on Dust Bowl’s historical naure, it is imperative to understand the causes, characteristics, impact and draw future lessons to mitigate such occurrences in the human and physical environment. Characteristics of the Dust Bowl The Dust bowl region lies on the west side of the 100th meridian. The elevation of the plains was estimated to be 760m on the east side and 1800m to the west. The erosion and drought affected a geographical coverage of about 100,000,000acres. The climatic...
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...The Dust Bowl, which was also known as the Dirty Thirties, was a terrible event in American history. It was a series of major dust storms that damaged the west and economy. The areas affected by the Dust Bowl were Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. There were many causes of the Dust Bowl. One of them could easily be the overproduction of wheat, as the prices decreased and it depleted the soil. Many farmers lost or abandoned their farms and moved west. Between 1929 and 1932, there were 400,000 farms that were lost due to foreclosure. Another cause could be the drought and high winds during the time. This was also during the time that farmers were tilling their soil, which made it so there was more dirt available to be...
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...The Dust Bowl is a desolate wasteland, bringing despair and misfortune to anyone who lives there. The creation of the Dust Bowl was a mixture of artificial and natural causes, such as the misuse of farm land, and the Drought. The residents there have experienced a loss of hope, believing that nothing will get better, but they have kept confidence, creating new ways to farm. Both the misuse of farm land and the drought were leading causes of the creation of the Dust Bowl. As the passage ‘The Drought’ states, “When the drought hit, the land just blew away in the wind.” This clearly shows that the drought was devastating for the residents. The other leading cause of the Dust Bowl was the misuse of farmland, in the same passage they state. “Originally...
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...Published in 1979, The Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s, was written by Donald Worster. It was written with the intent of persuading the general public that the 1930’s Dust Bowl was galvanized due to the idea of capitalism. This writing is predominantly ineffective as it provides bias information, is a secondary source, and gives inconceivable solutions to these evident environmental problems. The Dirty Thirties, or more commonly known as the Dust Bowl, was a phenomenon during the 1930s. It was the case of many detrimental dust storms that took over the Great Plains and caused much havoc. These dust storms are generally thought of as a part of nature that was caused by high winds and dry soil. Contrary to this popular belief, Donald...
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...“‘Earth’ is the word we use when it is there in place, growing the food we eat, giving us a place to stand and build on. The ‘Dust’ is what we say when it is loose and blowing in the wind. Nature encompasses both the good and the bad from our perspective, and from that of all living things (Worster, pg. 1). 12-13).” The Dust Bowl, one of the biggest ecological disasters in America, is commonly thought to have been caused by high winds, drought, and bad farming practices, but according to Worster, the Dust Bowl was a consequence of capitalistic and expansionary thinking and the culture it produced. The book Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s, by Donald Worster, provides an in-depth, yet understandable, view of the origins, actions, and effects of the Dust Bowl. And, as it is very valuable as a secondary source, Worster provides an important look at the economic and ecological disaster known as the Dust Bowl,...
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...Do you know what a dust bowl is? A dust bowl is drought or a dust storm. I am going to talk about how it developed and what effected the people that experienced the dust bowl. The Dust Bowl developed in 1930 in the eastern part of the country. Then, it moved to the west in 1931.the name "Dust Bowl" got its name in April 15,1935, the day after Black Sunday. It did not cause the black blizzard. Although, it was unavoidable in the region. It had covered the grasses that held the fine soil in place. When the Dust Bowl would hit, it would blow away in the wind. The Dust Storm had effected lots of people. In 1934, it turned the Great Plains into a desert. An Oklahoma woman had published a letter about the Dust Bowl in Reader's Digest magazine....
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...The Dust Bowl SWOOSH! BOOM! The rocks are hittin houses banging on windows.What is happening? The year of 1930 there this storm that killed mostly about 7 thousand people. This storm was called the “The Dust Bowl”.The dust bowl was a serious storm it affected a lot of people especially children. This storm had spread all over a good section of the great plains of the united states that had also extended over Southern Colorado,Southwestern Kansas the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma,and now New Mexico. The Dust bowl was known as the “Dirty Thirties”, because it happened in the 1930’s and its main supporter was the dirt so it was basically a storm made mostly of dirt. In 1932 there was about 14 storms on the great plains. Some reasons that may have caused the dust bowl were over-farming, livestock overgrazing, droughts, and poor-farming practices. More than 100 million acres was destroyed while this storm was happening. The Dust gots it’s name after the black Sunday that was on April 14, 1935....
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...The Dust Bowl is an area of land where plants stop growing and soil turns into dust, mainly caused by poor farming techniques. In 1931, the midwestern and southern plains began experiencing severe droughts and crop damages. These crop damages were caused by “black blizzards.” A black blizzard is when the soil dried, then turned to dust and blew to the east and south in large dark clouds. Dust storms were caused by drought and overused land. In some places the dust would drift like snow, covering cities and farms. These dark clouds would leave well sealed homes covered in dust. By 1932, there were fourteen dust storms reported. In 1933 when Franklin Roosevelt became president, he declared a fourday bank holiday. During this time, the Congress...
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...During the Dust Bowl many people were affected by it. Farmers and families had a rough time during this because the Dust Bowl destroyed everything. Farmers during this time could not work on their farms because of the dust. They would not be able to pay off their mortgages because they could not produce anything on their farms. Since most farmers could not work their farms most of them lost business and the price for crops fell below subsistence levels. Farmers slaughtered 6 million pigs because they wanted to reduce supply's and raise prices. The people did not like this because they thought it was a waste of food. Then the government made a Surplus Relief Corporation. This meant that whatever the farmers had leftover they would have to feed...
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...During the Great Depression, farmers and families had to travel away from their home to find work and a new place to live. In 1930s, the Great Plains, had very little rain accompanied by high winds causing a dust storm called the dust bowl. This affected the agriculture in the United States during the 20th century. Both the government and farmers tried to address the situation with farmer loans and smaller crops. The dust bowl lasted 10 long years and it could very well happen again. Overall the Great Depression majorly affected the people in the southern plains. During the 20th century the United States agriculture changed from good to bad. Before the dust bowl the agriculture was successful, there was enough rain and the...
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...already depression ridden. The harse agricultural decline extended the Depression which was felt worldwide. There were many causes for the Dust Bowl, which had profound social, economical, and agricultural impact on America. The Dust Bowl stretched over 50 million acres from western Kansas to eastern Nevada. “The drought is the worst ever in United States history, covering more than 75 percent of the country and affecting 27 states severely” (The Dust 2). “The Dust Bowl resulted from unusually prolonged dryness and heat, coupled with a surge in farming on suboptimal land, using techniques based on a poor understanding of soil ecology.” (Richards 3) In essence, the...
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...The Black Blizzards In the 1930s, horrific dark clouds of dust would roll in to the states of western Texas, eastern New Mexico, the Oklahoma Panhandle, western Kansas, and eastern Colorado. These powerful clouds of dust would later become known as the storms that caused the Dust Bowl. These storms of dust were caused by a combination of ecological and human factor. The storms had many effects on people and their ways of life. The Dust Bowl caused people to suffer and leave behind their homes; it hurt the economy, and changed the ways farmers would farm forever. After a long increasing drought, record high heat, and powerful winds the semiarid region of the Plaines and grasslands was basically a desert. Drought was regular on the Plaines. According to the Texas State Historical Association, extreme droughts come around every twenty years, and milder drought every three to four years. Usually, there is approximately less than twenty inches of rain per year. These twenty inches are not enough to keep large vegetation like trees alive therefore; thick wild grass that requires little water grows the region. This wild grass usually survived the harsh weather. Stated in the book written by the author, Timothy Egan, “As long as the weave of grass was stitched to the land, the prairie would flourish in dry years and wet, the grass could look brown and dead, but beneath the surface, the roots held the soil in place; it was alive and dormant… Through the driest years, the web of life...
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...The Dust Bowl was a major sandstorm that was caused by ripping up the grass that held the topsoil down. When this was to happen the winds picked up and caused all the topsoil to go with it causing massive clouds of sand. This Dust Bowl was bad timing because around this time the Great Depression was happening. Another cause of the Dust Bowl was drought, the topsoil was now dry and loose, any wind could pick up and bring the dirt with it. Many farmers were forced to migrate because of all the sand covering everything leaving them with nothing. The Dust Bowl lasted for about a decade it started in the 1930 s and did not end until 1940. This disaster is not natural it was a man made disaster. Farmers ripped up all the roots and grasses holding that soil to plant things,then later did not plant anything due to costs.Then the Great Depression hit and farmers could not pay their loans or keep their farming equipment. The farmers could not pay for equipment they needed which lead to the soil being bare.”The region’s exposed topsoil, robbed of the anchoring, water-retaining roots of its native grasses, was carried off by heavy spring winds.”(Cited from: "Dust Bowl." Britannica School, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15 May. 2007. School. Eb. com /levels/high /article/Dust -Bowl/31604#. Accessed 1 Mar. 2017.)...
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...Daniel xxxxxxxxx Professor xxxxx History 102 5/17/2015 The Dust Bowl During the 1930’s our country was going through some tough times economically which was known as the “Great Depression”. To make things worse the farmland of America was experiencing what became known as the dust bowl. The Dust Bowl lasted for about a decade and it significantly impacted the southern plains. The northern plains were not hit as hard, but they still experienced major drought, strong winds and saw a big decline in their agricultural industry. The Dust Bowl is also responsible for many Americans leaving and moving from the southern plains. For nearly 10 years a yellowish brown dust from the southern plains and a black wall of dust from the northern plains swept through the heart of our country. This made everyday life in this region extremely difficult. Simple acts such as breathing, eating, and even talking while walking were no longer so simple. Mothers were forced to make their children wear dust mask to and from school, wet sheets were hung in front of windows in an effort to stop the dirt from entering their homes. Many farmers were defeated and slowly watched all their crops blow away (About the Dust Bowl). It was best stated by John Steinbeck in the novel “The Grapes of Wrath” “And then the dispossessed were drawn west from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out. Car loads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand...
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