The Dust Bowl Impact

In the 1930's, the United States economy was in a crippling state as the Great Depression had gripped the country. Not only that, the country had seen a severe in the plains that caused many to lose jobs as well as the crops they were growing. High winds would eventually sweep through the Great Plains and cause a cloud of thick dust to engulf the area. The signs of a catastrophic event were set in place after World War I had ended in 1918.

Before World War I, farmers benefitted greatly from the advent of tractors and combines that could help harvest grain for them. The farmers uprooted buffalo grass which held moisture in the soil, and kept the strong winds and severe droughts from blowing away. In fact in 1917, a severe drought had hit the Great Plains, but none of the farm-land suffered any damage as a result of the uprooted grass that protected the crops.

By the end of World War I, the demand for wheat increased across the nation. As a result, farmers began planting more than twenty-seven million new acres of wheat. As the country was in the beginning stages of the Great Depression, farmers across the country had planted three times as many acres of wheat than ten years earlier. But what happened is that all the planting of these acres of wheat had caused the soil to get torn up, so it could not be saved if another drought or severe high winds were to hit the area. Thus, the next dry period along with high winds, was something the farmers had never prepared for.

So in the spring of 1934, the over-production of wheat acres had backfired on all the farmers. It was in April of that year that the United States had seen a very hot and dry month. For the majority of the month, the skies were clear of clouds, too. However, high winds measuring as high as fifty-miles-per-hour, had picked up the loose soil in the plains that had been torn up by farmers. These winds then would pick up the soil and cause thick and heavy clouds of dust to sweep across the region which destroyed most livestock in its path.

A second major dust storm developed in May of 1934 after record-setting high temperatures came through the area. This dust storm created a light brown fog that hit most of the Great Plains. In particular, Texas and Oklahoma were hit the hardest by the Dust Bowl, and both states had seen dirt clouds engulf the entire farmland.

The Dust Bowl, as it was later called, covered more than three thousand miles across New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Eventually, those dust storms would drop about twelve million tons of soil in the Chicago area and then later darken the skies of Cleveland. Two days after hitting the Great Plains, the dust storms made their way to the eastern seaboard. It was estimated that over 650 million tons of soil had been blown off the plains that ended up hitting the eastern seaboard.

The damage of the two dust storms that swept the country was great. Crops, in particular wheat, had been cutoff at ground level or completely torn off their roots. The cattle that had eaten eaten the dust-filled grass eventually died from the severe "mud balls". Families tried to protect themselves from the dust getting into their homes with wet blankets, oiled cloths, and tape, but everything had eventually been covered in grit. Vehicles and machinery could not be used as they engines were clogged with soil. Furthermore, the many farmers had died in the fields for the dust storms, suffocation of dust, and hundreds of people suffered from what was called "dust pneumonia".

After the dust had settled, many families decided to flee to the West Coast for a better life. For the remember of the decade, it was estimated that over 350,000 people packed up their belongings and headed west. Also, many families had their homes in the plains foreclosed on because of the dust storms as more than 500,000 people were left homeless. With the Great Depression and the dust storms, the plains seen a dramatic decrease in jobs as well.

After the Dust Bowl, the government immediately stepped in to solve the problem. Soil conservation became the focus of the federal agencies, and the U.S. Forest Service began a project to plant a line of trees one-hundred miles wide from Canada to the Texas Panhandle. This helped the area recover from the storms, plus the return of rain to the plains helped in the process, too. Not long after, the buffalo grass had grown back which helped to make sure that the Dust Bowl did not take place again.

Droughts are very common in areas across the United States. There have even been times where the country had to import grain for domestic needs as a result of a drought. In 1952, the Mid-Western states were declared a disaster area after a severe drought that lasted close to five years had hit the region. This drought was more severe than the Dust Bowl, but not near as damaging because of the measures that the government took to prevent it from happening to the area again.

The Dust Bowl changed the ways of planters and farmers, and it was the government that stepped in to make sure that the valuable crops that are grown do not get blown away again by not practicing proper planting techniques.