The Dust Storm In The 1930's

In the early 1920’s a series of unfortunate events contributed to the Dust Bowl. The first few contributions were drought and strong winds. Soon dust storms started sprouting up around the midwest. As the amount of storms increased more citizens scrambled away. Turning the midwestern areas into the Dust Bowl. And to top it off all of this was happening at the beginning of the Great Depression, which began in 1929. Which was mostly caused by multiple stocks crashing. Causing great ecological and economical misery for everyone. Leading the oakies towards the coast of California.
The Dust Bowl got its’ name from an article after a record storm, “The day after Black Sunday, an Associated Press reporter used the term ‘Dust Bowl’ for the first

time. ‘Three little words achingly familiar on the Western farmer's tongue, rule life in the dust bowl of the continent – if it rains.’ The term stuck and was used by radio reporters and writers, in private letters and public speeches. In the central and northern plains, dust was everywhere” (Black Sunday.) This was not only a natural occurrence, because of a new mechanical farming techniques farmers produced a surplus of wheat. “However, overproduction of wheat coupled with the Great Depression led to severely reduce­d market prices. The wheat market was flooded, and people were too poor to buy” (Black Sunday.) All of this led to farmers covering their fields with the unsold wheat as natural drought-resistant grasses. “Farmers were unable to earn back their production costs and expanded their fields in an effort to turn a profit -- they covered the prairie with wheat in place of the natural drought-resistant grasses and left many unused fields bare” (Black Sunday.) In the earlier stages of the dust bowl there were fewer storms, but as time passed and the horrid drought continued, they got worse. “In 1932, 14 dust storms were recorded on the Plains. In 1933, there were 38 storms. By 1934, it was estimated that 100 million acres of farmland had lost all or most of the topsoil to the winds” (Overmiller.) These storms made it practically impossible for farmers to keep up with their agriculture.
The dust storms were unarguably the worst part of the dust bowl, “the loss of fertile topsoil that literally blew away in the winds, leaving the land vulnerable to drought and inhospitable for growing crops”(Black Sunday).

Not only were there many storms throughout the years, they were also very intense, “By April 1935, there had been weeks of dust storms, but the cloud that appeared on the horizon that Sunday was the worst. Winds were clocked at 60 mph” (Black Sunday.) Sometimes the storms were so bad schools either kept the children overnight or sent them home early. “During the Depression, schools across the Plains sent students home because of the dust storms. Some school administrators were worried about what might happen to the students' health. There had been cases of ‘dust pneumonia’ where dust clogged up the lungs just like the disease. Other administrators and teachers, especially in the southern Plains, knew that people had gotten lost in dust storms when visibility went to zero” (Schrute.) Even residents were afraid of the storms, “One afternoon when my dad awakened from a nap he called out, ‘I’m blind, I’m blind.’ It was black all around because another storm had hit as he slept. When it was like that and we lit a lamp at one end of the room, it was only a blur from the other end, because of all the silt in the air” (Franz.) These conditions added with dust pneumonia and low income practically forced the okies out of the

midwest.
As more farmers were forced to leave out of debt or gave up on their land, more immigrants moved to California. California was a promising land for almost everyone, although they weren’t quite expecting the amount of immigrants to be so high, “California – the state that had once advertised for more migrant workers – found themselves overwhelmed by up to 7,000 new migrants a month, more migrants than they needed” (Winter.) With most settlers Americans had little empathy, but because they were white there was more sympathy and aid, “In part, this was because these migrants were white, in contrast to the Mexican and Filipino workers who supplied the ‘factory’ farms with the seasonal labor needed before and after Okies arrived. The Okies also came in family groups and were in desperate straights, living in tents or out of the back of a car or truck” (Winter.) If the migrants couldn’t find jobs or places to stay they would go to live in Labor Camps, “Many of the migrant workers lived in Labor Camps. These camps kept people alive and provided some assistance with work, but wages were very low because the supply of workers was high and the number of jobs was low. Still, the migrant workers did their best to make the best of it. Some camps held dances, organized schools and even policed themselves” (Winter.) Although these camps provided great communities and services the amount of pay versus how much they worked was very unbalanced. “Picking cotton paid 60 cents per 100 pounds. An eleven hour day meant just under $3 dollars. It was just enough to buy food and maybe purchase the family shoes once a year. It meant mother could make a cake on your birthday, but there were no gifts” (1930s Farm Labor.) These farmers even with all the help and sympathy they got just barely survived, the mass of midwesterners put out of jobs and crammed into places like California were too high. The Dust Bowl is definitely something we would not like to see once again within our country.
The terrible disasters in the midwest during such a sensitive time made it hard for Americans to survive. But we prevailed. Much like California’s current drought right now. We are putting all of our efforts into conserving water. Everytime it rains we are all very thankful. Although California isn’t known for growing wheat, we are known for contributing the most agriculture. This drought is predicted to last around 30 years! We can only hope that we will still have enough water for futuring farming.