Dust Bowl Research Paper Outline

Drought, destroying the natural grass, and increased mechanization caused a series of terrible storms lasting almost a decade. The Dust Bowl is so important today because there is a high demand for food and water since more people live here in America. We know not to make to same mistakes that farmers made almost 90 years ago. The Dust Bowl serves as a warning for the future, a warning to keep our lands healthy and always look

The Dust Bowl, battering the Midwest for nearly a decade with high winds, bad farming techniques, and drought, became a pivotal point in American history. The wind storm that seemed relentless beginning in the early 1930’s until its spell ended in 1939, affected the lives of tens of thousands of Americans and the broader agriculture industry. The catastrophic effects of the Dust Bowl took place most prominently around the Great Plains, otherwise known as the farming belt, including states such as Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas, which were hit extraordinarily hard. Millions of farming acres destroyed by poor farming techniques was a major contributor to what is considered to be one of the worst man-made environmental disasters in American history. This period resulted in almost a decade of unstable farming and economic despair. Thousands of families sought government assistance in order to survive. Luckily, government aid to farmers and new agriculture programs that were introduced to help save the nation’s agriculture industry benefited families and helped the Great Plains recover from the Dust Bowl. Furthermore, the poor conditions in the farm belt were also compounded by the Great Depression as it was in full swing as the Dust Bowl began to worsen. In addition, World War I was also underway which caused a high demand for agricultural products, such as wheat, corn, and potatoes to be at its peak, which lured many people to the farm belt with the false expectation that farming

The Dust Bowl was a series of devastating events that occurred in the 1930’s. It affected not only crops, but people, too. Scientists have claimed it to be the worst drought in the United States in 300 years. It all began because of “A combination of a severe water shortage and harsh farming techniques,” said Kimberly Amadeo, an expert in economical analysis. (Amadeo). Because of global warming, less rain occurred, which destroyed crops. The crops, which were the only things holding the soil in place, died, which then caused the wind to carry the soil with it, creating dust storms. (Amadeo). In fact, according to Ken Burns, an American film maker, “Some 850 million tons of topsoil blew away in 1935 alone. "Unless something is done," a government report predicted, "the western plains will be as arid as the Arabian desert." (Burns). According to Cary Nelson, an English professor, fourteen dust storms materialized in 1932, and in 1933, there were 48 dust storms. Dust storms raged on in the Midwest for about a decade, until finally they slowed down, and stopped. Although the dust storms came to a halt, there was still a lot of concern. Thousands of crops were destroyed, and farmers were afraid that the dust storm would happen

The Dust Bowl was "the darkest moment in the twentieth-century life of the southern plains," (pg. 4) as described by Donald Worster in his book "The Dust Bowl." It was a time of drought, famine, and poverty that existed in the 1930's. It's cause, as Worster presents in a very thorough manner, was a chain of events that was perpetuated by the basic capitalistic society's "need" for expansion and consumption. Considered by some as one of the worst ecological catastrophes in the history of man, Worster argues that the Dust Bowl was created not by nature's work, but by an American culture that was working exactly the way it was planned. In essence, the Dust Bowl was the effect of a society, which deliberately set out to

The Dust Bowl affected the Great Plains which consist of parts of the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming. Storms also reached the East Coast of the United States. The Dust Bowl

“We watched as the storm swallowed the light. The sky turned from blue to black, night descended in an instant and the dust was on us…Dust lay two feet deep in ripply waves across the parlor floor, dust blanketed the cookstove, the icebox, the kitchen chairs, everything deep in dust.” -Karen Hesse’s Diary, April, 1935 (Dust Bowl Diary Entries). In the 1930s, a phenomenon called the Dust Bowl swept the people of the Great Plains off their feet. This paper defines the Dust Bowl and its impact on the US economy and American citizens.

The Dust Bowl was one of the worst economic and tragic events of the 20th century. The Dust Bowl negatively affected people who lived there in a personal way. Some of them included how badly it had affected the children living in that time, how it had affected families health, and how badly it affected the economy causing a mass corruption.

In 1934-1936 the actual Dust Bowl happened. This was when the massive and deadly storms hit the prosper and growing Midwest Panhandle. In 1936, a more severe storm spread out of the plains and across most of the nation. The drought years were followed with record breaking heavy rains, blizzards, tornadoes and floods. In September 1930, it rained over five inches in a very short time in the Oklahoma Panhandle. The flooding in Oklahoma was accompanied by a dirt storm, which damaged several small buildings and other farm structures. Later that year, the regions were hit again by a strong dirt storm from the southwest until the winds gave way to a blizzard from the north.

Natural disasters can cause massive damage, but few realize that many barely last a few days. If so much can be done in such a minute amount of time, imagine what a decade would do. The dust bowl was a weather event that lasted for the entirety of an eight-year drought and lingered for multiple years after. The result: Economic devastation for the agriculture of the area. The dust bowl was a large contributor to agriculture’s role in the great depression and defines how we approach environmental protection today.

During the 1930s, the United States faced various struggles such as The Great Depression- a time in which farmers suffered severely through many challenges. One of the challenges faced by farmers was the Dust Bowl tragedy; a dust storm affecting many farms throughout the midwest. The tragic Dust Bowl was a consequence due to lack of rainfall in the dry prairie lands, decreasing crop growth, and overproduction in farming causing more exposed land. It occurred because of advancements in farming technology, drought in the Great Plains, and the harvesting of grasslands.

Fine powder coating people's lips, inhaling dust with every breath you take. That is what it was like during the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. On Thursday. April 18, 1935, a huge, black, billowing cloud piled up on the western horizon. The people in the Southern Great Plains called the the dust storms dusters. It darkened the midday sky and carried off valuable topsoil and made topsoil erosion. Children and the elderly died from breathing in the dust they called it “dust pneumonia.” Cattle such as chickens and cows couldn’t protect and defend themselves from the dust. They ran around in circles until they fell and died from breathing in so much dust. While humans could cover their mouths and eyes with cloth, scarves, and goggles to protect themselves. Some people had even considered that it was the end of the world. Some of the many factors that caused the Dust Bowl to happen were, over plowing the soil and the cows and buffalo over grazing the grass and, the lack of rainfall or drought in the great plains region.

In the early 1930s through the 1936, a massive event called the Dust Bowl occurred also known as the Dirty Thirties, dramatically affected areas within Oklahoma, Kansas, and Northern Texas due to extensive windstorms. This event forced numerous people to evacuate their hometowns. The Dust Bowl had a significant impact on society, it caused farmers to have no control of their agriculture because of the dried up land. Once the land dried up there was no way to renovate or replace the soil. This dilemma lead to more citizens to depend on the government for help, financially.

What did people do to avoid the Dust Bowl? Many people had seen articles in newspapers about how amazing California was. “We just knew that there was work

In studying United States history, you have probably heard of the Dust Bowl. It was the biggest and greatest drought the country has ever seen. The drought lasted for nine to ten years. It began in the Midwestern and southern Great Plains in the year 1931.

One of the worst droughts occurred during the 1930s in the Southern Great Plains of the Midwest. It was known as the Dust Bowl. During this time, there were high temperatures, a lack of rain, and strong winds. The strong winds created clouds of dust from dry soil and mounds of dust were blown all around. The drought and dust devastated agriculture in the Midwest. The lack of rain killed crops. The dust suffocated livestock. The dust storms forced farmers out of business.