The Dust Bowl: True American Event and Setting of Grapes of Wrath

How The Dust Bowl Got It’s Name:

The drought hit first in the eastern part of the country in 1930. In 1931, it moved toward the west. By 1934 it had turned the Great Plains into a desert.

The Dust Bowl got its name on April 15, 1935, the day after Black Sunday.

Robert Geiger, a reporter for the Associated Press, traveled through the region and wrote the following: “Three little words achingly familiar on a Western farmer’s tongue, rule life in the dust bowl of the continent – if it rains.” The term stuck,

spreading to radio broadcasts and publications.

Causes of the Dust Bowl

The Drought alone did not cause the black blizzards.

It was the combination of drought and misuse of the land.

Originally covered with grasses that held the fine soil in place.

Wheat crops, in high demand during World War I, exhausted the topsoil.

Overgrazing by cattle and sheep stripped the western plains of their cover.

When the drought hit, the land just blew away in the wind.

Dust Storm on Ranch in OklahomaPhotographer: Arthur Rothstein

Where: The Region of the Dust Bowl

The Soil Conservation Service used the term on their maps to describe “the western third of Kansas, Southeastern Colorado, the Oklahoma Panhandle, the northern two-thirds of the Texas Panhandle, and northeastern New Mexico.”

The SCS Dust Bowl region included some surrounding area, to cover one-third of the Great Plains, close to 100 million acres, 500 miles by 300 miles.

Timeline of Dust Bowl

• 1932 – There are 14 dust storms reported; next year there will be 38.

• 1934 - Great dust storms spread from the Dust Bowl area, affecting 27 states severely. Masses begin to move West.

• 1935 – “Black Sunday” is named for the worst black blizzard of the Dust Bowl.

• 1936 - Los Angeles Police Chief Davis sends policemen to patrol borders of Arizona and Oregon to keep “undesirables” out.

A dust storm approaching Stratford, Texas, on April 18,

1935. Foreclosed Farm

A letter from an Oklahoma woman, published in Reader’s Digest magazine, recalls June of 1935:

“We have been trying to rescue our home from the wind-blown dust which penetrates wherever air can go. It is almost a hopeless task, for there

is rarely a day when at some time the dust clouds do not roll over. 'Visibility’ approaches

zero and everything is covered again with a silt-like deposit which may vary in depth from a film

to actual ripples on the kitchen floor.”

Migration of Dust Bowl Refugees

• Approximately 300-400,000 Oklahomans, Texans, Arkansans, and Missourians migrated to California.

• Why California? State's mild climate allowed for a long growing season and a diversity of crops.

• U.S. Highway 66 -- also known as "Route 66" -- provided a direct route from the Dust Bowl region to Southern California.

• Whites comprised about 95% of those moving. African Americans also left, but usually for cities of the North.

Migrant Mother photographer: Dorothea Lange

Map from Peter Mantin's The USA 1914-41

Migration Routes of Dust Bowl

Repairing the Land

• 1937 - FDR’s Shelterbelt Project begins. The large-scale planting of trees. Native trees are planted, separating properties.

• 1938 - Extensive work re-plowing the land into furrows, planting trees, and other methods result in 65% reduction in amount of loose soil.

• 1939 - In the fall, the rain comes, finally bringing an end to the drought.