Also known as the dirty thirties, The dust bowl years were the years that dust storms greatly damaged thousands of homes, lives, and the economy. Originally the Dust Bowl was the name given from the Great Plains region, consumed by the so called drought in the 1930’s. Many who had gone through the Dust Bowl; pointed fingers at the dought, little did they know that The Dust Bowl originally was caused by heavy mechanism, and heavy mechanism came from farmers over doing farms. The Dust Bowl was held responsible for the dust storms in parts of Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico.
The Dust Bowl, also known as the Dirty Thirties, lasted for about a decade and was a period in time in which dirt clouds billowed over the Great Plains that afflicted over 75% of the country (Riney-Kehrberg 32). The Dust Bowl affected a section of the Great Plains that extended over to Colorado, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Northeastern New Mexico. The Dust Bowl was both a manmade and natural disaster that received its name from the "bowl-shaped" area it covered. In the 1930 's the United States suffered severe dust storms as high winds and asphyxiated dust swept the region until the early 1930 's. The Dust Bowl was the inevitable result of people intentionally exploiting the grasslands to its fullest extent (Richardson).
The Dust Bowl was both natural and human disaster, which some of it provoked by human activities. In the 1920’s the weather was favorable with plentiful of rain and technology such as tractors. This helped Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, and Colorado’s great plains. Yet, farmers gave little consideration of the prairie grass that secured the topsoil. The topsoil was a great source for crops to grow.
Along with food, water, and shelter, the air we breathe is essential to life. If we do not have clean air to breathe, we will become ill and even die. If we do not prioritize the air we breathe, the pollution tragedies such as what happened in Delhi last November 2016 and the Southern Plains during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s will strike again. Humans’ indifference, attempts to improve their life, or both. Sometimes when people try to improve human life, they end up harming it; in finding solutions to these man-made problems, we must consider short and long term solutions.
During the Dust Bowl some people made the decision to stay at their farms. Huge drifts of dirt piled up on homesteaders’ doors, came in the cracks of windows and came down from the ceilings. Barnyards and pastures were buried in dirt. After about 850 million tons of topsoil was blown away in 1935 alone. The government responded to this by saying “Unless something is done, the western plains will be as arid as the Arabian desert.”
The “dirty 30s” was not the time to be a farmer. The Great Plains were very unpredictable when it came to weather and natural disasters. Farmers were constantly battling against mother nature’s tragedies. Because machinery was not very advanced farmers and ranch hands spent numerous laboring hours in their dying fields. Crop prices also plunged to an ultimate low during this time.
The two things that contributed to the start of the dust bowl are, over-farming and drought. The dust bowl was a terrible dust storm that devastated lives of thousands in the Southern Great Plains. The dust bowl occurred in the 1930’s. People called this time the blackest year.
The Dust Bowl was a hard time during the great depression. The Dust Bowl negatively affected people in a personal way. The dust was hard to keep away. People fled and left everything. The drought made things worst and the environment was horrible to live in.
The Black Blizzards sweeping the plains of the 1930’s, better known as the Dust Bowl contributed to the extreme economic downturn of its time. These giant dust storms were caused mainly by a combination of environmental factors and human actions. In turn, these oversized storms caused many people to suffer from loss of crop, and eventually, forced innovation of farming techniques. Back in the “dirty thirties”, years 1934 to 1937, an extreme drought and the lack of strong root systems in the soil, causing wind storms, and the loss of crops. Dirt swirled into dense dust clouds, so dark you couldn't see through them.
The Dust Bowl took place in the 1930’s, which was also referred to as the “Dirty Thirties” lasted nearly a decade. During this time there were severe dust storms that caused major agriculture devastation primarily in the southern plains. Tens of thousands of families were forced to abandon their homes and farms, and relocated westward.