Dust Bowl
Remembering the Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl was a significant event in our country's history that had various lasting effects on American Society. Social, economic, and political changes occurred because of this disastrous and difficult time in America. The Dust Bowl was a turning point in the Great Plaines, moreover, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, and a small portion of Texas. It changed life as Americans knew it during the 1930’s. It created a large economic and agricultural recession. This left the United States in a greater deficit than it previously stood which was originally created by the Great Depression. The Dust Bowl retrieved its name after Black Sunday on April 14, 1935. Prior to 1935 many dust storms had occurred. In 1932 a calculation of fourteen dust storms were recorded in the Plains and by 1938 there were a total of 38 storms recorded. The Dust Bowl is described as one of the most catastrophic events of the early 1900s. The Great Plains was a region of the United States that witnessed 100 million acres of topsoil being stripped from over used farmland. It was characterized by many factors such as poor farming practices, severe wind storms, and droughts lasting several years. It was an immense and powerful storm that literally covered the Midwest and blanketed many states by making their acres of farmland highly unusable. One analytic historian inquired, “Ultimately it resulted in the activation of a geomorphic process (intense wind erosion) which, when human society could not adapt to it, cascaded into unprecedented agricultural, economic, and societal collapse in its core region.” (A Critical Evaluation of the Dust Bowl and its Causes).The Dust Bowl is frequently referred back to as an example of a manmade environmental disaster. However, the destruction primarily affected the farming in the Great Plains because the terrain is mostly grassland and it relies on the root systems of grasses to hold down the topsoil necessary for producing
The Dust Bowl was a significant event in our country's history that had various lasting effects on American Society. Social, economic, and political changes occurred because of this disastrous and difficult time in America. The Dust Bowl was a turning point in the Great Plaines, moreover, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, and a small portion of Texas. It changed life as Americans knew it during the 1930’s. It created a large economic and agricultural recession. This left the United States in a greater deficit than it previously stood which was originally created by the Great Depression. The Dust Bowl retrieved its name after Black Sunday on April 14, 1935. Prior to 1935 many dust storms had occurred. In 1932 a calculation of fourteen dust storms were recorded in the Plains and by 1938 there were a total of 38 storms recorded. The Dust Bowl is described as one of the most catastrophic events of the early 1900s. The Great Plains was a region of the United States that witnessed 100 million acres of topsoil being stripped from over used farmland. It was characterized by many factors such as poor farming practices, severe wind storms, and droughts lasting several years. It was an immense and powerful storm that literally covered the Midwest and blanketed many states by making their acres of farmland highly unusable. One analytic historian inquired, “Ultimately it resulted in the activation of a geomorphic process (intense wind erosion) which, when human society could not adapt to it, cascaded into unprecedented agricultural, economic, and societal collapse in its core region.” (A Critical Evaluation of the Dust Bowl and its Causes).The Dust Bowl is frequently referred back to as an example of a manmade environmental disaster. However, the destruction primarily affected the farming in the Great Plains because the terrain is mostly grassland and it relies on the root systems of grasses to hold down the topsoil necessary for producing