The Dust Bowl

3 Pages 834 Words

In the early 1900's, times were hard for people. Recovering from the first world war, where an overproduction of goods led to an extreme surplus of goods. This caused prices on goods fall dramatically. This was the beginning of the Great Depression. Contrary to it’s name, the Great Depression wasn’t really all that Great. America was poverty-stricken, and suffering. There was a shortage of food, money, and everything else needed to make a living, and provide for a family.
To make any money, farmers had to produce more and more crops to survive at the same rate as they were before the United States entered the war. This led to the extreme use of, and over producing on the land. All the grasslands were plowed to make way for more crops. The rich, fertile soil of the Great Plains region was destroyed. These elements when added to the fact that during the late 1920's and throughout the 1930's, the United States Great Plains Region was an era plagued by scorching droughts, and heavy but short rainy seasons. During the winter, the soil just washed away without any plant roots to provide a foundation. When the Summer months came, the Central region of the United States recieved so little rain.
The winds would come across the plains, and just pick up the once-fertile top soil and blows it up and into the atmosphere. These winds would pick up so much dust that there were opaque clouds of it that hung in the sky for days at a time. Called “Black Blizzards” the dust would then be blown around by the westerly winds that average a constant 15 miles per hour. As it settled back down to the barren earth, it would cover everything in layers and drifts just like it would in a snowstorm. This included the crops of the determined farmers who had worked so hard for the harvest.
The dust would blow for days at a time. The dust would seep into the homes of people and create layers of dust upon everything. Several people actually died from ...