Dust Bowl

At the time of our journey in the region of the country also known as southern Great Plains the folks we met and talked to appeared content, as the economy has recovered from the recession of 2009.  People were interested and media were replete with weather stories about the dip the Jet Stream took and the Polar Vortex that brought arctic temperatures and record snow accumulation in many sections of the country.  

Well, it was a different weather phenomenon the Dust Bowl that had devastating impact in the lives of the people in that region and the economy of the country in the 30s.  

The Dust Bowl was the result of drought that hit the Great Plains in 1931, and lasted for a decade.  The drought and the poor agricultural practices caused a catastrophe of biblical magnitude.  The farmers plowed and seeded the land but nothing was grown.  

The winds in the Plains would raise dust to the sky and cause darkness for days.  Most of the impact was in the southern states such as Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas while the northern States such as Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois were less affected.  The agricultural devastation was so severe that lengthened the Great Depression of 1929 whose effects were felt beyond the borders of the United States.  

On April 14 1935, Black Sunday, the worst of the dust storms hit. Robert Geiger of Associated Press, reporting on the storm in Cimarron County, Oklahoma, described the disaster as a Dust Bowl.