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| Surviving the "The Black Blizzard" of the 1930s | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Dust Bowl was a time when the Great Plains that include eastern Colorado, eastern New Mexico, panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, and most of Kansas experienced a decade long drought. There was intense amount of dust in this area from 1930 to 1940.�� The Dust Bowl was also known as "The Black Blizzard" and "The Black Rolle" because visibility would be reduced to just several feet part of the time (Dust Bowl-peachnet Internet). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� "Sodbusting" by Donald Worster argues that people were responsible for this intense, dry drought, The Dust Bowl, occurred in this area during the 1930s. He also argued that the Dust Bowl was a good thing because it taught people to develop conservation strategies on soil in the Great Plains states. He gave facts that leads up to the Black Blizzard to back up his arguments.� "Living Through It All" by Paul Bonnifield argues that people were the victims of the Dust Bowl. He also argues that the Dust Bowl was a good thing because it brought cultures and sport activities into people?s lives.� He used things and ideas that people did to enjoy themselves to back up his two arguments. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� What caused this ecological and human disaster in the southwestern Plains region of the United States in the 1930s (Dust Bowl-drylands Internet)?� It probably started when the Louisiana Purchase was bought in 1803 by President Thomas Jefferson (Worster 80).�� In 1862, the Homestead Act of 1862 was signed, which stated that any person could settle on 160 acres of shortgrass and stayed there for five years. Then, they could eventually own that piece of land (Worster 82).� People started to do some farming and ranching on that land.�� By 1890, the population in the Great Plains grew to 6 million people total (Worster 84). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The land was green and lush, and the soil was so rich, this caused more people to come to these states to start a farm (Surviving Internet). Another thing that caused people to come to the Great Plains states was advertising.� Real estate agencies sent out flyers to cities and towns across the nation to get people to settle in these states. In 1931, there was no better place to be a farmer than the Southern Plains, which caused this area to become one of the most properous areas in the country (Surviving Internet). The farmers felt that farming in the Great Plains was like heaven on earth (Surviving Internet). The nation's demand for wheat was so high that farmers were harvesting their wheat 24 hours a day. Americans had the idea that farming will help the Americans to win World War I, which caused more damage to the land. American farmers were exporting wheat to Europe during the war. When the war was over and Europe was able to furnish food to its people then the American farmers were just harvesting wheat for profit in the United States. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tractors and other farm machinery was invented in the early 1900s, which made money and cost money? (Worster 89-90).� With this machinery, the rate of production of wheat increased dramatically.� With a team of horses, a farmer could barely turn three acres of prairie sod a day.� With a tractor, he could plow 50 (Surviving Internet).� The farmers ended up abusing the land because of the invention of farm machinery and the high demand of wheat (Surviving Internet). The tractor, combine, truck, and one-way plow demanded that farms become larger (Bonnifield 187). The Dust Bowl was a result of the ?misuse of land and years of sustained drought (Dust Bowl-drylands Internet). The Dust Bowl started in 1931 when the rains stopped for nearly a decade (Surviving Internet). The Dust Bowl days were considered to be hard on everyone that lived in this area. The Dust Bowl was also considered to be a national phenomenon (Bonnifield 190). The Southern Plains which had rich, fertile soil was now turning into a wasteland (Surviving Internet). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� The Dust Bowl hit at the same time as the Great Depression.�� A tragic story of the depression was that the hopelessness of the farmer squeezed from his land by technology, but unable to find other employment because of the depression (Bonnifield 187). The Dust Bowl caused people to migrate out of the Great Plains because of the harsh condit ons in this area during this time period. But most people did not want to leave the Great Plains states because their family and friends were staying in this area. At home, there were friends, church, community, entertainment, opportunity, and tradition--a friendly culture, which was a sense of history (Bonnifield 189). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� Dust storms would last up to sixty days straight.�� These dust storms became a routine part of life for residents of the dust bowl (Bonnifield 191).�� The depression, dirt storms, sickness, and plaques were hard during the Dust Bowl (Bonnifield 194). People tried to survive in this intense, dry period.�� The meals that families ate were not much, which included home-grown crops, milk, cheese, eggs, lard and whole grain flour (Bonnifield 196).�� Livestock did not get much either, which was extremely scarce during this time period.�� In some places, the livestock ate prickly pear cactus and famous tumble weeds were fed to livestock (Bonnifield 197).�� | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� During the early 1930s, the farmers would feed most of their wheat crop to their livestock.�� The number of animals increased during this time period.� But, of course, some farmers in the most drought-stricken and wind-blown areas were forced to sell some of the livestock (Bonnifield 195). Accidents were frequent because of the intense dust storms also because equipment began wearing out. There were other accidents including tragic fires, horses running away and killing the driver, men being blown from horses, and windmills knocking men from the platform (Bonnifield 197). Even though these accidents were not directly caused by the dust bowl, but residents of the Great Plains states found some pastimes that are enjoyable (Bonnifield 197). Families would do things together such as picnics. People also joined community drama clubs, write their own plays, or poems that dealt with nature. Also painting nature, making sculptures that deal with nature, writing stories or articles, and writing music were popular during this time period (Bonnifield 192-193). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� I would have to agree with Worster that the farmers and the government were definitely the cause of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s.� If it were not for the Homestead Act of 1862, then people would not even think about settling in the Plains states.�� Farmers harvested so much because of World War I and that there was so much demand for wheat from 1900s to the1930s.� Their farming techniques are what caused the topsoil of the rich soil to be blown away in just a few minutes.�� The struggles through the Dust Bowl years caused people of the Great Plains states to learn a couple of important but valuable lessons.�� A person has to be consciousness with the environment and learn how to practice soil conservation.� Such soil conservation techniques include ?three-year rotation of wheat, sorghum, and of lying farrow; the introduction of counterplowing, terracing, and strip planting (History Internet). Also farmers had to learn to accept the limits of the land because they would soon be tested (Surviviing Internet). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| There are definite comparisons between Worster's book, Dust Bowl and Bonnfield?s book, The Dust Bowl. Even though Bonnifield's and Worster'ss books were published the same year (1979), the authors used different approaches to state the facts about the Dust Bowl.�� In Worster's book, he used facts and events that lead up to the Dust Bowl, for instance, the Homestead Act of 1862 and the invention of farm machinery. In Bonnifield's book, he talked about things that people did during their pastimes during the Dust Bowl, such as baseball games, art, drama, poems, and music. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| There is one thing that the two authors agreed on is that the United States government was partially responsible for the cause of the Dust Bowl.� The government signed the Homestead Act of 1862, which start caused people to think about settling in the Great Plain states in the first place.�� The government encouraged people to advertise about the Great Plains states so that people would want to go to start a big farm and make a profit on harvesting wheat.�� After the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression started, the two authors agreed that the government did not come to the rescue for the residents of the Great Plains states.� | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| � Will history repeat itself? There are incidences that there might be some droughts that might be like the Dust Bowl or worse.�� Dry spells in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s were responsible for recurrences of dust-blowing in the Great Plains states (History Internet). There was actually a drought this past summer in the South and Southwest and it caught forecasters by surprise (Scientists Internet). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Works Cited | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bonnifield, Paul.� "Living Through It All" The Dust Bowl.�� 185-202. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Brasher, Philip.� "Scientists Predict Drought".�� ABC News. December 12, 1998. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� Internet.� Available online.�� Accessed: February 23, 1999. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/drought981215.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "The Dust Bowl".� Internet.� Available online.� Accessed: February 24, 1999. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� http://drylands.nasm.edu:1995/dust.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "Dust Bowl".� Internet.� Available online.� Accessed: February 23,1 999 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� http://www.dc.peachnet.edu/~pgore/students/w97/tanyacox/dustbowl.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gazit, Chana.� "The American Experience: Surviving the Dust Bowl".� Video.� WGBH | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Educational Foundation. 1998.� Also Transcript available online.� Accessed: February 24, 1999.� http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/amex/dustbowl/transcript.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "History of the Dust Bowl".�� Internet.� Available online.� Accessed: February 23, 1999 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� http://www.ultranet.com/~gregjonz/dust/dustbowl.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Worster, Donald.�� "Sodbusting'".� Dust Bowl.�� 80-97. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||