Dust Bowl Pictures/The 30's

[TanksHill]

Amazing pictures, thank you both for sharing.

Sometimes when we are out in the desert you can see the sand storms rolling across the valley. The clouds look similar and when they reach you beware. The sand gets into every crack and crevice and the wind blows hard. I could not imagine trying to live in that.

 

[sylvie]

Black Sunday pic is incredible. I thought I read that some sort of hedgerows had been in existence but eliminated prior to this period.
I also read that states east of this area eventually profited by the new topsoil they received.

 

[Okiemommy]

I recommend these two amazing books to anyone who is interested in reading about the dustbowl:

The Worst Hard Time

Whose Names are Unknown

So what caused the dust bowl? Was it just drought? I have heard the land was over farmed, but I imagine the farming is a lot more intense now. We live in an area that gets a lot of high winds and drought is the norm. Of course don't tell that to the developers that keep bringing in more people. Does anyone know why the topsoil was so easily blown away?

In short, the government selling the land to would be farmers touting it as the last great frontier, and the cheapest, best farmland you'll ever buy. Also the farming methods that they used in that area. They plowed up millions and millions of acres of grassland-what held down the topsoil for thousands of years- then left it bare until they replanted again. The problem was an inevitable drought hit, and the topsoil began to blow because there was nothing to hold it down, and no rain to grow anything new. They people selling this land failed to mention that there were long periods of drought that made farming nearly impossible without irrigation which was impossible for small farmers to afford such fancy technology.

The population in this area of the great plains was non existent until this push to sell the land and populate it. Everyone knew it was bad farmland except for the people who were being given the brochures on how wondrous the land was.


And you want to know the scary part? It's starting to happen again. The same area is experiencing a drought that the USGS states is worse than the drought during the dust bowl. Only 30% of the farmland is farmed in a way that keeps something on the ground so as to keep the dust from blowing. Here is the link:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/OklahomaDrought/

 

[Alaska Animal Lover]

I recommend these two amazing books to anyone who is interested in reading about the dustbowl:

The Worst Hard Time

Whose Names are Unknow

I can second the recommendation of The Worst Hard Time. Great book!

 

[Nifty]

There was a really great show on the Dust Bowl (I think History Channel) that really helped me understand what happened and what lead up to it. A convergence of many unfortunate events (man made and natural).

 

[Okiemommy]

That would be a great show I bet! Will have to look it up and see when it's on next. Thanks Nifty . The Worst Hard Time, talks about all of the events leading up to the Dust Bowl, but I would love to see it in more pictures.

 

[inchworm]

I aslo understand that at the worst of it, the dust storms reached the major cities of the east coast (NYC, Boston, and Washington, DC).