10 Interesting the Dust Bowl Facts

Wednesday, May 4th 2016. | History


The Dust Bowl Facts present the information about the severe period of dust storms in 1930s. It affected many parts of Canada and United States. The Dust Bowl is often called Dirty Thirties. The phenomenon was caused the failed application of dry land farming technique and severe drought.  The technique was applied because the people wanted to prevent the wind erosion. However, it was failed. Check other interesting facts about Dust Bowl below:

The Dust Bowl Facts 1: the period of waves

There are three periods of drought which occurred in Canada and United States. It took place in 1934, 1936 and 1939-1940.

The Dust Bowl Facts 2: the high plains

The drought condition which occurred in high plains lasted for around 8 years. Due to this condition, the extensive deep plowing was applied by the farmers at the top soil of Great Plain. The framers only have little understanding plain’s ecology. Their technique was proved wrong because the deep rotted grasses would be displaced.

The Dust Bowl Facts

The Dust Bowl Facts

The Dust Bowl Facts 3: the soil and dust

The dust was from the unanchored soil.  The sky was blackened when the high amount of dust was blown away by the winds during the drought in 1930s.

The Dust Bowl Facts 4: the choking dust

The choking dust affected several areas in United States such as Washington D.C. and New York City. The visibility of the people was decreased up to 3.3 feet or 1 meter.  This event was called black rollers or black blizzard.

The Dust Bowl History

The Dust Bowl History

The Dust Bowl Facts 5: Robert E. Geiger

Robert E. Geiger was a reporter from Associated Press who witnessed this black blizzard since he was in Boise City, Oklahoma. It was dubbed as Black Sunday which took place on 14th April 1935.

The Dust Bowl Facts 6: the term Dust Bowl

The term Dust Bowl was coined by Edward Stanley when he rewrote the news story of Geiger. Stanley was a new editor in Kansas City. He worked for Associated Press too. Check facts about California Gold Rush here.

The Dust Bowl Pictures

The Dust Bowl Pictures

The Dust Bowl Facts 7: the term Dust Bowl

At first, the term Dust Bowl was used to call the areas affected by the dust. Now it is used to call the dust event.

The Dust Bowl Facts 8: the areas affected by Dust Bowl

Dust Bowl affected around 400,000 km square or 100,000,000 acres of land.

The Dust Bowl Image

The Dust Bowl Image

The Dust Bowl Facts 9: the people affected by Dust Bowl

There were thousands of families who had to leave their farms because of Dust Bowl. Most of them decided to relocate to California. The people called them Okies because most affected families were from Oklahoma. Get facts about Domesday Book here.

The Dust Bowl Facts 10: in popular cultures

There were many works inspired from Dust Bowl such as Woody Guthrie’s folk music, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Dorothea Lange’s photos.

The Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl

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