historic region, United States
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External Websites
- Smithsonian American Art Museum - The Dust Bowl
- American Heritage - Dust!
- EH.net - The Dust Bowl
- Texas State Historical Association - Dust Bowl
- The National Endowment for the Humanities - Children of the Dust
- PBS - American Experience - Timeline: The Dust Bowl
- Colorado Encyclopedia - The Dust Bowl
- Library of Congress - U.S. History Primary Source Timeline - The Dust Bowl
- American Association for the Advancement of Science - The Dust Bowl: A wake-up call in environmental practices
- GlobalSecurity.org - The Dust Bowl
Britannica Websites
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
- Dust Bowl - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
- Dust Bowl - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies.Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Feedback
Thank you for your feedback
Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
External Websites
- Smithsonian American Art Museum - The Dust Bowl
- American Heritage - Dust!
- EH.net - The Dust Bowl
- Texas State Historical Association - Dust Bowl
- The National Endowment for the Humanities - Children of the Dust
- PBS - American Experience - Timeline: The Dust Bowl
- Colorado Encyclopedia - The Dust Bowl
- Library of Congress - U.S. History Primary Source Timeline - The Dust Bowl
- American Association for the Advancement of Science - The Dust Bowl: A wake-up call in environmental practices
- GlobalSecurity.org - The Dust Bowl
Britannica Websites
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
- Dust Bowl - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
- Dust Bowl - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
Written and fact-checked by
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated: •Article History
wind erosion in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl era
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Category:
- Date:
- 1930 - 1940
- Key People:
- Jerome Namias
- Related Topics:
- erosion
- drought
- Related Places:
- United States
- Texas
- Colorado
- New Mexico
- Oklahoma
- On the Web:
- Library of Congress - U.S. History Primary Source Timeline - The Dust Bowl (Mar. 29, 2024)
See all related content →
Dust Bowl, name for both the drought period in the Great Plains that lasted from 1930 to 1936 and the section of the Great Plains of the United States that extended over southeastern Colorado, southwestern Kansas, the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, and northeastern New Mexico.
The term Dust Bowl was suggested by conditions that struck the region in the early 1930s. The area’s grasslands had supported mostly stock raising until World War I, when millions of acres were put under the plow in order to grow wheat. Following years of overcultivation and generally poor land management in the 1920s, the region—which receives an average rainfall of less than 20 inches (500 mm) in a typical year—suffered a severe drought in the early 1930s that lasted several years. The region’s exposed topsoil, robbed of the anchoring water-retaining roots of its native grasses, was carried off by heavy spring winds. “Black blizzards” of windblown soil blocked out the sun and piled the dirt in drifts. Occasionally the dust storms swept completely across the country to the East Coast. Present-day studies estimate that some 1.2 billion tons (nearly 1.1 billion metric tons) of soil were lost across 100 million acres (about 156,000 square miles [405,000 square km]) of the Great Plains between 1934 and 1935, the drought’s most severe period.
Britannica QuizPop Quiz: 15 Things to Know About the Great DepressionThousands of families were forced to leave the Dust Bowl at the height of the Great Depression in the early and mid-1930s. Many of these displaced people (frequently collectively labeled “Okies” regardless of whether they were Oklahomans) undertook the long trek to California. Their plight was characterized in songs such as “Dust Bowl Refugee” and “Do Re Mi” by folksinger Woody Guthrie, an Oklahoman who had joined the parade of those headed west in search of work. That experience was perhaps most famously depicted in John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939).
The wind erosion was gradually halted with federal aid. Windbreaks known as shelterbelts—swaths of trees that protect soil and crops from wind—were planted, and much of the grassland was restored. By the early 1940s the area had largely recovered.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by John P. Rafferty.