Dust Bowl

As part of a five-state region affected by severe drought and soil erosion, the "Dust Bowl" as it was called was result of several factors. Cyclical drought and farming of marginally productive acreage was exacerbated by a lack of soil conservation methods. Because the disaster lasted throughout the 1930's, the lives of every Plains resident and expectations of farming the region changed forever. The settlement and development of the Southern Plains came relatively late. Not recognizing the problems of initiating massive agricultural programs meant farmers had no back up plans when the drought hit. Historian Donald Worster suggests they had "A Sense of Invulnerability":
"Around World War I they were talking about upsetting the balance of nature on the plains. People were worried about insect outbreaks, I think, more than anything else. But nobody had seen dust storms of a scale that the 30's would bring. Indians came along and told people to leave the grass where it was. There may have been a few obscure individuals who worried about what was going on. But most of the people living in the area were pretty well caught up in the dream of progress and turning this place into a breadbasket. So if there were misgivings, they were not being published.... I think particularly in the 20's when the great plow-up occurred, there was an enormous sense of invulnerability, at least in official circles, and I think to a large extent among settlers and farmers." Scientists had noticed, for instance, the level of the Great Salt Lake rose after Mormon settlers started irrigating nearby land for cultivation. These "facts" were widely disseminated: A Nebraska scientist, Samuel Aughey, extrapolated in 1880 on the slogan, "Rain Follows The Plow:" "...after the soil is broken, a rain as it falls is absorbed by the soil like a huge sponge." Then the soil evaporates a little moisture into the atmosphere each day, receiving it back at night as a heavy dew. In addition it was