Dust Bowl: The Dirty Thirties

Dust Bowl Would you enjoy eating a bowl of dust? That doesn’t sound appealing, does it? Well, the people in the driest regions of the plains had to in the 1930’s. This was the time of the Dirty Thirties. Tough time for them. The Dirty Thirties was also the time of the Dust Bowl. What was the Dust Bowl you may ask. According to History.com, “The Dust Bowl was the name given to the Great Plains region devastated by drought.” The Dust Bowl occurred in the 150,000 square-mile area surrounding the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles and neighboring sections of Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. “This region has little rainfall, light soils, and high winds, a potentially destructive combination,” as said by History.com. About eighty-six years ago the Dust Bowl started, lasting eight years (1931-1939). The cause of this traumatic event was that there was a drought. During this drought, there were many strong winds that picked up topsoil that lacked a stronger root system. When the winds picked up this topsoil, it swirled it into dense dust clouds, called “black blizzards”. These dense dust clouds, then became larger, and larger, and larger. Soil was and is very
The 150,000 square-mile area suffered many losses of family, losses of cattle, food shortages, and lots of dust. Many of the survivors state that they only saw a tornado of black dust. Many of the people in the area, moved away to a safer place with “clean” air. As humans, we need to be less selfish to be able to take care of our nation’s soil. In the 1930’s, the people were “selfish people who didn’t take care of our soil. We just cared about getting the money from the crops.” If we do not help our soil, another tragedy like this one could occur again. If one of your fellow friends asked you if you would like a bowl of dust for dinner, you would most likely decline. The people of the twentieth century did not have a