The Blow That Broke The Plains Analysis
“The Plow That Broke the Plains” is a documentary of the Great Plains region, an area of 625,000 square miles stretching across Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Montana,Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico Oklahoma and the Dakotas.
Written and directed by Pare Lorentz in 1936, it starts in the 1880s in the last frontier (the Great Plains), when the territory was an "ocean of grass" perfect for cattle. The video ends in the middle 1930s, when farming choices had turned it into a no-man's-land. People start heading to the west to the last frontier, pushing out the Indians by 1880 and with the Indians goes the buffalo. Many people had bought land to farm on or to have people farm on for them for profit.
As people were using the railroads to get to the plains,
they became more and more crowded. However with new people and new farms comes progress. At least for a little while. Once more people had moved a war began and wheat demand would increase as does the prices. There was so much wheat being planted because of the demand new machinery was being built. By 1933 the grasslands had become new wheat plants. Eventually there’d be about 100 million acres of wheat.
As the farming of wheat was increasing the soil and land began to change in ways that wouldn’t be good for the people. Over farming and the climate would lead to a mass destruction of the land. Giant dust storms begin to pick up leaving hundreds of people devastated. Their crops and machines ruined, often leads them to being broke and homeless. The storms would bring in huge piles of dust that would cover almost everything. It was called the Dust Bowl. The storms got so bad 30,000 people left the region and went to the Pacific Coast.
Actions of cattlemen, homesteaders, and farmers had ruined the Great Plains land leaving the grassy area prone to destruction. This contributed greatly to the Dust Bowl A large space of land filled with grasses, Indians and buffalo is now a big mess.
Written and directed by Pare Lorentz in 1936, it starts in the 1880s in the last frontier (the Great Plains), when the territory was an "ocean of grass" perfect for cattle. The video ends in the middle 1930s, when farming choices had turned it into a no-man's-land. People start heading to the west to the last frontier, pushing out the Indians by 1880 and with the Indians goes the buffalo. Many people had bought land to farm on or to have people farm on for them for profit.
As people were using the railroads to get to the plains,
they became more and more crowded. However with new people and new farms comes progress. At least for a little while. Once more people had moved a war began and wheat demand would increase as does the prices. There was so much wheat being planted because of the demand new machinery was being built. By 1933 the grasslands had become new wheat plants. Eventually there’d be about 100 million acres of wheat.
As the farming of wheat was increasing the soil and land began to change in ways that wouldn’t be good for the people. Over farming and the climate would lead to a mass destruction of the land. Giant dust storms begin to pick up leaving hundreds of people devastated. Their crops and machines ruined, often leads them to being broke and homeless. The storms would bring in huge piles of dust that would cover almost everything. It was called the Dust Bowl. The storms got so bad 30,000 people left the region and went to the Pacific Coast.
Actions of cattlemen, homesteaders, and farmers had ruined the Great Plains land leaving the grassy area prone to destruction. This contributed greatly to the Dust Bowl A large space of land filled with grasses, Indians and buffalo is now a big mess.