Many farmers migrated to the southwest from the promise of successful crops that would grow in the rich soil. Their dreams were shattered in 1931, when the rain stopped coming. Eight years of drought followed, and turned millions of acres of crops into dust. A jounalist traveling through the region called it the Dust Bowl, and we still call it the Dust Bowl today.

Along with no rain, winds were fierce. These winds swept dust, once fertile soil, into the air and caused "dust storms" that were so high it blocked out the sun, and as J.R. Davison describes, "You couldn't see a thing". They swallowed up towns and houses, with even the most well sealed houses having dust on the furniture. People tried to prevent the dust by hanging wet sheets in front of doorways and windows to filter the dirt. They stuffed window frames with gummed tape and rags. But the dust got in. Many got sick and died from the dust filling up their lungs. There was no food, either. The crops were bad, and the little food they had had dust on it.

There simply was no escape of the dust.

However, farmers were lured by California, and were desperate to do so. They drove on Route 66, and those that did not have a car walked. California was promising because of it's mild weather and long growing cycles. In California, however, they lived a hard life. They moved to wherever the crop was ready to be picked, so they never had a sense of belonging. Most found no work because California at the time was suffering from the Great Depression, and employment was low. There was segregation, too, against the workers because they took jobs away from locals.

The nation never really recognized the dust bowl at the time because the countries where the dust bowl was affected: Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Kansas were places far, far away.

s One of the effects of the dust bowl was that it taught farmers new farming techniques and methods. They learned proper soil conservation. Before the farmers wanted to get as much wheat as they could, so they plowed the soil every day from morning to night. They, according to Melt White, "abused the land." By plowing places where they should plow.
Today there are many works of literature that retells the story of the Dust Bowl. One of these is The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck, which tells a story of a farmer living in the dust bowl.

Works Cited

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tsme.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/filmmore/transcript/transcript1.html

http://www.ptsi.net/user/museum/dustbowl.html

http://www.usd.edu/anth/epa/dust.html