The Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl contributed greatly to the movement towards the west. The Dust Bowl extends from the Canadian line to central west Texas, covering Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and large parts of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. Around the 1870s, people began settling in the Dust Bowl area. The work was very hard at the beginning and people barely made it from one harvest to the next. Most of the people survived until the grasshopper invasion of 1873, in which clouds of grasshoppers "so thick that they obstructed the view of the sun" descended on the land and left the ground bare. The entire population had to vacate with the motto, "In God We Trust-In Kansas We Bust." But by 1886 and 1887, the land was taken up once again. In 1899 a severe drought struck the area and people had to leave once more. Another grasshopper invasion in 1919 destroyed the area. The Dust Bowl area wasalso affected by the Great Winds season, which lasts from February to April with winds up to 30-40 miles per hour lasting from ten to one hundred hours. The dust killed people who already had difficulty breathing and created low visibility areas.

In the 1920s and 1930s farmers settled the area and wheat production was well underway. However, more and more farmers entered the area, driving up production and driving down the prices. The price dropped to 65 cents a bushel and in 1931, it dropped to 25 cents a bushel, which was below production cost. This forced many farmers into bankruptcy. In addition to this, the winds attacked the soil, blowing dust everywhere and spraying the seed.This situation forced , many people to flee west.

The black blizzards, large dust storms, in the Dakotas region during 1930 and in 1932 in Kansas, forced thousands to leave on doctors' orders. The government estimated about 50,000 leaving the Dust Bowl each month in 1936. Many people went on foot; most went to California, Oregon, Arizona, Washington, and Idaho. Between June 15, 1935 and December 31, 1937, 221,000 entered California for labor on motor vehicles. Of the 221,000, 84 percent were from drought states. The dust storms killed livestock, birds, and humans. Half a billion dollars worth of crops were burned up in the drought of 1936 and 1600 people died of dust and heat. Between 1934 and 1938, thousands sought relief and refuge from the dust, drought, and heat. The dust, heat, and hard living of the Dust Bowl forced many families to move west.