The Dust Bowl is not necessarily a period of American history that is covered in history classes. It is usually touched upon during a discussion about the Depression but that is usually the extent of it. I honestly don’t think we ever covered it in my classes, but this is a very important event in the discussion of the economic hard times of the Depression. I also tend to focus more on how an event affected the people more so than the political side of things.
When these storms swept in the day would turn to night and visibility would be reduced to a few feet. I have read accounts where chickens would go to roost because they thought it was night time. The worst dust storms occurred on April 14, 1935 – called “Black Sunday”, which caused extensive damage throughout the Dust Bowl area.
There were also the health concerns associated with these dust storms – notably dust pneumonia. The dust fills the lungs and inflames the alveoli preventing the lungs from cleaning themselves out. The results were high fever, chest pain, difficulty breathing, coughing, and almost always death. While there are no statistics as to the prevalence of dust pneumonia throughout the Dust Bowl region – the Kansas State Board of Health reported 17 deaths during 1935 in their region.
The Dust Bowl began to subside around 1937 thanks to some innovations and actions taken by the government. President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the CCC to plant over 200 million trees from the Canadian border to Texas to help break the wind and hold soil in place. They provided information to farmers about planting different types of crops and paid farmers $1 per acre if they would try one of these new methods. They also bought cattle that were unfit for human consumption at rates of $14-$20 per head. By 1938 the level of soil blowing was reduced to 65%. And in 1939 rain began to fall again throughout the Dust Bowl area thus ending this awful decade.
To hear some stories of what it was like to live through these dust storms you can watch this interview video:
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