Mind map
Dust Bowl
Map content
Dust Bowl
Causes
- Drought
- Unwise farming practices
- Strong winds
Responses
- Public
- Migration to the West Coast
- "Okies" - Relatives lived along the coast - States advertised agricultural jobs 7000 migrants each month *Florence Thompson (Migrant Mother)
- Riding the Rails and Hitchhiking
- 2 million men -> Hobos RAILS 6,500 killed in accidents or by "bulls" Dangerous HITCHHIKING Safer, legal
- Tall Tales about the Weather
- Jokes that are not meant to bring forth laughter to give a common ground for the sufferers Jokes that blur the pain and sharpen the hope
- Migration to the West Coast
- Government
- "Report..." - Causes
- "Report of the Great Plains Drought Area Committee" August 1936 2 causes - Dry weather - unwise farming conditions Suggested teaching new farming practices
- New Deal policies
- CCC
- AAA
- FSA
- Farm Security Administration (1935/1937) Low-interest loans to tenant farmers Built model cooperative farmsteads
- SCS
- Soil Conservation Service (1935)
- REA
- Brought awareness to irrigation
- PWA and Kingsley Dam
- One of the largest earthen dams in the world Irrigation, electrical power, recreational (boating and fishing), eagle nesting Type of surface source
- Ogallala Aquifer
- Limited resource Type of underground source
- PWA and Kingsley Dam
- "Report..." - Causes
- Public
Lasting Effects
- Irrigation
- Farms get bigger
- Decline in # of farms
- Not a decline in amount of farmland, just a decline in the number of farms which means there are just a few larger farms than a lot of smaller ones
- Towns get smaller
- Decline in # of farms
- California (currently)
- Unemployment 11.9%
- 90% of Sierra Nevada snowpack gone by end of century
Life
- SE Colorado, SW Kansas, OK and TX panhandle
- Black Sunday (April 14, 1935)
- 1932 - 14 storms 1933 - 28 storms
- Rainfall dropped 27.5%
- School
- Cancelled Students kept overnight
- "Dust Pneumonia" and Health Concerns
- Extremely hot