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Haunting photos of the Dust Bowl Era of the 1930s
The phenomenon known as the Dust Bowl occurred over several stages, primarily in the 1930s. It was a period where severe dust storms blew through the prairie lands.
These storms resulted in significant issues for the people occupying these regions. It especially affected farmers in this area who relied solely on their income from farming to support their families.
Severe drought was one of the major contributing factors. It was made worse by the the fact that certain farming techniques were not employed beforehand to prevent extreme wind erosion.
This was taking place just east of the Rocky Mountains, where the land levels out and becomes flat, expansive, and dry. In the late 1800s, migrants and immigrants moved their family to this area called the Great Plains in order to settle the land and make their living from agriculture.
For many years, the land produced abundant crops. But in 1930, the Great Plains entered into one of a series of severe droughts.
Because the land had been worked over for many years at this point, much of the necessary and indigenous plants had been removed. This caused the wind to easily pick up the dry and fine topsoil, which then gathered and created gigantic dust storms over the years.
Many families had to leave the Plains and migrate in order to feed their families and stay alive. This was also occurring during The Great Depression, where work and money and opportunities were scarce.
Let’s take a look at this dangerous and unique phenomenon.
Dust storm approaching Stratford, Texas. 1935
Dust storm approaching Spearman, Texas April 14, 1935
Dust Storm Near Beaver, Oklahoma. 1935
Buried machinery in barn lot in Dallas, South Dakota. 1936
Heavy black clouds of dust rising over the Texas Panhandle, Texas. 1936
Farmer and sons walking in the face of a dust storm. Cimarron County, Oklahoma, USA. 1936
Dust Storm Approaching Spearman, Texas. 1935
A farmer’s son in Cimarron County, Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl era. 1936
Dust Storm in Liberal, Kansas. 1935
Dust Bowl farm. Coldwater District, north of Dalhart, Texas. 1938
One of South Dakota’s Black Blizzards, 1934
Homestead and farm in Texas County, Oklahoma
Rolla, Kansas. 1935
Soil blown by dust bowl winds piled up in large drifts on a farm, Kansas. 1936
Dust storm Baca Co., Colorado. 1935
Abandoned Dust Bowl Home. 1938
Severely eroded farmland during the Dust Bowl, 1930’s
A farmer inspects his wind eroded fields and during the Dust Bowl, in 1938 in Colorado.
Women using masks to filter out inhaling the dust
Dorothea Lange’s famous “Migrant Mother” photograph
Wind erosion carries topsoil from farmland during the Dust Bowl, 1930’s
Keota, Colorado abandoned during Dust Bowl. 1939
Oklahoma dust bowl refugees, San Fernando, California. 1935
Farmers migrating away from the Dust Bowl area
On the highway heading out of Oklahoma. 1938.
A farmer’s son playing with a puppy on one of the large soil drifts which threaten to cover up his home. Liberal, Kansas, March 1936
President Roosevelt visiting a farmer who received a drought relief grant, Mandan, North Dakota, 1936
Orchard destroyed by drifting sand. Cimarron County, Oklahoma, April 1936
Dust storm. Amarillo, Texas, April 1936
Dust bowl farmer raising fence to keep it from being buried under drifting sand. Cimarron County, Oklahoma, April 1936
Oklahoma farm family on highway between Blythe and Indio, August 1936
Dust storm in Colorado. 1936The post Haunting photos of the Dust Bowl Era of the 1930s first appeared on History Defined.
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