AKA The Dirty Thirties The Dust Bowl AKA THE DIRTY THIRTIES

Where did this happen?

The Great American Desert During the days of the Oregon Trail (1830s- 1850s) people viewed The Great Plain as an obstacle to cross Lack of trees and scarce rainfall The Great American Desert During the days of the Oregon Trail (1830s-1850s), people viewed the Great Plains as just an obstacle to cross Lack of trees, scarce rainfall

Homestead Act of 1862 Government wanted people to leave their homes in the crowded east and move west Offered free land (160 acres) Just had to promise to farm the land

Hope for a new life Many poor Americans saw the Homestead Act as an offer they couldn’t refuse (mostly poor, immigrants) Put their faith in “The Rain follows the Plow” Climatologists believed that rain was increased by human habitation Plowed farmland releases the moisture from the soil into the air An unusually wet period seemed to cement these theories BUT THIS WASN’T TRUE!

DDDRRROOOUUUGGGHHHTTT By 1910, 970,000 acres were being farmed Using tractors to dig deeper and plow faster The native short grasses that held the topsoil down were torn from their roots Wasn’t seen as a problem until the drought came Temperatures were at record highs, no rain for 7 years The drought dried the topsoil, reduced to a powdery consistency

Then came the wind… Between 1931 and 1936, 75 windstorms blew across the Texas panhandle, Oklahoma, Kansas, and other surrounding states

What was life like? Something as ordinary as breathing became difficult Dust would coat the inside of the nose, mouth became dry, spit out dirt

Daily routines – cleaning the house, walking to school, going to church Everything that had a surface became dusty – clothes hanging on the line to dry, sheets and pillow cases Dust bowl conditions meant people couldn’t work More than 500,000 Americans were left homeless

Sooo people left Families abandoned their homes and history in search of a new life in the west coast, primarily California By 1940, 2.5 million Americans left the Plains states Of those, 200,000 Americans migrated to California (more than during the 1849 Gold Rush) Became known as “Okies” and “Texies”

Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Worker (1936) Florence Owens Thompson Traveling to California when timing chain snapped Set up temporary camp

What happened when they arrived in California? Faced with a life almost as difficult as the one they left Most farms were larger, corporate owned Unfamiliar with the crops 40% of migrant workers ended up picking grapes and cotton

John Steinbecks “The Grapes of Wrath” “Maybe he needs two hunderd men, so he talks to five hunderd, an’ they tell other folks, an’ when you get to the place, they’s a thousan’ men. This here fella says, “I’m payin’ twenty cents an hour.” An’ maybe half a the men walk off. But they’s still five hunderd that’s so goddamn hungry they’ll work for nothin’ but biscuits. Well, this here fella’s got a contract to pick them peaches or — chop that cotton. You see now? The more fella’s he can get, less he’s gonna pay. An’ he’ll get a fella with kids if he can.”

Activity Write a paragraph beginning with this sentence… One the dust started to form the cloud that blacked out the sun, I decided to (leave/keep) my family farm and (move west/stay). Words to use: Dust Bowl, migrant worker, severe weather, migration, drought, wind, soil