The Dust Bowl

On February 18, 1937, massive dust storms hit five states - Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. Some historians call this time "The Dirty Thirties." It's hard for us to imagine the devastation such storms left behind. They not only covered the few crops surviving the drought, but some covered farm machinery, piled several feet in houses and barns, and left untold destruction behind.

Many people had to leave their homes. There was nothing left there for them. From 1930 to 1940, about 3.5 million people moved out of the Plains states. John Steinbeck's classic novel, The Grapes of Wrath, chronicles such a time. As Steinbeck portrayed, many of these displaced families became migrant workers in California. It was truly a trying time that caused the Great Depression to continue.

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