The Dust Bowl, California, and the Politics of Hard Times - California State Capitol Museum (2024)

FAQs

What caused the California Dust Bowl? ›

Economic depression coupled with extended drought, unusually high temperatures, poor agricultural practices and the resulting wind erosion all contributed to making the Dust Bowl. The conditions that led to the Dust Bowl began during the early 1920s.

On April 14, 1935, known as "Black Sunday", 20 of the worst "black blizzards" occurred across the entire sweep of the Great Plains, from Canada south to Texas.

The heart of the Dust Bowl was the Texas panhandle and western Oklahoma, but atmospheric winds carried the dust so far that East Coast cities sometimes found a powdery layer of dirt on windows, streets, sidewalks and automobiles.

The Dust Bowl exodus was the largest migration in American history. By 1940, 2.5 million people had moved out of the Plains states; of those, 200,000 moved to California.

The 1930s drought and its associated impacts finally began to abate during spring 1938. By 1941, most areas of the country were receiving near-normal rainfalls. These rains, along with the outbreak of World War II, alleviated many of the domestic economic problems associated with the 1930s.

Due to low crop prices and high machinery costs, more submarginal lands were put into production. Farmers also started to abandon soil conservation practices. These events laid the groundwork for the severe soil erosion that would cause the Dust Bowl.

April 14^th is the 88 year anniversary of the ”Black Sunday” dust storm that occurred across the Central Plains in 1935. A cold front dropped south across the region that day resulting in a massive dust storm that brought visibilities down to near zero and total darkness in the middle of the day.

Crops began to fail with the onset of drought in 1931, exposing the bare, over-plowed farmland. Without deep-rooted prairie grasses to hold the soil in place, it began to blow away. Eroding soil led to massive dust storms and economic devastation—especially in the Southern Plains.

"In the fall of 1939, rain finally returned in significant amounts to many areas of the Great Plains, signaling the end of the Dust Bowl.

The jet stream normally flows westward over the Gulf of Mexico and then turns northward pulling up moisture and dumping rain onto the Great Plains. During the 1930s, this low level jet stream weakened, carrying less moisture, and shifted further south. The Great Plains land dried up and dust storms blew across the U.S.

What was the nickname given to people migrating out of the Dust Bowl? ›

"Okie" usually described "white" migratory agriculture workers; "Okie" was never, or at least rarely used, about African American migrants during the Great Depression. Most migrant agricultural workers, or "Okies," were white and traveled westward from the midwestern drought and cotton-growing states.

Word of their success spread and set the migration in motion. California's climate, relief, and chances for work attracted the Dust Bowl migrants. Their vast numbers overwhelmed the state economically, politically, and culturally.

Mobilizing the economy for world war finally cured the depression. Millions of men and women joined the armed forces, and even larger numbers went to work in well-paying defense jobs.

Many families left farm fields to move to Los Angeles or the San Francisco Bay area, where they found work in shipyards and aircraft factories that were gearing up to supply the war effort. By 1950, only about 25 percent of the original Dust Bowl migrants were still working the fields.

People tried to protect themselves by hanging wet sheets in front of doorways and windows to filter the dirt. They stuffed window frames with gummed tape and rags. But keeping the fine particles out was impossible.

Hopeful migrants drove Route 66 to California. What would they do when they arrived? They had a choice to make: Should they live in the city, or should they live in the agricultural valleys? 100,000 Dust Bowl migrants chose to live in Los Angeles; 70,000 chose to live in the San Joaquin Valley.

Crops began to fail with the onset of drought in 1931, exposing the bare, over-plowed farmland. Without deep-rooted prairie grasses to hold the soil in place, it began to blow away. Eroding soil led to massive dust storms and economic devastation—especially in the Southern Plains.

Dust Bowl, name for both the drought period in the Great Plains that lasted from 1930 to 1936 and the section of the Great Plains of the United States that extended over southeastern Colorado, southwestern Kansas, the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, and northeastern New Mexico.

When a multiyear drought struck in the 1930s, the exposed land became exceptionally hot and topsoil blew away, causing devastating dust storms as well as a health and economic catastrophe.