Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl, also known as the "Dirty Thirties", was a series of dust storms caused by a massive drought that began in 1930 and lasted until 1941. This ecological disaster caused a mass exodus from the Oklahoma Panhandle region and also the surrounding Great Plains. Around 300,000 to 400,000 Americans were displacedhttp://www.pbs.org/fmc/interviews/gregory.htm. Topsoil across millions of acres was blown away because the indigenous sod had been broken for wheat farming and the vast herds of buffalo were no longer fertilizing the rest of the native grasses.

Further reading

• The Dust Bowl: Men, Dirt, and Depression, Paul Bonnifield, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1978, hardcover, ISBN 0-8263-0485-0
• Survival in the Storm: The Dust Bowl Diary of Grace Edwards, Dalhart, Texas, 1935, Katelan Janke, Scholastic (September 2002), ISBN 0-4392-1599-4
• The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck, The Viking Press. New York.. First Edition, 1939.