The Drought: Surviving the Dust Bowl

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Introduction:

An empty rocking chair sat on a front porch. Tattered sheets hung in the windows. A windmill slowly turned. Hinges on a chicken coop door whined in the breeze while the door smacked the frame. Everywhere the eye looked there was dust, no green grass, no fields of wheat just dirt and dust as far as one could see. Inside the house the dust crept through the cracks, got on the furniture, dishes, in food, and on the beds. Even the very act of breathing was difficult as the dust violated the nose and lungs. It irritated the eyes and ears with no relief. There was no escaping the dust, the wind—it was a constant state of dirt.

A beautiful prairie in which Indians hunted on, pioneers came to start a new life and a place both called home now lay in utter ruin, worthless. Man and nature, while at one time worked in harmony, came apart because of this man-made disaster. Constant plowing to gain a fortune while still expecting rain. The forces of nature struck back with loud winds, menacing dark clouds which resulted in confusion and petrifying fear during a time called the Dust Bowl. Was it the end of the world?

But not only is it a story of horrible deadly weather and dreadful growing conditions, it is also a story of endurance and perseverance; how people stayed and survived or left to make home somewhere else. They were the epitome of tough, courage beyond measure, because they lived on faith in God, hope and the three little words, “if it rained”. Therefore, this research will provide a glimpse of what life was like for the people of the Dust Bowl and their recovery during a period of American history known as, “The Dirty Thirties”. By learning about what the Dust Bowl was, the struggles of farming the...

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... Institute Columbia University. Accessed March 28, 2014. http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/div/ocp/drought/dust_storms.shtml.

2012. The Dust Bowl. Directed by Ken Burns.

Duncan, Dayton. 2012. The Dust Bowl: An Illustrated History. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.

2014. History Channel. Accessed March 29, 2014. http://www.history.com/topics/dust-bowl.

2014. Dust Storm Strike America. Directed by http://www.history.com/topics/dust-bowl.

Lookingbill, Brad D. 2001. Dust Bowl, USA. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.

Miner, Craig. 2002. Kansas: The History of the Sunflower State, 1854-2000. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.

Svobida, Lawrence. 1986. Farming the Dust Bowl: A First-Hand Account from Kansas. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.

Worster, Donald. 2004. Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s. New York: Oxford University Press.

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