U.S. History Paper Notecards
What did we learn from the dust bowl? (Body)
Both weather and human efforts contributed to the Dust Bowl. Iowans who lived it remember the frightening appearance of dark clouds of descending dirt. (IDCA)
What did we learn from the dust bowl? (Body)
Decades of debates have come up with reasons the dust bowl happened and what caused it. people would debate over the soil and the human impact, trying to figure out if humans were really responsible for this event (What we learned from the dust bowl pg 425)
Manifest Destiny (Narrative)
During WW1, the price of bread went up, causing farmers to make more farmland by tearing up new land and planting more fields (History.com)
What did we learn from the dust bowl? (Body)
It also produced a famous film, "The Plow That Broke the Plains," that dramatically illustrated the relationship between farming practices and the Dust Bowl .(IDCA)
The Enlarged Homestead Act of February 19, 1909, (Narrative)
It increased the maximum permissible homestead to 320 acres of nonirrigable land in parts of Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Arizona, and Wyoming.(Britannica )
Recovering (Body)
It took many a while to recover from the dust bowl and great depressions and many starved and lived for several years homeless on the street not knowing where the next meal they would have was coming form. (Summary)
Migrations and dust bowl refugees (Narrative)
Many people were forced to leave their homes because the dust would destroy the crops they were trying to farm which was their only source of income. (PBS)
What did migrants face summary (Summary)
Migrants faced many challenges while migrating to other states due to the dust bowl. They were regarded as outcasts and not welcomed by people that lived in these areas. (PBS)
What did migrants face summary (Summary)
Migrants were going into a unknown place with unknown crops and farming techniques they were called many slurs and made fun off and even turned away from living in these towns. (PBS)
which states are The Great Plains (Narrative)
Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico) and the three Prairie Provinces of Canada (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta) (Britannica)
What did we learn from the dust bowl? (Body)
Studies found the drought in the great planes region were far more intense and long-lasting than that of droughts in other areas. these were called megadroughts (What we learned from the dust bowl pg 423)
Migrations and dust bowl refugees (Narrative)
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. (PBS)
The Great Plains (Narrative)
The climate in the great plains is semi arid grassland and it is not generally flat but there are parts in New Mexico and surrounding areas that are flat and very good for farming (Britannica)
What did we learn from the dust bowl? (Body)
The dust bowl allowed us to come up with many questions as to how it started, and it led us to learn about human migration and other natural disasters. It helps us gain insight into the climate. (What we learned from the dust bowl pg 419)
What did we learn from the dust bowl? (Body)
The dust bowl taught us much about farming, such as soil conditions and to explore a better approach to land management.
When was the dust bowl (Narrative)
The dust bowl was from 1930 to 1940 the worst year being in 1935 the dust bowl were massive dust storms due to farming in arid regions. was (History.com)
How did this affect the economy (Body)The effect on the Great Depression (Body)
The dust bowl was primarily responsible for the great depression. This is because the crisis closed banks and crashed the economy unemployment rates were a large factor in this and health and general happiness were very low. (NDMC)
What caused the dustbowl (Narrative)
The farmers who came to farm the great plains believed that they would get more humid and wet making it more conducive to farming. (History.com)
What did we learn from the dust bowl? (Body)
The federal government began support for programs to plant trees as windbreaks, to terrace hillsides, and to implement other land management programs. (IDCA)
Manifest Destiny (Narrative)
The land was over plowed by 1931 because of all the new farmland that was made; the drought in 1931 made the land very dry and the fact that it was over-plowed meant there was no deep-rooted grass to hold the dry soil in place; this caused massive dust storms. (History.com)
What caused the dustbowl (Narrative)
The new acts cause a massive influx of new farmers in the great plains region. These farmers were inexperienced and didn't understand farming as much as others. (History.com)
How did this affect the economy (Body)
The rates of unemployment skyrocketed in many states as a vast number of migrants flooded into these states searching for work and were left empty-handed living on the street (NDMC)
Migrations and dust bowl refugees (Narrative)
The rolling fields of wheat were replaced by crops of fruit, nuts and vegetables. Like the Joad family in John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath", some 40 percent of migrant farmers wound up in the San Joaquin Valley, picking grapes and cotton. (PBS)
Dust Bowl (Narrative)
The term Dust Bowl was suggested by conditions that struck the region in the early 1930s. The area's grasslands had supported mostly stock raising until World War I, when millions of acres were put under the plow in order to grow wheat. (Britannica)
Migrations and dust bowl refugees (Narrative)
They faced meanspirited words and the new lang they came to was almost as hard as living in the old one. Many California farms were corporate-owned. They were larger and more modernized that those of the southern plains, and the crops were unfamiliar. (PBS)
What did we learn from the dust bowl? (Body)
They suffered through it but also learned some valuable lessons about the need to respect the natural environment. They learned that preserving the land is the key to having a good environment. (IDCA)
The Kinkaid act (Narrative)
This is a U.S. statute that amended the 1862 Homestead Act so that one section of public domain land could be acquired free of charge, apart from a modest filing fee. It applied specifically to 37 counties in northwest Nebraska, in the general area of the Nebraska Sandhills (Britannica )
What did we learn from the dust bowl? (Body)
Western lands with too little rainfall to support grain crops like corn or wheat should be left as pasture to maintain a grass cover that can retain moisture and keep topsoil in place. (IDCA)
Manifest Destiny (Narrative)
the false belief that the environment would get better for farming was linked to Manifest Destiny—an attitude that Americans had a sacred duty to expand west. and settle as much land as possible (History.com)
The Great Plains (Narrative)
the great plains is a large flat region,Their length is some 3,000 miles (4,800 km), their width from 300 to 700 miles, and their area approximately 1,125,000 square miles. it is about the size of one third of the united states. (Britannica)
Manifest Destiny (Narrative)
"A series of wet years during the period created further misunderstanding of the region's ecology and led to the intensive cultivation of increasingly marginal lands that couldn't be reached by irrigation." (History.com)
End of the dust bowl (Body)
"Although a larger area was affected during the 1950s drought, the conservation techniques that many farmers implemented in the intervening years helped prevent conditions from reaching the severity of the 1930s drought. "(NDMC)
How did this affect the economy (Body)
"Although the 1930s drought is often referred to as if it were one episode, there were at least 4 distinct drought events: 1930-31, 1934, 1936, and 1939-40 (Riebsame et al., 1991). These events occurred in such rapid succession that affected regions were not able to recover adequately before another drought began." (NDMC)
What did migrants face (Body)
"Arriving in California, the migrants were faced with a life almost as difficult as the one they had left. Many California farms were corporate-owned. They were larger and more modernized that those of the southern plains, and the crops were unfamiliar." (PBS)
Recovering (Body)
"As important as these programs may have been, the survival of a majority of the families and enterprises undoubtedly rested solely with their perseverance and integrity. Whether they stayed or moved into the drought regions or migrated to other areas in hopes of a better life, families encountered new hardships and obstacles that would require ingenuity, resilience, and humility." (NDMC)
What did migrants face (Body)
"As roadside camps of poverty-stricken migrants proliferated, growers pressured sheriffs to break them up. Groups of vigilantes beat up migrants, accusing them of being Communists, and burned their shacks to the ground." (PBS)
Recovering (Body)
"During the 1930s, many measures were undertaken to relieve the direct impacts of droughts and to reduce the region's vulnerability to the dry conditions. Many of these measures were initiated by the federal government, a relatively new practice. Before the 1930s drought, federal aid had generally been withheld in emergency situations in favor of individual and self-reliant approaches." (NDMC)
How did this affect the economy (Body)
"Effects of the Plains drought sent economic and social ripples throughout the country. For example, millions of people migrated from the drought areas, often heading west, in search of work. These newcomers were often in direct competition for jobs with longer-established residents, which created conflict between the groups" (NDMC)
Recovering (Body)
"Even though short-term conditions seemed to be relatively stable, this production growth had some drawbacks. One drawback (described by Hurt, 1981) was that the start of World War II shifted remaining funds and priorities away from drought-related programs. Men were taken off work programs to enter the armed forces and to produce for the war effort." (NDMC)
Recovering (Body)
"Humor helped; tales about birds flying backward to keep from getting sand in their eyes, housewives scouring pots and pans by holding them up to keyholes for a sandblasting, and children who had never seen rain were among the favorite stories of Dust Bowl inhabitants. In the end, it was a combination of willpower, stamina, humor, pride, and, above all, optimism that enabled many to survive the Dust Bowl."(NDMC)
End of the dust bowl (Body)
"If the Roosevelt era marked the beginning of large-scale aid, it also ushered in some of the first long-term, proactive programs to reduce future vulnerability to drought. It was in these years, for example, that the Soil Conservation Service (SCS)—now the Natural Resources Conservation Service—began to stress soil conservation measures." (NDMC)
Migration (Body)
"In all, one-quarter of the population left, packing everything they owned into their cars and trucks, and headed west toward California. Although overall, three out of four farmers stayed on their land, the mass exodus depleted the population drastically in certain areas." (PBS)
The effect on the Great Depression (Body)
"In fact, at the peak of farm transfers in 1933-34, nearly 1 in 10 farms changed possession, with half of those being involuntary (from a combination of the depression and drought)." (NDMC)
The effect on the Great Depression (Body)
"In the early 1920s, farmers saw several opportunities for increasing their production. New technology and crop varieties were reducing the time and costs-per-acre of farming, which provided a great incentive for agricultural expansion. This expansion was also necessary to pay for expensive, newly developed equipment (such as listers and plows) that was often purchased on credit, and to offset low crop prices after World War I" (NDMC)
Migration (Body)
"In the rural area outside Boise City, Oklahoma, the population dropped 40%, with 1,642 small farmers and their families pulling up stakes. (PBS) pulling up stakes means leaving their jobs and leaving their homes."
What did we learn from the dust bowl? (Body)
"Instrumental and Paleo-records have shown Dust Bowl-era droughts to be a global series of precipitation anomalies." (What we learned from the dust bowl pg 425)
How did this affect the economy (Body)
"It is not possible to count all the costs associated with the 1930s drought, but one estimate by Warrick et al. (1980) claims that financial assistance from the government may have been as high as $1 billion (in 1930s dollars) by the end of the drought. Fortunately, the lessons learned from this drought were used to reduce the vulnerability of the regions to future droughts." (NDMC)
How did this affect the economy (Body)
"Many circumstances exacerbated the effects of the drought, among them the Great Depression and economic overexpansion before the drought, poor land management practices, and the areal extent and duration of the drought." (NDMC)
End of the dust bowl (Body)
"Many other proactive measures taken after the 1930s drought also reduced rural and urban vulnerability to drought, including new or enlarged reservoirs, improved domestic water systems, changes in farm policies, new insurance and aid programs, and removal of some of the most sensitive agricultural lands from production" (NDMC)
The effect on the Great Depression (Body)
"Some voluntarily deeded their farms to creditors, others faced foreclosure by banks, and still others had to leave temporarily to search for work to provide for their families. "(NDMC)
Recovering (Body)
"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." (NDMC)
Migration (Body)
"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." (PBS)
What caused the dustbowl (Narrative)
"The Dust Bowl was caused by several economic and agricultural factors, including federal land policies, changes in regional weather, farm economics and other cultural factors.," (History.com)
Migrations and dust bowl refugees (Narrative)
"The Los Angeles police chief went so far as to send 125 policemen to act as bouncers at the state border, turning away "undesirables". Called "the bum brigade" by the press and the object of a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union" (PBS)
What did migrants face (Body)
"The Los Angeles police chief went so far as to send 125 policemen to act as bouncers at the state border, turning away "undesirables". Called "the bum brigade" by the press and the object of a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, the LAPD posse was recalled only when the use of city funds for this work was questioned." (PBS)
The Great Plains (Narrative)
"The great plains region, The Great Plains lie between the Rio Grande in the south and the delta of the Mackenzie River at the Arctic Ocean in the north and between the Interior Lowland and the Canadian Shield on the east and the Rocky" (Britannica)
End of the dust bowl (Body)
"The magnitude of the droughts of the 1930s, combined with the Great Depression, led to unprecedented government relief efforts. Congressional actions in 1934 alone accounted for relief expenditures of $525 million (U.S. House of Representatives, 1934); the total cost (social, economic, and environmental) would be impossible to determine." (NDMC)
How did this affect the economy (Body)
"The peculiar combination of these circumstances and the severity and areal coverage of the event played a part in making the 1930s drought the widely accepted drought of record for the United States. To cope with and recover from the drought, people relied on ingenuity and resilience, as well as relief programs from state and federal governments." (NDMC)
How did this affect the economy (Body)
"The resulting agricultural depression contributed to the Great Depression's bank closures, business losses, increased unemployment, and other physical and emotional hardships. Although records focus on other problems, the lack of precipitation would also have affected wildlife and plant life and would have created water shortages for domestic needs."(NDMC)
What did migrants face (Body)
"The rolling fields of wheat were replaced by crops of fruit, nuts and vegetables. Like the Joad family in John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath", some 40 percent of migrant farmers wound up in the San Joaquin Valley, picking grapes and cotton." (PBS)
Very important passage What did migrants face (Body)
"The sheer number of migrants camped out, desperate for work, led to scenes such as that described by John Steinbeck in his novel, "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 ******* 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." (PBS) (Grapes of Wraith)
What did migrants face (Body)
"They took up the work of Mexican migrant workers, 120,000 of whom were repatriated during the 1930s. Life for migrant workers was hard. They were paid by the quantity of fruit and cotton picked with earnings ranging from seventy-five cents to $1.25 a day." (PBS)
Recovering (Body)
"This began to change with the development of the Great Depression in the late 1920s and the 1933 inauguration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The depression helped "soften deep-rooted, hard-line attitudes of free enterprise, individualism, and the passive role of the government", (NDMC)
Recovering (Body)
"Those who remained in the drought regions were forced to endure severe dust storms and their health effects, diminished incomes, animal infestations, and the physical and emotional stress over their uncertain futures" (NDMC)
End of the dust bowl (Body)
"Through their efforts, the first soil conservation districts came into being, and demonstration projects were carried out to show the benefits of practices such as terracing and contouring (for a discussion of the activities of the SCS during this period, see Hurt, 1981)." (NDMC)
How did this affect the economy (Body)
"To cope with and recover from the drought, people relied on ingenuity and resilience, as well as relief programs from state and federal governments. Despite all efforts, many people were not able to make a living in drought-stricken regions and were forced to migrate to other areas in search of a new livelihood." (NDMC)
The homestead act of 1862 (Narrative)
"To help develop the American West and spur economic growth, Congress passed the Homestead Act of 1862, which provided 160 acres of federal land to anyone who agreed to farm the land. The act distributed millions of acres of western land to individual settlers." (Senate.gov)
The effect on the Great Depression (Body)
"When drought began in the early 1930s, it worsened these poor economic conditions. The depression and drought hit farmers on the Great Plains the hardest. Many of these farmers were forced to seek government assistance. A 1937 bulletin by the Works Progress Administration reported that 21% of all rural families in the Great Plains were receiving federal emergency relief (Link et al., 1937)." (NDMC)
The effect on the Great Depression (Body)
"When the national economy went into decline in the late 1920s because of the Great Depression, agriculture was even more adversely affected. In addition, a record wheat crop in 1931 sent crop prices even lower. These lower prices meant that farmers needed to cultivate more acreage, including poorer farmlands, or change crop varieties to produce enough grain to meet their required equipment and farm payments." (NDMC)
Migrations and dust bowl refugees (Narrative)
"When they reached the border, they did not receive a warm welcome as described in this 1935 excerpt from Collier's magazine. "Very erect and primly severe, [a man] addressed the slumped driver of a rolling wreck that screamed from every hinge, bearing and coupling. 'California's relief rolls are overcrowded now. No use to come farther,' he cried." (PBS
What did migrants face (Body)
"When they reached the border, they did not receive a warm welcome as described in this 1935 excerpt from Collier's magazine. "Very erect and primly severe, [a man] addressed the slumped driver of a rolling wreck that screamed from every hinge, bearing and coupling. 'California's relief rolls are overcrowded now." (PBS)
The effect on the Great Depression (Body)
"even with government help, many farmers could not maintain their operations and were forced to leave their land. Some voluntarily deeded their farms to creditors, others faced foreclosure by banks, and still others had to leave temporarily to search for work to provide for their families." (NDMC)
What caused the dustbowl (Narrative)
"rain follows the plow" this is what many people lived by in these times and it was the belief that when people come into a climate and start to farm then the climate gets more humid. (History.com)
What caused the dustbowl (Narrative)
A series of federal land acts coaxed pioneers westward by incentivizing farming in the Great Plains these were the homestead act, Kinkaid act and the enlarged homestead act (History.com)
Manifest Destiny (Narrative)
After WW1, during the great depression, the price of bread plummeted, and the farmers had to make more fields to try to break even or make a profit selling wheat. (History.com)