Below: The map shows the
"Dust Bowl" area that was most
affected by a severe drought (lack of rain) in the 1930s. Many
thousands
of farms in the area went bankrupt when they could not produce a crop
to sell.
Below: A farm in Texas with all its crops ruined for lack of
rain,
and wind-blown dirt piled up against the house.
The
migrant farm workers
Below: Hundreds of thousands of people from the Dust Bowl
area headed to California
with their belongings to try to find work harvesting crops
on farms there.
Below: Migrant families often formed campgrounds near farms
in California that
they hoped would hire them at harvest time. Desperate for work,
they would
take whatever wages were offered, just to earn enough money to buy food.
Many of the migrant farm families that went to California to find
work, like the one
shown below,
were from Oklahoma. As a result, the nickname "Okies" was given
to
many of the migrant
workers.
Rain
returns to the Dust Bowl - 1939
In 1939 and 1940 rain began returning to normal
levels on the
Great
Plains.
Families like the one shown below could finally plant and
harvest
crops.
The photo shows the family harvesting beets on their farm in Kansas.
Map by David Burns. All photos are
from the
Library of Congress. Some have been edited or resized for this
page.
Copyright Notice
Copyright 2009, 2020 by David Burns. All rights
reserved. |