Dust Bowl Disaster LEVELED BOOK • X

A Reading A–Z Level X Leveled Book

Word Count: 1,937
Dust Bowl
Disaster

Written by Brian Roberts

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for thousands of books and materials.
migration a movement from one location to
another (p . 18)
precipitation moisture, such as rain, that falls
from clouds (p . 15)
Dust Bowl
prosperity
recovery
success or good fortune (p . 6)
the return of something to a normal
state after a setback or loss (p . 19)
unemployed lacking a paid job, but able and
available to work (p . 19)
Disaster
Index
Bennett, Hugh, 19 Roosevelt, Franklin,
Black Sunday, 11, 12 19, 20
Dirty Thirties, 5, 16, 22 soap weed, 16
Great Depression, 4–6, Steinbeck, John, 18
19, 22 Stock Market, 4, 5
Great Plains, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, Svobida, Lawrence,
13–22 13–15
Guthrie, Woody, 21 White, Melt, 12
New Deal, 19, 20 World Wars, 6, 22

Written by Brian Roberts

www.readinga-z.com

24
Photo Credits:
Front cover, pages 3, 10, 11, 12, 14: courtesy of NOAA; back cover: Courtesy of
Glossary
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, [LC-
DIG-ppmsca-03054]; title page (top): courtesy of Library of Congress, P&P Div
conservation efforts to preserve, protect, and
[LC-USF34-016263-C]; title page (center): courtesy of Library of Congress, P&P restore natural resources (p . 19)
Div [LC-USE6-D-009364]; title page (bottom), page 4 (right): courtesy of Library
of Congress, P&P Div [LC-USF34-016109-E]; pages 4 (left), 15: courtesy of Library disasters sudden terrible events (p . 4)
of Congress, P&P Div [LC-USF34-016962-E]; pages 6, 7, 13: © Jupiterimages
Corporation; page 8: © Everett Collection, Inc/Alamy; page 9: Courtesy of drought a long dry spell without rainfall
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, [LC-
USF33-011684-M1]; page 16 (top): courtesy of Library of Congress, P&P Div [LC-
that causes a water shortage (p . 8)
DIG-nclc-00681]; page 16 (bottom): courtesy of Library of Congress, P&P Div
[LC-DIG-stereo-1s01228]; page 17 (top): courtesy of Library of Congress, P&P Div
dust a disease of the lungs caused by
[LC-USZ62-69109]; page 17 (bottom): courtesy of Library of Congress, P&P Div pneumonia breathing lots of dust (p . 9)
[LC-USZ62-56051]; page 18 (main): © Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy; page 18 (inset): ©
The Granger Collection, NYC; pages 19 (left): © Bettmann/Corbis; page 21: © CBS/ Dust Bowl a disaster that struck the USA in the
Landov; page 19 (right): courtesy of Library of Congress, P&P Div [LC-USZ62-117121];
page 20: © AP Images; page 22: © iStockphoto.com/Marek Uliasz; page 24:
1930s (p . 5)
courtesy of U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Div. of
Economic Information/NARA
dust storm a whirlwind that causes dust to fill
the air (p . 9)
economic related to buying and selling of
goods and services (p . 4)
erosion the gradual wear on land surfaces
by water, wind, or ice (p . 19)
flouted treated as meaningless (p . 14)
grasslands open areas where grass is the main
vegetation (p . 6)
Great the severe downturn of the U .S . and
Depression world economy from 1929 to 1939
(p . 4)
Great Plains a flat, mostly treeless region of the
central United States and Canada
Dust Bowl Disaster (p . 5)
Level X Leveled Book Correlation
© Learning A–Z LEVEL X income money that is received from work
Written by Brian Roberts
Fountas & Pinnell S
or another source (p . 17)
All rights reserved. Reading Recovery 40 irrevocably cannot be taken back (p . 14)
www.readinga-z.com
DRA 40

Dust Bowl Disaster • Level X 23

Pawnee National Grasslands, Colorado, is just one of several areas protected
by the government to help prevent another Dust Bowl.

Conclusion
As the Dirty Thirties drew to a close, rain
clouds began to replace dust clouds . The drought Table of Contents
was finally over for much of the Great Plains and
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
the Canadian Prairie in the early 1940s . Farmers
went back to planting wheat . Familiar golden From Prosperity to Poverty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
fields waved across the plains once again;
Living in a Dust Bowl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
however, farming methods had changed and
thousands of acres of grasslands had been set Living to Tell Their Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
aside by governments to try to prevent another
Leaving the Dust Bowl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Dust Bowl .
The Government Steps In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
By 1939, World War II had started in Europe,
and by 1941, North America was in the war . With Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
the coming of the war, much of the world pulled
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
out of the Great Depression . The two clouds of
the Dirty Thirties had lifted . Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

22 Dust Bowl Disaster • Level X 3

 Introduction In addition to these programs, the New Deal
Hurricanes . Floods . Forest fires . Earthquakes . offered many programs aimed at creating jobs
Every year these natural disasters strike for all those who were out of work . The largest of
somewhere on Earth . But during the late 1920s these programs was known as the Works Progress
and 1930s, two disasters of another kind swept Administration (WPA) . The WPA employed
the United States, inflicting pain and suffering millions after it was created in 1935 .
on its people . These disasters were particularly
troublesome because they lasted for years rather
than hours or days, creating hardships for
thousands upon thousands of people .

The first blow was not a natural disaster but

an economic one . This disaster became known as
the Great Depression . It began with the crash of
the stock market in 1929 .

The stock market began falling and by the

time it stopped falling, stocks were worth about
20 percent of their previous value . People lost
their life savings, their jobs, and many of their
possessions . Banks and factories closed .

A Song of the Dust Bowl

Stories and songs were written about the Dust Bowl.
Perhaps the most famous songs coming out of the Dust
Bowl years were written by popular folk singer and
writer, Woody Guthrie. Of his many songs, So Long
It’s Been Good to Know Yuh (Dusty Old Dust) and Dust
Bowl Blues were two of his best known. Above, Guthrie
plays to a New York City crowd in the 1940s.

4 Dust Bowl Disaster • Level X 21

 Roosevelt also provided other programs to help The Dust Bowl region
the weary farmer . Some of these programs were: CANADA
N.
1933 – The Emergency Farm Act

Min
Montana Dakota

ne
The act set aside $200 million to help farmers who S.

s ot
Dakota

a
could not make payments on their farms to refinance Wyoming
Nebraska Iowa
their bank loans.
UNITED Mi
Colorado sso
1935 – Drought Relief Service STATES Kansas ur
i
The government bought cattle from farmers to Oklahoma
New
prevent farmers from becoming bankrupt. The Mexico
government paid them more than they could have
Texas
received from selling on the regular market. Great Plains

1935 – Soil Conservation Service Dust Bowl area

M
EX
This service developed programs to stop soil erosion Hardest hit area

IC
and paid farmers to use soil-conserving methods

O
to farm.
The Great Depression was not limited to
1937 – Shelterbelt Project the United States . It spread to other countries
This project paid farmers to plant trees all across the
throughout the world and became the worst
Great Plains. Trees planted along fencerows would
stop wind from carrying away soil. economic slump in history .

To make matters worse, the second blow to

strike during the 1930s dried up the soil just like
money dried up during the stock market crash .
It affected the southern region of the Great Plains
The plan of the
of the United States, covering large parts of
Shelterbelt Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and Oklahoma, but also
project was to
plant four million
stretching throughout the Great Plains and into
trees, stretching the prairies of Canada . The disaster was labeled
from the Canadian
border down
the Dust Bowl, and the period of history became
into Texas. known as the Dirty Thirties .

20 Dust Bowl Disaster • Level X 5

 The Government Steps In
It was clear that people living in
the Great Plains needed help . They
were losing their land, their farms,
and their hope . Franklin Roosevelt
Millions more had
lost their jobs because
of the Great Depression and
had no hope of finding new
jobs . All were hungry and
poor . Many were dying .

In 1932, the citizens of

Wheat fields cover the plains as far as the eye can see. the United States had elected
Roosevelt’s inauguration Franklin Roosevelt as their
From Prosperity to Poverty next president . He quickly offered a program for
Farmers in the Great Plains had been recovery known as the New Deal, which included
prospering for decades before the Dust Bowl government agencies and programs to help
struck . World War I (1914–1918) prevented farmers and unemployed workers .
European farmers from growing wheat, so
Roosevelt appointed Hugh Bennett, a man
farmers in North America sold their wheat to
well-known for his work in soil conservation, as
buyers who shipped it overseas . The demand
director of a new agency called the Soil Erosion
for wheat drove prices upward . Farmers plowed
Service . Bennett worked to change farming
up more and more of the grasslands to feed the
methods in order to help stop blowing dirt
needs of European countries . The farmers of the
in its tracks . He worked to convince Congress
Great Plains continued to prosper while many
to pass the Soil Conservation Act of 1935.
others suffered under the Great Depression .
But the prosperity would soon end .

6 Dust Bowl Disaster • Level X 19

 John Steinbeck Plowing up the grasslands to grow more
John Steinbeck describes the wheat caused two problems that the farmers did
and his book
The Grapes westward not expect . First, it made so much wheat available
of Wrath migration in his that wheat prices began to drop . Storage bins
famous 1939 novel became filled to capacity, and farmers began to
The Grapes of Wrath . dump their harvested wheat onto the ground and
He wrote about onto roads .
the hundreds of
thousands of people
who came over the
mountains towards
California . They
came in cars loaded
with all their worldly possessions
and often slept in their cars or in
tents . Some formed caravans, or
groups of cars that traveled together, for
safety . People didn’t stay in one place long . They
were always moving, searching for work, and
desperate for food .
Math Minute
Think About It From July 1930 to July 1931, wheat prices
dropped from 68¢ a bushel to 25¢ a bushel.
Imagine coming to the Great Plains in the early
1900s and starting a farm. You have built a home, dug In 1930, farmer Beck planted 100 acres
a well for water, plowed up grassland to grow wheat, of wheat and harvested 12 bushels per acre.
and raised a family. A drought comes and makes it In 1931, he planted another 100 acres and
difficult to grow crops. What do you do? Do you stick it harvested 12 bushels per acre. How much more
out? How do you survive? Or do you pull up stakes and did he make in 1930 than he did in 1931?
move to another place?

18 Dust Bowl Disaster • Level X 7

 With no source of income, farmers grew tired
and hungry . Many could not keep up payments
on their farms . They eventually left the Great
Plains to seek a better life elsewhere . Thousands
were drawn westward to
Do You California to seek work in
Know? the state’s rich farmlands . But
By the end there were fewer jobs there
of the 1930s,
than there were people .
2.5 million
people had left
the Plains states.
Two hundred
thousand of
them ended up
in California.

A choking dust storm whips across the plains.

Second, when the Great Plains entered a period

of prolonged drought, plowing up the grasslands
caused the fields to dry up . With too little moisture
to support crops, the fields were left bare . From
one hot summer to another, the sun baked the soil .
When winds increased, the exposed dry dirt was
whipped up into dark clouds of choking dust that
swept across the land . The thick, billowing walls
of dirt hid the sun and forced people to light lamps
in the midday darkness .

8 Dust Bowl Disaster • Level X 17

 Living in a Dust Bowl
For years, the Dust Bowl gripped the Great
Plains . Every time the wind whipped up the
dirt and carried it skyward, another dust storm
moved across the Great Plains . These storms
took on names like dusters and black blizzards .
Not much was left for cattle to eat in Oklahoma in 1936.
People living in the plains did everything they
could to keep the dust from entering their homes
Leaving the Dust Bowl and their lungs . Windows
People living in the Great Plains were hearty and doors were stuffed Do You Know?
souls who settled the area when there were no with newspapers and rags . A mysterious disease
houses, water wells, roads, or fields . They were Men, women, and children known as dust pneumonia
tied rags over their faces . infected thousands of
accustomed to difficult
people living in the
times . Many persevered one Children even went to bed
path of the dust storms.
way or another through the with damp cloths over The disease killed men,
Dirty Thirties . When they their mouths and noses to women, and children,
couldn’t grow wheat, they keep the dust out . especially the very young
and the very old.
turned to raising thistles and
a plant called soapweed,
which could be chopped up
and fed to livestock . Soapweed

Many farmers turned to raising dairy cattle

at the beginning of the Dust Bowl years . Part of
the milk was skimmed off and fed to pigs and A farmer puts
on a mask
chickens . But as the drought worsened, farmers before
could no longer raise enough feed for their cattle working.

and other livestock .

16 Dust Bowl Disaster • Level X 9

 Still, the dust found its way into homes and into
the bodies of every living creature . It clogged up
motors in cars and trucks . Livestock wandered
blindly in the clouds of dust . Many animals fell
dead when their lungs became caked with dust .

Outside, dust piled up like snowdrifts during

a blizzard . The only difference was that the dust
drifts did not melt . They just got higher and higher,
burying tools, farm equipment, and small buildings .
Roads had to be plowed, and trains were literally
stopped on tracks covered by heaps of dirt .

Conditions got so bad that winds carried the

dust eastward to fall across cities such as Chicago,
Farmers wait for rain that won’t come for years.
Atlanta, and New York . Dust even blew over the
Atlantic Ocean and fell upon decks of ships at sea . After

A tractor sits Svobida, like many others, still clung to the

unused after hope that rain would end the drought . In his
being buried
by the dust. book, he talked about searching the sky every day
for rainclouds . He watched his neighbors’ crops
die out one by one, until finally the skies poured
out five inches of precipitation over two days .
The water soaked into the soil and finally stopped
the dust and drought .
Word Wise
During the winter, winds often whipped up a mixture of Eventually, inhaling blowing dust for years
snow and dust. These storms became known as snusters. seriously affected Lawrence Svobida’s health . He
had to admit defeat and leave the Great Plains .

10 Dust Bowl Disaster • Level X 15

During
With the Great Plains gripped in a drought,
Visualize
Take a moment and think of what it must
Svobida’s thoughts were much different . He have been like on April 14, 1935. Draw a
described the wind and the dust that cut visibility picture of the scene as you visualize it.
to almost nothing . People’s eyes would be filled
with dust and wearing goggles didn’t even help .

In a documentary film, Svobida talks about the

ferocity of the wind and how it seemed to never
stop . He had never even imagined such a wind . It
felt to him like everything would be blown away,
and wherever he looked, his fields were empty .

The Black Sunday storm approaches a town in the Texas panhandle.

Perhaps the worst day of all during the Dust

Bowl occurred on Black Sunday—April 14, 1935 .
The day began with the sun rising in a clear blue
eastern sky and a gentle breeze whispering from
In his book, Svobida wrote about how the the west . Without warning, a gigantic wall of dirt
experience changed his feelings on farming, which and dust appeared on the horizon and rushed
had once provided him with joy . When he knew across the rolling plains at 60 miles (96 .5 km) per
his crops were irrevocably gone, he described hour . It rushed eastward so fast that the storm
feeling as if there had been a death . Nature had swallowed up birds and rabbits trying to out-fly
flouted his desire to work the land and the dreams and outrun it . Animals dropped to the ground,
he had of being a farmer . He felt like giving up dying of exhaustion and suffocation . People ran
on everything, including any attempts to make for any shelter they could reach—sheds, barns,
something of his life . homes, and cars .

14 Dust Bowl Disaster • Level X 11

 One Kansas farmer, Lawrence Svobida, kept
an extensive written record of his experience and
later wrote a book about being a farmer on the
Great Plains before, during, and after the Dust
Bowl . Here is a description of what he said:

Before
Svobida described the beauty of seeing many
miles of waist-high wheat fields swaying in the
breeze . He could think of nothing in the world
more beautiful than a golden wheat field in the
The Black Sunday storm nearly overwhelms a couple of people. summer sun . The sight would take his breath away .

Living to Tell Their Story

Some people who lived through the Dust Bowl
recorded accounts of their experiences .

Melt White of Dalhart, Texas, was just a

child when Black Sunday occurred . He described
his memories of that day in interviews for a
documentary film about the Dust Bowl .

He described the wind blowing very hard and

the house shaking violently . He was frightened
that the house might blow away . Outside, the
dust filled the sky until it became very dark .
He tried to see his hand in front of his face and
couldn’t . He kept bringing his hand closer to his
face . It was so dark that even when he touched During the Dust Bowl, farmers hoped to see blowing wheat instead of
his nose with his hand, he couldn’t see it . blowing dust.

12 Dust Bowl Disaster • Level X 13