History

The Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl chronicles the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history, in which the frenzied wheat boom of the Great Plow-Up, followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation.

Reaping the Whirlwind

1h 55m

Black Sunday was only halfway through the decade-long crisis. The storms continued. The Great Depression still affected people. Government programs were instituted to help. Learn what FDR’s administration did to try to keep the southern Plains from becoming a North American Sahara desert. Find out why some residents finally decided they had to give up and move somewhere else and how some held on.

Episodes

  • Reaping the Whirlwind: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Reaping the Whirlwind

    S1 E2 - 1h 55m

    Black Sunday was only halfway through the decade-long crisis. The storms continued. The Great Depression still affected people. Government programs were instituted to help. Learn what FDR’s administration did to try to keep the southern Plains from becoming a North American Sahara desert. Find out why some residents finally decided they had to give up and move somewhere else and how some held on.

  • The Great Plow-Up: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Great Plow-Up

    S1 E1 - 1h 55m

    The grasslands of the southern Plains were rapidly turned into wheat fields. Then following the early years of the drought, storms killed crops and livestock and literally rearranged the landscape. The worst storm of them all was on April 14, 1935—Black Sunday—a searing experience for everyone caught in it, including a young songwriter from Pampa, Texas, named Woody Guthrie.

Extras + Features

  • Gas Money: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Gas Money

    S1 -

    "Do you have enough gas money?" Some people moved west to get away from the storms.

  • Sanora Babb's Account Beat Out by the Grapes of Wrath: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Sanora Babb's Account Beat Out by the Grapes of Wrath

    S1 -

    Sanora Babb sent chapters of her book back to New York, but John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is so popular, that her editor recommends holding off on publication. It is eventually published in 2004, a year before her death.

  • Modern Machinery: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Modern Machinery

    S1 -

    Modern machinery made farming more profitable and changed the structure of the land for growing wheat. The result was more land speculation, more acreage turned over to wheat farming, and a blind faith that the good times wouldn’t end, but warning signs were evident.

  • Buying Land: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Buying Land

    S1 -

    Land prices are going up and people say the climate is undergoing a permanent shift.

  • Black Blizzards: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Black Blizzards

    S1 -

    Hear from Donald Worster about the increasing number of dust storms the area faced.

  • Hugh Bennett: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Hugh Bennett

    S1 -

    Hugh Bennett went on a fact finding trip through the Great Plains in search of a solution.

  • Snowstorm: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Snowstorm

    S1 -

    More hope came to the dust bowl after a snowstorm hit the Great Plains.

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