American Experience

Suggestions for the Classroom

Lured by the promise of rich, plentiful soil, thousands of settlers came to the Southern Plains, bringing farming techniques that worked well in the North and East. The farmers subsequently plowed millions of acres of grassland, only to have the rains stop in the summer of 1931. The catastrophic eight-year drought that followed led observers to rename the region “The Dust Bowl.”

Time Period: 1931-1939

Themes: The Dust Bowl, farming techniques and environmental impact, soil conservation, the Great Depression, the New Deal

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