Dust Bowl

When the first settlers crossed the American plains in the mid-to-late 1800s, the vast landscape would have seemed endless. So much fertile land to be ranched or farmed. In the 1920s grain prices dropped and lots of farmers had to farm more land to earn what they used to. Farmers throughout the midwest  stripped the prairie-lands to make more farms. Some people warned that the land wouldn't stay fertile if it was used that way. Though few farmers listened this and the high temperatures and drought caused the crops to die and the earth became rock hard. Strong winds came and blew the earth away as dust. There was no trees to hold it in place.

On April 14th 1935, the dust storm rose. It went for miles and quickly moved across the United States, covering everything in its path in a thick layer of black dust. The dust storm dropped 12 tons of dust on Chicago and went all the way to New York city. This day was known as 'Black Sunday.'