The Dust Bowl

In the 1910s and 20s, the American Great Plains were the site of an unprecedented land rush. Lured by high wheat prices during World War I, which soared past two dollars a bushel, thousands of homesteaders and speculators descended on the region. These new, often inexperienced farmers brought mechanized tractors to execute the 'Great Plow-Up,' stripping away the thick native prairie sod that had protected the soil for millennia. In total, they plowed about 5.2 million acres of grassland, leaving the fine topsoil completely bare. When the Great Depression struck after 1929 and wheat prices plummeted to just 40 cents a bushel, desperate farmers plowed even deeper, hoping to increase yields. Meanwhile, 'suitcase farmers' who had arrived for quick profits simply abandoned their stripped fields when prices bottomed out, leaving the land utterly vulnerable to the powerful winds of the plains.