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Drawn by free or cheap land, settlers arrive on the Southern Plains and create millions of acres of family farms
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Decades of destruction of the Southern Plains resulted in a massive dust storm known as "Black Sunday."
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With regular rains, family farms did well and times were good. Times were about to change...for the worse.
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Banks all over the United States ran out of money. Millions of Americans lost their jobs. When wheat prices dropped, farmers could not sell their crops for enough money to support their families.
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Extreme summer heat torched crops, and without the deep prairie grass to hold the soil in place...dirt blew EVERYWHERE.
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Farming families tried to produce, but with little or no rain, their crops shriveled and blew away.
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No relief from the drought meant that many families could not pay their bills and were forced to abandon their farms.
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A wall of dust 200 miles wide and 8,000 feet high blew across the Plains and reached all the way to New York and the East Coast. Decades of poor farming practices, and bad luck, caused one of the worst man-made disasters in our country's history. Fortunately, new farming methods and practices have helped to mend the soil and reduce the likelihood of another "Black Sunday."
