Dust Bowl Devastates Plains: 350 Million Tons of Dirt
A massive dust storm on May 11, 1934, carried an estimated 350 million tons of topsoil from the drought-stricken Great Plains to the East Coast, depositing dust on the decks of ships 300 miles out in the Atlantic Ocean. The storm darkened skies from Chicago to Washington D.C. and dumped fine prairie soil on the streets of New York and Atlanta. The Dust Bowl, which lasted from 1930 to 1940, was caused by a combination of severe drought and decades of aggressive farming that destroyed the native grasslands holding the soil in place. An estimated 2.5 million people fled the affected region, many heading to California. The disaster prompted the creation of the Soil Conservation Service and the planting of a 100-mile-wide shelter belt of trees across the Great Plains.
May 11, 1934
92 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on May 11
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