The Dust Bowl: Darkness in the Great Depression

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[@geographicstravel]

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[@lingthegreat]

I love your material! I have a history degree so I like all of it.

[@joyouknow5385]

I learned a lot, but I have more questions? What happened to the Black & Native American populations during this time? This story appears to be missing huge segments. How did Black people survive this time during the Jim Crow era? How did native Americans survive? Was more of their land taken or given back? Were they around? Was there a moment of peace because everyone was suffering? Or were demographic relationships more strained as everyone fought for scraps?

[@gabrielhowardMKE]

@@joyouknow5385 You're funny. Trying to score virtue signaling points. African Americans made up virtually no percentage of the population in these areas at that time (still don't). So this doesn't really have anything to do with their story or plight. During the great depression, yes there is much history there, but this isn't about that.

[@hazmania]

Hi Simon, Love your videos, they’ve made solitude during lockdown much more bearable. Thank you. I suggest you check out Chysauster, near Penzance, in Cornwall. It’s a late Iron Age village of 8 or 9 courtyard houses. It’s a stunning, hill top location (about 20 miles from my home) & I think it’s every bit as worthy of your attention as, say, Skara Brae, the Dust Bowl or the Pyramids. 🌸🙂

[@je4894]

I would like to see a Geographics on Western Sahara.

[@itsapittie]

When I was a child in Oklahoma in the 1960s most roads and fields had a border of trees which had been planted to break the wind and prevent erosion. Most of those have now been cut down for a variety of reasons. Apparently people now believe the conditions that caused the Dust Bowl can't occur again.

[@indy_go_blue6048]

My dad was a tree planter with the CCC in the '30s. He said the same thing was going to happen again if they kept cutting them down.

[@jeramymatyak4372]

I've seen many of the old "Hedge Rows" being removed here in Eastern Kansas since 2000. Makes ya wonder if history will be repeating itself.

[@hemidas]

"History repeats itself twice; first as a tragedy, then as a farce." --Karl Marx.

[@RankinMsP]

Do we ever learn?

[@dx1450]

Here in eastern Kansas there are still a lot of trees planted on the borders of fields. I hope they don't get the idea of cutting down all those trees around here.

[@xavierjc94]

Simon and his team gotta be the hardest working youtubers. Y’all deserve a vacation!!!

[@joereedmusic9853]

My Dad was 17 and living in Oklahoma when the Depression hit, followed the next year by the Dust Storms that swept the state. His family was in the oil business which was completely wiped out in the market crash, plunging the family from moderate wealth to penniless overnight. His father died later that same year, leaving just him and his year older brother to fend for themselves, since my Dad's mother died in childbirth when he was born. The two brothers stripped the rear body off their Model T Ford, turning it into a truck and then drove to California to find work, only to return to Oklahoma in 1940. Neither my Dad or my Uncle talked much about the Dust Bowl except to say it was the biggest disaster they had ever experienced.

[@Pretermit_Sound]

Your user name, and story made me think of the Woody Guthrie song “Dust Pneumonia Blues”. Hope your dad and uncle lived good lives after the Dust Bowl. ✌🏻🇺🇸

[@SirGuifoyle]

Thanks for sharing your story. My grandpa lived through it (we still live in OK) and before his passing he never once talked about it.

[@GaryR55]

Well, the dust storms didn't affect most of the state, primarily the high plains of the Panhandle.

[@alice5515]

And now people get upset about pronouns. Different breed back then, respect for your Dad and his family

[@cameron503]

Thanks for this story.

[@petwho4918]

My parents and extended family fled Oklahoma in 1940, and I was born in a tent in a howling blizzard that winter (40/41) near Yosemite California. That spring the family moved to San Joaquin Valley to work in the fields and grape vineyards -- believe it or not, a town called Lodi. I remember family members talking about the "Dust Bowl" and what happened after.

[@CupOhCoffeeTwitch]

"I will show you fear in a hand full of dust" my favorite line from anything to deal with the dust bowl.

[@JaleDoris]

I found this interesting, because as a native Oklahoman, we learn about the problems we caused by not understanding what we did to the soil and about the reforms and new farming practices implemented. We learn that we obtained the name of "Okie" (ironically I am from Muskogee like the song) as a slang from migration but this is the first I've heard it was derogatory. We generally see it as a sense of pride that we are willing to work for what we have. Then again... I went to public school.

[@misskate3815]

It was derogatory outside the state, to the point that some parents told their kids not to tell where they were from.

[@kappadarwin9476]

Because the whole country was rocked by the depression California also felt it. So the influx of immigrates from other states lead to conflict. But I also think there was more to it. I think many people blamed "Okies" for the Dustbowl because of the poor farming techniques people were using on the great plains. Even if a lot of those "farmers" came from out of state.

[@steverogers8163]

Yeah the other states used it as a derogatory slang. Basically the poorer working class got really pissed when all the dust bowl refugees showed up and were willing to work for less than the natives were. You see this punching down pattern repeated with essentially every single great migration that happened in the US.

[@rickiemontgomery367]

When I think of okie I thinkof some of the lame brain ones from Oklahoma which really is all of them its a fighting word if you ask me but be proud enough to fight it.

[@redchic]

Thanks for topic! Both sets of my grandparents spoke of growing up among the dust storms. How scary of was for them as teenagers, but how hard it was on their parents and family. My dad's parents decided that thereust be someplace better than that he'll hole and did move out west to washington, but my mom's parents stuck it out. I never truly knew what caused it. But now I do! My grandmother just said they later figured out weather cycles, but at the time they were farming in ways they thought was best. If my grandmother were still alive, she would've appreciated this info that explained her childhood.

[@roberthill3207]

All your videos pop up at the same time... well i know what I'm doing for the next hour or so. Thanks Simon and Crew thumbs up stay awesome everyone.

[@stickyfingers02]

Props to FDR. Regardless of his political views, must have been extremely stressful trying to deal with something like that.

[@Bitchslapper316]

I dunno about that, he was president a long time before deciding to do anything about it.

[@evanulven8249]

@@Bitchslapper316 He tried to get an early start. Too bad entrenched conservatives in congress and the courts kept blocking him.

[@Bitchslapper316]

@@evanulven8249 I wasn't alive then but everything I've read about his presidency says he dragged the country through the dumpster.

[@Kstang09]

@@Bitchslapper316 Then everything you've read is mostly wrong.

[@Bitchslapper316]

@@Kstang09 If you say so. I guess it's easier to just blame a republican for anything bad that ever happened in the country. Who needs proof or sources right?

[@suemeador8341]

Best presentation of the Dust Bowl I have ever seen. Thank you so much. I love all your programs. Please keep up the great work!

[@TheBobzzito]

Hearing 'That Chapter's usual background music here was quite confusing hahaha

[@lillianyop8417]

A little while back I watched the doc that was narrated by Ken Burns. Blew my damn mind.

[@notthanos4097]

just wrote a book report on “The worst hard time: the untold stories of the great american dust bowl” for my english class. great book

[@indy_go_blue6048]

Tim Egan is a wonderful writer and journalist-historian.

[@timschofield3119]

Which would you say was the worst hard time ever ?

[@patheticprepper4496]

Biden administration, grab on to my leg hair, and hold my beer

[@notthanos4097]

@@patheticprepper4496 lmao big fax

[@99Z155]

I’ve read that book twice. I live in the area.

[@glennrugar9248]

I hate realizing your videos are almost over. Another great one

[@pauladams7344]

Ken Burns documented this in one of his documentaries. One who was there said it was impossible to overstate the extent of the catastrophe. Now.... we face the COVID Bowl....

[@JoeJacksonJr]

My Grandmothers both mentioned to me about the dust reaching northern Mississippi a few times covering things like peoples cars, farm equipment and houses, plus all the trees.

[@Sup_Mate]

Read a great book on westward expansion and it’s environmental impact. The dust bowl and recovery efforts were a central theme.

[@twylanaythias]

Rather surprised you didn't mention Hugh Bennett: Bennett was a soil scientist and early conservationist who monitored conditions - particularly in the High Plains - throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s. He adamantly consulted farmers and government officials about soil degradation, though the multitudinous social and economic windfalls created by extensive farming caused his warnings to fall upon deaf ears. In the early 1930s, even with the Dust Bowl in full swing, east coast legislators refused to believe the magnitude of the catastrophe could be anywhere near what Bennett reported. April 19th, 1935, Bennett appeared before a US Congressional committee which was deliberating House Resolution 7054. While politicians groused about "wasting their time over a localized nuisance", Bennett's staff was keeping him appraised of the aftermath from the Black Sunday megastorm. He filibustered, maintaining the floor until the skies outside suddenly darkened. "This, gentlemen, is what I am talking about. There!" He thrust a finger towards a window and the pitch maelstrom outside, "There goes the great State of Oklahoma!" In a week's time Congress amended the Bill and, on April 27th, the Soil Conservation Service was founded as part of the Department of Agriculture... with Bennett at its head.

[@keithdavison2960]

Can’t even begin to imagine what it was like to witness let alone survive through, to make matters worse the Great Depression was easily avoidable

[@GrievousReborn]

I remember learning about the dust bowl in middle school or junior high school

[@dinap3515]

This was a well done and informative video. I was surprised you didn't mention the Navajo livestock reduction in the 1930s, though. It was pretty horrendous on the government's part and was supposedly related to the dust bowl. Maybe you guys can do a future video about that subject?

[@MLadyAzzera]

Simon, you always do a great job on your videos. Another great vid!

[@youtuberreviewer4040]

“Squarespace, google hates us”

[@wnyoutdoors8515]

There's a book called The Worst Hard Time. It's a great book about the dust bowl. It should be read in every high school across America.

[@calvinwood7048]

As someone who lives in Kansas, I just want to point out that most of the trees across the state were planted by humans in hopes of protecting from another dust-bowl in the future. There were next to no natural trees here beforehand. We had lots of natural grasses before that were never replaced. Instead, we have trees.

[@jeremykinsey9051]

Born and raised in Oklahoma, to rehab the land, the Dept of interior dropped seeds outa aircraft. Lots of thorn bushes and hemlock

[@FallenRingbearer]

I don't know how prevalent this is. A small quirk from the Dust Bowl is to put away all dishes glasses and pans upside down to keep dust off the used surfaces. My grandmother and her family were Okies and wore that title with pride.

[@spider_pig7588]

According to the in depth Ken Burns documentary all plowing destroys the prairie grass but deep plowing was actually the more sustainable method. Farmers started shallow plowing because it was faster and easier. Shallow plowing practices are what are generally blamed for making the site worse.

[@drgonzo305]

They didn't know about brawndo ( it's got what plants need) ......(it's got electrolytes)

[@ball7066]

Idiocracy - A dust bowl of politics that is rapidly smothering the USA and world in the year 2020.

[@edgarpryor3233]

It's got what plants crave.

[@loganholmberg2295]

You forgot the great soil reclamation projects which did far more to help than the trees. Anyone reading this please check out the Ken Burns documentary on this which covers this event on MUCH more detail, From the response california had to the refuges to the hurculean efforts farmers and the gov went through to fix the problem. A problem cause more by corporate farming and lack of knowledge on those watersheds. There were huge numbers of farms manage by people from out of state with no knowledge of farming....something thats starting to happen again.

[@questionablebackyardmeows]

Honestly, this is the consequence of the non-Indigenous settlers' own actions :( Indigenous people knew how to manage the steppe...

[@BichaelStevens]

Okay Chief Salt-Tears go drink listerine

[@indy_go_blue6048]

Yes, they managed it by not managing it, just roaming back and forth fighting with one another and killing what they needed. I guess it did work for them for the few hundred years they had horses.

[@sivonni]

Both my maternal and paternal grandparents moved to California to work the fields to escape financial hardship during this time frame, one set from Texas, the other from Oklahoma. Now most of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren have moved back to Texas and Oklahoma to escape financial hardship. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♂️

[@bcs2em625]

18:39 After hearing the narrator mention Woody Guthrie, I was almost certain that he was next going to mention Merle Haggard-IMO the greatest country music legend of all time and one whose cultural impact would be worth mentioning.

[@seppemanderick497]

this makes me think of Interstellar

[@0fficialdregs]

can you do a video about central park in nyc? there used to be a black community where the park now resides

[@maxjallen]

I thoroughly enjoy Simon and watched this back to back with the Black Wall Street video. I'm hoping he comes up with something nice about Tulsa.

[@edwardludwig6360]

Great episode!!! One correction though, stock market crash in the US 1929 was Black Tuesday, Black Monday was the 1987 Dow Jones drop

[@dockerdave]

The wonderful Ken Burns did a fascinating doco series on this.

[@DadOfCall]

Simon for Tuber of the year, decade, and king of narrative explanation 🎉😅❤

[@lyleslaton3086]

Whenever I feel hopeful about the future, I watch a Simon video and he reminds us, how bad the past sucked and that there is no hope for humanity.

[@lindachandler2293]

It just tells me no matter how well we plan and think we're doing it right Mother Nature can destroy it all.

[@accountrd1]

Excellent video and very informative

[@aaronkochenrath5863]

Glad he mentioned Woody Guthrie. Some amazing folk music came out if this era. Hard times

[@JEBavido]

When referencing the mis-held idea that farming would change the climate for the better, I was surprised when you didn't mention tree lots. Tree lots were granted along with homestead claims, not just after the disaster, with the idea that planting trees throughout the Great Plains would change the climate. An idea that I think many would fall for even today.

[@georgiaayres5805]

I remember both my parents telling me stories about the "Dust Bowl" days.

[@gabrielhowardMKE]

My father told me so many stories from these times, he was born in 1930, I was born in 1980 - as a Gen X'r I have a weird almost tangible connection to this time in American history.

[@reginaldinoenchillada3513]

"Maybe if we just ignore the environment it will just go away." Ignorance is expensive.

[@John-wx3zn]

That dust was very sad.

[@brianmaldonado3723]

Thank you.

[@thugnomics123]

Man you have got to do a Biographics on John Steinbeck. He wrote about this topic so beautifully in the "Grapes of wrath".

[@shagreflinn]

I watch too much Business Blaze, you make a pun like "the dust bowl was a dark cloud in American history" amd Im waiting for the BAH DUH BUM BUM TSHHHHHHHH!

[@dennisstahlman135]

Hey Simon, As I was watching this video on the Dust Bowl; I had a thought. Is there a correlation between the dust bowl conditions and the sudden disappearance of the Anastasi ?????? Meaning at the time the Anastasi decline was the a drought going on??? Might make an interesting subject for a video.

[@vladimir.zlokazov]

Nobody is learning on others' mistakes it seems. In the USSR the Kazakhstan stepes were overexploited in much the same way in the 50s and 60s and largely eroded as a result.

[@theidahotraveler]

ya i live in he high alipine desert same same cold at night and beautiful all day

[@brendenbaxter3269]

Actually the idea that you can change the weather by growing more plants and adding more water is true Look into clouds over Los Vegas So many people have lawns that it forms clouds over the suburbs

[@Nathan-vt1jz]

I had no idea the dust bowl was this bad.

[@mancavegamingandgardening9901]

Simon, since we are in America, can we get a Geographics about Action Park? Old amusement park in New Jersey that was famous for all the injuries and safety oversights. If not, can we at least get it on the Blaze since corporate oversight is hilariously bad with hindsight

[@goober5713]

I've been in sand storms before and they are just miserable. I can't imagine being in one for a few years

[@CodyFoxworthy]

Last time I was this early the Weiner republic still had promise.

[@PolskiHetman]

It was the Weimar republic, but weiner better describes what it really was, a total mess.

[@jl1626]

You should do Oak Island at some point

[@asifnothingeverhappend]

Great video. Super interesting!

[@IndigoBellyDance]

As a amateur gardener: got to say….. what were people thinking??? Your garden is Only as good as the soil , if a farmer is Only taking and not giving back to the soil well….. this is what happens. In all fairness we have not done much better w/today’s agriculture

[@TheJustthedoctor12]

If you haven't already done it, I suggest an episode on the Greenwood district of Tulsa. It's an interesting and horrible story.

[@AdorableAcushla]

Says a certain word was used derogatorily, proceeds to repeatedly use it.

[@risboturbide9396]

Sublime! Merci Simon

[@Homeschoolsw6]

Okie Doke.

[@AdelineDavis]

I enjoy the fact that the Midwest does not mean the same as mid west. Caught me off guard

[@antwonesaquan1716]

I want Simon to speak at my funeral

[@piperar2014]

"Rain follows the plow." I wonder what people believe today that will be considered utterly stupid in the future.

[@UV980]

Is that an acoustic version of Amazing by Kanye in the background at the beginning

[@lukisnootis5708]

Simon could I hire you to present my school slideshow?

[@sirandrelefaedelinoge]

"We come with the dust And we're gone with the wind..." (Woody Guthrie)

[@ewestner]

It's nice to know that it wasn't just poor immigrants from other countries who were treated badly in my country but also poor citizens transplanted from the midwest to the coastal cities....sigh.

[@Mrblackfox966]

Why doesn’t any mention that this also effect Canada as well my city has a park of it museum dedicated to this event

[@indy_go_blue6048]

Simon pretty much focused just on that region of the plains regarded as the heart of the dust bowl, centered around Dalhart, TX. He could've expanded it to include the nearly 1/3 of the Midwest and Canada that were also drought stricken. IIRC the Joad's in "Grapes of Wrath" were from Arkansas.

[@redbagreadbooks5399]

I just finished reading a book about this topic!

[@carlcole6311]

The Worst Hard Time?

[@williamdistefano5698]

Good stuff

[@danpomykalski1172]

It’s “Woody.” By the way, if you aren’t aware who Woody Guthrie is, he’s worth looking up.

[@omnibussy]

he didn't slap the script oh, sorry wrong Simon

[@azeller09]

This just reminds me of Courage the Cowardly Dog

[@suesochko1662]

We need a new Henry Wallace, NOW

[@liamkirby4157]

Anyone know the song played at the end? Sounds so familiar.

[@PeterCombs]

GRAPES OF WRATH

[@peterxyz3541]

Great vid, fascinating event! Human contributed to a natural drought with bad farming practices

[@tenhirankei]

@17:05 Were those trees able to grow so that they could do that, or were they also victims of the dust storms?

[@davidkepley4396]

I know of a hedge row of crabapple trees that were planted circa1880 that survived the dust bowl and thrived all though the 20th century. They are I believe, still alive to this day. Cottonwood and willow did fine until irrigation lowered the water table. The Bosque of the dry Cimarron and Arkansas rivers suffered as well with the advent of irrigation.

[@larrywoolford8978]

The explanation of “bad farming practices “ is not really correct , the farming practices of the time were simply traditional farming practices that didn’t work on short grass plains . The farmers of the time simply didn’t have the experience or technology to properly work the land at the time .

[@jonpeterson1614]

Northwest Texas is called the panhandle. Not that it matters.

[@LarsaXL]

Why is it always on this channel: "Oh, those people have fallen on hard times, let's discriminate against them."

[@ryancoulter4797]

Have you done the 1927 flood yet?

[@TrineDaely]

Their reasoning was wrong but at least they believed human behavior affects weather. With all the wildfires I guess the Ash Bowl is next.

[@sirnik84]

My family is 4 generations of California farmers. Just yesterday my dad was telling me about how when he was a kid calling someone an "Okie" was a real insult. He said today some of the best farmers in CA are self described "Okies" There is a lesson in there about all immigrants. The people working the menial jobs today could be running the place in a generation, show some respect.

[@jenniferhof9448]

My dad and his family were affected by the dust bowl in both Nebraska and Iowa and ultimately migrated to Colorado's front range. A lot of the children who grew up in this then dealt with WWII. The amount of hardship this generation saw is just unbelievable.

[@enthusedfern]

And people think the world is oppressive now. We have innovated ourselves into an easy and convenient life.

[@Bitchslapper316]

That's why the USA came out of it so strong. People had to work hard and fight for their survival making the general population stronger as a whole. A stark contrast to the entitled, lazy useless shits today.

[@ScaryAppul-114]

@@Bitchslapper316 ima be honest I am probably a lazy shit but at least I don’t get offended by everything like some people now

[@justinsutton5005]

@@Bitchslapper316 Lazy my ass. You took the greatest age of prosperity they left us and ruined it for your own gain.

[@Catbirdmom2]

The depression, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, civil rights marches, space exploration, etc. this is why they are called the Greatest Generation. Those of us born after them have not had to deal with half the tragedies we think we have.

[@sowerscattleco3484]

We ranch in New Mexico where this happen. There is still dust in the walls in all the building that were standing then. It was so fine it got into everything. One of our barns still had rolled up cow hides in the rafters from when the government came in and shot all the animals. They paid 5 dollars a head and shot everything alive to stop them from starving

[@99Z155]

They talk about that in the book “the worst hard time”. More in the Dalhart area but I’m sure it was in most of these areas.

[@sowerscattleco3484]

@@99Z155 im 45 miles west of there

[@civic9404]

I’m a Sowers

[@sowerscattleco3484]

@@civic9404 from where

[@civic9404]

@@sowerscattleco3484 Central Illinois farmland is where I was born and raised. I’ve since moved onto Northern Colorado near the Wyoming border.

[@rickhobson3211]

The other impact was that small family farmers lost their lands to banks. This set the stage for mega- corporate farms later.

[@Beryllahawk]

Yeah, this was one of things I was taught in school (I grew up in western Texas) - that the banks came through when the land prices bottomed out, and bought everything they could get their hands on... then found ways to "persuade" most of the remaining families to sell and scram. One of my grandfathers had a very bitter attitude about the whole thing, though he himself was a tiny child at that time (he was born 1932) his family was devastated. He would say sometimes that the corporate farmers had sold their souls and the souls of their neighbors for a few dollars an acre.

[@ronfullerton3162]

And then along comes 1979 and they run a bunch more farmers off the land. Over a decade after that before the family farm made any good money. I love those who never lived the farm life but love to crucify the industry. Most of the things people hate are at the corporate farms. For a family farm, that land and it's animals are their life and is treated with respect.

[@WokeandProud]

Peak capitalism.

[@atodaso1668]

@@ronfullerton3162 I love hearing the opinions of people that have never worked on or lived on a farm about how to run a farm.

[@ronfullerton3162]

@@atodaso1668 Isn't it something? There were some out there making bad decisions and we're heading towards the end on their own. But more than one good operator lost their farm because of nothing more than the banks panicked and jerked the rug out from under the farmer. It was hard to watch, as an old farm boy. I loved the life, and would of gladly gone back. But it wasn't in the cards.

[@benheal6466]

Simon didn’t talk about Canada because he was too scared to say Saskatchewan. We sure as hell got the dust bowl too

[@easybreezy9666]

Yeah I was surprised we didn’t get a mention in there good video none the less

[@phantomechelon3628]

If only you'd been from British Columbia - I'm sure he'd have been okay with that. 😁

[@leonb2637]

Indeed, the Western plains of Canada were severely affected by the drought too. In part the creation of the government run health care systems that would eventually be across Canada would start in the Western provinces.

[@EraZero250]

I'm in Southern Alberta as a transplant from my beloved BC.... seeing all the barren farmland without a tree for miles is not only heartwrenching for personal reason but when the dust storms here kick up, it's not too far of a stretch of the imagination knowing that another 5-10 years of the drought we're having, will render this place from a commercial farm wasteland, into a dusty hellscape.

[@mho...]

i said it before i say it again: *The Modern Shipping Container* and its impact on global trade needs an episode on geographics!, nothing has changed the planet like these millions of steel boxes traveling the globe every day!

[@stevehomeier8368]

Yes Simon, what he says!!!!!!

[@gabrielhowardMKE]

Absolutely!

[@baronvonjo1929]

I love maritimes history. The damn container brought and end to passenger cargo ships. Not full passenger ships but not oure cargo ships. Really neat.

[@IowasDirtyCivilian]

I second this!

[@MajesticSkywhale]

@@baronvonjo1929 and nowadays boarding on a cargo ship across an ocean is like 10x the cost of flying, thus only a rare novelty and not practical anymore :( I'd love to go to europe or asia by boat

[@kreiner1]

In oklahoma this time is often referred to as "The dirty 30s"

[@micahphilson]

Is this a midwestern thing? In Nebraska, that term is as common as "The Roarin' '20s".

[@kreiner1]

@@micahphilson pretty common here and soooooo not midwest lol

[@CutieBanana09]

Jennie Kreiner I’m in Oklahoma too and haven’t heard that term, but then again it’s not like I talk about the dust bowl at work or anything.

[@winnifredforbes8712]

Also used here in the prairies of western Canada. 🇨🇦

[@AtheistPilgrim]

@@micahphilson The Roarin' 20s had nothing to do with the Dust Bowl. It was about the prosperity of the 1920s. The Dust Bowl happened in the 1930s as the economy was collapsing.

[@christopherjustice6411]

Ahh yes, the dust bowl. We in Kansas know it well. Or as I like to call it “That time the ground itself tried to kill us.”

[@lonnarheaj]

It's more like the land was fighting back. People farmed the only way they knew how, which didn't work well for where they were farming. A drought was only the tipping point for a disaster that was destined to occur.

[@Dr-Weird]

As a fellow Kansan, I can confirm stories through my grandparents, indeed the ground did try to kill us all. And it was "Uphill" both ways

[@Dr-Weird]

@@lonnarheaj truth, but also add in the fact that we literally went from old single blade plows, to a straight line of 5 rotating plow blades, we could till up more ground quicker and more of it.

[@gomezjosepha.4860]

@@Dr-Weird @Christopher Justice.... the land was never yours to begin with. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the Homestead Act of 1862 were the seeds that gave birth to the dust bowl. Settlers had no clue, knowledge, experience and whom never have seen it before, destroyed the Great Plains in one generation 1862-1930.

[@elainehiggins713]

@@gomezjosepha.4860 Oh, yes. Let us give the land back to the indigenous peoples, move back to Europe or wherever we came from, take the blacks back to their homeland, and everything will be hunky dory. Sounds good to me. Feel better now?

[@SquirtleHK]

I'm so impressed my 93 year old Grandma's lungs are okay after surviving the Dust Bowl in her youth! Her lungs are actually healthy even now😊

[@sophievieira2873]

My Grandma is 92 years old and the same goes for her

[@yeetghostrat]

My grandmother's an Oakie who just turned 90, and she's been smoking like a fish since she was 13. Her lungs are healthy. I don't know how. Her doctor wants to take her body for science when she dies.

[@kybravo3744]

God bless you and your family

[@bolshoibooze8010]

Dusty lungs, lead paint, leaded gasoline, trans fat, stocks crashed, WWII, communism, no seat belts, gun safety class in school, no minimum wage, drinking from hose, get spanked by mom and dad, nuclear crisis....good old days...you'll live. Newer generation : Trump has mean tweets : "He's killing us!!! REEEEEEEE..."

[@mho...]

reminds me of my grandma who made it to 86 without loosing any of her teeth whatsoever! that generation was just "better" then we are today 🤔😅

[@RZethusE]

A little while back I watched the doc that was narrated by Ken Burns. Blew my damn mind.

[@shelbybrown8312]

Yeah thats a good great doc but Him and his team are always great

[@bobgunter9608]

All his work is great and so is his brother rick he did one on the donner party.

[@sandybarnes887]

He did a great many superb ones. Loved them.

[@mystic_tacos]

Ken Burns is my favorite documentary filmmaker!! I love his Civil War one especially.

[@indy_go_blue6048]

Ken Egan, author of "The Worst Hard Times" (and I think he was in Burn's docu) also did a very good video on the Dust Bowl. Sorry I can't think of it's name.

[@ignitionfrn2223]

2:45 - Chapter 1 - Contributing factors 9:35 - Mid roll ads 10:45 - Chapter 2 - The storms begins 12:55 - Chapter 3 - Human impact 16:20 - Chapter 4 - Government response 17:30 - Chapter 5 - Post drought & cultural legacy

[@lebby1688]

Thanks for these. I search for your comment on almost all his videos now to skip the sponsorship ads.

[@joedirty553]

I was born and raised in Boise City, Oklahoma. In the west side of the panhandle. That's where the picture of the man and his kids walking to their was taken at. Decades after the dust bowl you could still find dirt from the dust bowl in buildings and houses that were still around. A couple of years ago it was drier than it was during the dust bowl time. There were constant dust storms but because of better farming practices nothing like the dust bowl happened.

[@jepito29]

I grew up in Boise City too. Class of ‘99

[@shmujew4791]

BULLSHIT , UNTIL 1960 HIGH TEMPERATURES WERE THE NORM .....NOTHING TO DO WITH FARMING PRACTICES OR CARBON IN THE ATMOSPHERE

[@IndigoBellyDance]

Curious what some if the better farming practices are??