The Dust Bowl and How The Texas Panhandle Played a Role
- Tristan Forbis
- Jan 10, 2022
- 2 min read

If you can remember back to your History classes that you took in school you are probably familiar with the Dust Bowl era and the role it played on the U.S. in the 1930s. This was a period of no moisture of any kind for weeks and months on end where vegetation was extremely dry and soil could barely hold to the ground which caused the wind to pick up grains and create a dust storm where all you saw was a black sky and no sun was shining anywhere. This area included the mid south states and this includes all of the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles. The population in this area especially the farmers and ranchers found it extremely difficult to grow crops of any kind and this caused the market to slow down due to a lack of farm to market distribution.

The crop seeds during this time would be picked up and blown off the field and end up not growing at all even after planting. The skies were literally black and if you went outside all you would smell is dirt and grits. The age of this would last until the late 30s when the weather patterns finally changed. I have seen days in the Panhandle that were windy and dusty but no where near these times. If you can paint a picture in your mind of you at work or in class doing something and all of a sudden do to the high winds the power goes out. If you were living in those days you would grab a candle and light it. I picture my friends telling me it’s time to go take shelter and the teachers instructing students to go home after the storm. You never know how things would turn out.

If you look at the picture above you see what i am talking about. Going outside would be extremely difficult in these conditions because the dust and dirt would be in the air swirling around and you would not want to breath in the components that might lie within the sand. I would be praying hard for the ranchers if this happened in my day and stock up on masks at my house in case I had something outside to do during a wind storm.

The Dust Bowl age would last until the early to mid 1940s when the plains and flatland would finally start to get moisture in the ground to settle the dust into crops. By this time we would begin to see vegetation make a comeback and distribution starting on farmers markets once again. The Industrial Revolution has brought about so many advances in equipment that ranchers use today to keep crops thriving. Every time you get groceries consisting of fruits or vegetables think of the moisture that made this happen for consumers. During this Dust Bowl shortage consumers were constantly having to come up with ways to get food and water. This was before the age of bottled water so you had to boil the very grainy water and drink it after all the bacteria was gone.

This was a part of American History that had great significance and for years to come we will remember this and reflect on the event in the near future.
-Tristan

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