Episodes
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Reaping the Whirlwind
S1 E2 - 1h 55m
Black Sunday was only halfway through the decade-long crisis. The storms continued. The Great Depression still affected people. Government programs were instituted to help. Learn what FDR’s administration did to try to keep the southern Plains from becoming a North American Sahara desert. Find out why some residents finally decided they had to give up and move somewhere else and how some held on.
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The Great Plow-Up
S1 E1 - 1h 55m
The grasslands of the southern Plains were rapidly turned into wheat fields. Then following the early years of the drought, storms killed crops and livestock and literally rearranged the landscape. The worst storm of them all was on April 14, 1935—Black Sunday—a searing experience for everyone caught in it, including a young songwriter from Pampa, Texas, named Woody Guthrie.
Extras + Features
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Reaping the Whirlwind | Preview
S1 E2 - 30s
Experience the conservation efforts to bring farms back to life, with dangers of another Dust Bowl in the future.
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Black Blizzards
S1 - 2m 42s
Hear from Donald Worster about the increasing number of dust storms the area faced.
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Hugh Bennett
S1 - 1m 50s
Hugh Bennett went on a fact finding trip through the Great Plains in search of a solution.
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Snowstorm
S1 - 24s
More hope came to the dust bowl after a snowstorm hit the Great Plains.
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Robert Boots McCoy Talks About The Southern Great Plains
S1 - 1m 13s
Robert Boots McCoy talks about the southern Great Plains
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Mechanized Agriculture
S1 - 4m 39s
Modern machinery made wheat farming more efficient and profitable.
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The Coen Brothers Talk About Jack Rabbits
S1 - 42s
The Coen Brothers talk about jack rabbits.
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Recollection
S1 - 7m 54s
Meet some of the people who lived in the Great Plains and learn a little about the area. The Dust Bowl airs on PBS Nov 18 & 19, 2012.
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First Look | A Storm is Coming
S1 - 20s
The Dust Bowl was the worst man made ecological disaster in American History.
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Recovery
S1 - 4m 20s
In 1935, 850 million acres of topsoil are swept off the Great Plains, with more dust storms to come. President Franklin Roosevelt’s inner circle does not want the area to turn into an “Arabian Desert.”
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Modern Machinery
S1 - 47s
Learn how modern machinery made farming more efficient.
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New Deal Programs
S1 - 3m 39s
Help came to the Great Plains by way of New Deal programs.
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