History

The Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl chronicles the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history, in which the frenzied wheat boom of the Great Plow-Up, followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation.

Reaping the Whirlwind

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.

Episodes

  • Reaping the Whirlwind: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    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.

  • The Great Plow-Up: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    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

  • Reaping the Whirlwind | Preview: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    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.

  • Black Blizzards: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Black Blizzards

    S1 -

    Hear from Donald Worster about the increasing number of dust storms the area faced.

  • Hugh Bennett: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Hugh Bennett

    S1 -

    Hugh Bennett went on a fact finding trip through the Great Plains in search of a solution.

  • Snowstorm: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Snowstorm

    S1 -

    More hope came to the dust bowl after a snowstorm hit the Great Plains.

  • Recollection: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Recollection

    S1 -

    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.

  • Recovery: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Recovery

    S1 -

    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.”

  • Okies: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Okies

    S1 -

    Woody Guthrie sings “I Ain’t Got No Home” and talks of how the migrant families traveling to California inspired him. The immigrant population explodes in California as thousands of people move there to find work and a better life. Those from the Dust Bowl, whether they are from Oklahoma or not, are called “Okies.”

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