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

  • Roosevelt Weather: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Roosevelt Weather

    S1 - 50s

    FDR tours the Panhandle. The Dust Bowl airs on PBS November 18 and 19, 2012.

  • Woody Guthrie: Okies: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Woody Guthrie: Okies

    S1 - 2m 19s

    No matter their state of origin, all newcomers were dubbed Okies when they crossed the California border. Woody Guthrie talks about the extreme poverty he had seen across the country and sings "I Ain't Got No Home (In This World Any More)".

  • Relief: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Relief

    S1 - 6m 43s

    Social worker Dorothy Williamson describes her experiences talking with victims of the Dust Bowl. What help there was came from Washington, D.C., with programs such as the CCC, NYA, or WPA.

  • Wheat Will Win the War: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Wheat Will Win the War

    S1 - 1m 12s

    Learn about what caused "The Great Plow Up" and the slogan "Wheat Will Win the War."

  • Suicides: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Suicides

    S1 - 1m 52s

    Multiple suicides took place during the Dust Bowl in the southern Great Plains.

  • Heading West: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Heading West

    S1 - 1m 30s

    Some people packed up their families and headed west.

  • Mr. Huff: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Mr. Huff

    S1 - 4m 33s

    Raymond Huff, Superindendent of Schools of Union County hired the entire town to build the new high school in Clayton, NM. He used the WPA to save the County.

  • Tex Pace: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Tex Pace

    S1 - 5m 8s

    Tex Pace left the panhandle for CA and convinced his family to follow him. He lived and worked in Visalia, CA in a new work camp. He met his wife Dorothy at a camp talent show and got married at the local movie theater.

  • Sanora's Return: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Sanora's Return

    S1 - 3m 26s

    Sanora Babb, a journalist from No Man's Land, returns to her childhood home and is struck by the leveling of social distinction between her old neighbors.

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