Image in the public domain
The Dust Bowl was one of the worst man-made environmental disasters. It turned the southern Great Plains of the U.S. into a desert. When the native prairie grass was pulled out and replaced with wheat fields, the loose soil had nothing to hold it in place, so the dirt blew away in the wind. As the dirt traveled, it gathered into enormous dust storms that choked people and animals. Listen to hear archival interviews with people who lived through the Dust Bowl and an early recording of the poem "Hard Luck Okie," which examines the reasons why people moved West during the Dust Bowl.