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Despite all the dust and the wind, Farmers were putting in crops, making no crops, and barely living off of barnyard products. They had crop failures 5 years in a row due to the drought. During the Dust Bowl years, life was a challenge for those who remained on the Plains. They battled constantly to keep the dust out of their homes and it was very difficult to grow plants without the topsoil. Winds during the dustbowl reached up to 40Mph and sandblasted more than 75 percent of the U.S.

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During the dust bowl, many farmers migrated and were nicknamed "Okies". For example, the population of a rural area outside of Boise City, Oklahoma, dropped by 40%, with 1,642 small farmers and their families pulling up stakes. The Dust Bowl exodus was the country's biggest migration. By 1940, 2.5 million individuals had left the Plains states, with 200,000 of them settling in California.

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During the dust bowl of the 1930s, the Government planted 220 million trees to stop the soil from blowing around and they also doubled as a wind-break. Another solution many farmers ended up finding was moving to California because they believed that would lead to a better life.

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“That was when I learned that kindness could break a heart just as sure as meanness".

“Dust and dark married, creating a pillow to smother hard on our faces.”