The Dust Bowl/Okie & Arkies by Thomas Basso

Dust Bowl Introduction Video

tbasso3 — 2025-01-22 20:10:40 UTC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-rBhbkvtm0

This video provides a short 4-minute long introduction to what the Dust Bowl was, what caused it, and who was affected by it. It also provides us with footage (albeit very choppy footage) of the areas affected by the dust bowl during the 1930s. I felt like this video served a good purpose as the first post so that viewers have a bit of context and background info while reading the rest of the posts.

Dust Bowl Painting

tbasso3 — 2025-01-22 20:13:45 UTC

I felt like this painting did a good job of portraying the mood of the dust bowl through its barren landscape the ominous shade of red of the sky as a dust storm approaches in the distance. The layers of sand from previous dust storms makes the landscape look like a desert, which shows how significant the effects of the dust storms were in the plains regions of the U.S. during the 1930s.

Dust Bowl Photograph #1

tbasso3 — 2025-01-22 20:15:50 UTC

This photograph shows a vehicle that's completely submerged in dust from a recent dust storm. This picture highlights the destructive nature of the storms and the conditions people had to endure during that time period.

Dust Bowl Photograph #2

tbasso3 — 2025-01-22 22:04:49 UTC

This photograph shows a massive dust storm descending on a town in Texas during the year 1935. The size of these storms were massive, and I felt like this photo really illustrates that and captures just how destructive the dust storms were during this time period.

Dust Bowl Photograph #3

tbasso3 — 2025-01-22 22:06:58 UTC

This is a map of the U.S. showing the areas that the dust storms appeared. Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas received the most damage, but it's important to remember that the dust from these storms was often swept east by the winds and reached as far as Washington D.C and New York City.

tbasso3 — 2025-01-23 16:53:27 UTC

This poem shines the light on the frustrating struggle of living during the Dust Bowl. The author describes the overwhelming and suffocating presence of dust during the Dust Bowl, as it invades every space possible. I feel like this poem really shows how despite efforts to clean and restore order, the dust always returns. Very annoying!

Dust Bowl Infographic

tbasso3 — 2025-01-23 17:01:00 UTC

The bar graph on the right shows the number of dust storms in the plains region in the 1930s. As you can see, the years 1936, 1937, and 1938 were the worst years of the Dust Bowl. On the left, there's some data describing the amount of soil damage that was caused by the dust storms.

Okie/Arkie Cartoon

tbasso3 — 2025-01-23 17:09:31 UTC

People migrating to California from the plains region were called "Okies" or "Arkies". Since these people were often poor and filthy, people used the term as an insult towards them, even if they weren't necessarily from Oklahoma or Arkansas. This cartoon shows a man sweeping away dust, which includes a migrating farmer which shows how people regarded these migrators as "garbage" or "useless".

Okie Photograph

tbasso3 — 2025-01-24 02:35:55 UTC

This picture shows an "okie" family traveling on a dirt road towards California in order to escape the dust storms. They're very poor and their belongings are few, which is why some groups of people looked down upon these migrators and saw them as pests during the 1930s.

Grasshopper Sketch

tbasso3 — 2025-01-24 02:42:55 UTC

This is a drawing of a massive grasshopper (blech) crushing a human farmer. During the dust bowl, the hot and dry climate was perfect for insects like grasshoppers to thrive, and so the grasshopper populations in the plains regions increased significantly during this time period. The grasshoppers would eat away all the crops, and make farmer's lives very miserable which is why this giant grasshopper is shown crushing a farmer in the fields.