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Lower Plains: Kansas, Nebraska

serious problem: dust storms. The prairie grass had acted as a natural protective barrier against erosion. Without the thick roots of the grass to hold the soil in place, the plowed land was exposed to the strong winds of the Plains. When periods of drought hit, the fragile topsoil blew away in great clouds of dust. The 1930s were a period of severe

state, vast expanses of prairie were plowed up to plant crops. Kansas quickly established itself as one of the nation’s top farm states. By the mid- 1880s, flour milling had become its leading industry. Kansas’ agricultural boom was a mixed blessing. In good years, many farmers prospered. But cultivating the prairie left the land vulnerable to a

A huge cloud of dust can be seen behind the buildings in the city of Elkhart, in southwestern Kansas, May 1937. A series of droughts during the 1930s were compounded by the use of farm- ing methods that were not appropriate for the Great Plains. These created the conditions for mas- sive dust storms, and ultimately resulted in thousands of Kansas families having to abandon their unprofitable farms.