The Dust Bowl

During the Great Depression, an eight-year drought struck the Great Plains in the United States. The drought, coupled with soil erosion, caused massive dust storms. The area, which became called the Dust Bowl, became nearly uninhabitable as dust piled up like snow outside homes. People who breathed in the massive amounts of dust often came down with respiratory illnesses, called the brown plague. Find out more about what caused the Dust Bowl and how it finally ended.