NARRATOR: During the 1930s a terrible drought struck Texas and the Great Plains. This one was different from any drought in the past. It triggered a decade long series of dust storms that became known as the Dust Bowl. The causes of the Dust Bowl were both natural and man made. Lack of rainfall made the ground that grew wheat, corn, and other valuable crops parched and cracked. Over farming and outdated agricultural techniques eroded the once fertile topsoil and depleted the ground of its nutrients.

In Texas many dust storms were mild, but there were a few severe ones called black blizzards. Picture a snowstorm, but instead of fluffy snow falling from the sky, imagine dark, choking dust swirling all around.

REPORTER: The dust storms bring darkness at noon.

NARRATOR: The worst of these black blizzards struck with a vengeance on April 14, 1935. It is often called Black Sunday by survivors, and the Texas panhandle was the hardest hit area of the state. The storm carried the dust and topsoil so far that ships anchored 300 miles off the coast reported finding dust on their decks. Newspapers from across the country feverishly reported about Black Sunday, including Associated Press reporter Robert Geiger, who was credited with coining the phrase the Dust Bowl.

As he wrote, three little words achingly familiar on a Western farmer's tongue, rural life today in the Dust Bowl of the continent. If it rains. While Texas and the Great Plains faced the Dust Bowl, the rest of the country sank into the Great Depression following the stock market crash of 1929. With the livelihoods of most Texans tied to farming and living off the land, the prices for any and all crops dropped severely due to the depression.

Sonora Babb, a California journalist originally from Kansas, returned home to visit her mother and could not believe what had become of the Plains and its downtrodden people. She reflected, "I saw them standing in line for the meat and potatoes of relief. Their stricken faces one after another in the line looked very much alike."

As the soil that had once helped feed the nation turned to dust, many were forced to leave Texas in search of better farmland. Those who remained, however, received help from the federal government. The Civilian Conservation Corps was put in place to not only give people work, but also to try to conserve the soil and reverse the Dust Bowl. The CCC planted 200 million trees from Abilene, Texas, all the way to Canada.

Another project called The Works Progress Administration or WPA employed millions of Texans on public projects. Most WPA jobs in Texas were in construction. Parks, swimming pools, bridges, highways were all built by hardworking Texans. Just as man made and natural occurrences triggered the Dust Bowl, those same two forces helped end it. Rain began to fall more frequently, and the temperatures cooled. Farmers updated and changed their farming techniques to keep the top soil healthy and fertile. The Dust Bowl taught Texans many important lessons about the land and how the health of it affects their society, economy, and community.