Oklahoma: The Dust Bowl

In World War I the great demand for farm products brought an agricultural boom to the state, but in the 1920s the state fell upon hard times. Recurrent drought burned the wheat in the fields, and overplanting, overgrazing, and unscientific cropping aided the weather in making Oklahoma part of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Farm tenancy increased in the 1920s, and in both the east and west the farms tended more and more to be held by large interests and to be consolidated in large blocks.

A great number of tenant farmers were compelled to leave their dust-stricken farms and went west as migrant laborers; the tragic plight of these “Okies” is the theme of John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath. With the return of rains, however, and with increasing care in selecting crops and in conserving and utilizing water and soil resources, much of the Dust Bowl again became productive farm land. The demand for food in World War II and federal price supports for agricultural products after the war further aided farm prosperity.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Irrigation and an Oil Boom
• The Dust Bowl
• Oklahoma Territory and Statehood
• Cattle, Railroads, and Boomers
• Indian Territory
• The Native American Heritage
• Government and Higher Education
• Economy
• Geography
• Facts and Figures
• Bibliography

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