Episodes
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Reaping the Whirlwind
S1 E2 - 1h 55m
Black Sunday was only halfway through the decade-long crisis. The storms continued. The Great Depression still affected people. Government programs were instituted to help. Learn what FDR’s administration did to try to keep the southern Plains from becoming a North American Sahara desert. Find out why some residents finally decided they had to give up and move somewhere else and how some held on.
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The Great Plow-Up
S1 E1 - 1h 55m
The grasslands of the southern Plains were rapidly turned into wheat fields. Then following the early years of the drought, storms killed crops and livestock and literally rearranged the landscape. The worst storm of them all was on April 14, 1935—Black Sunday—a searing experience for everyone caught in it, including a young songwriter from Pampa, Texas, named Woody Guthrie.
Extras + Features
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Buying Land
S1 -
Land prices are going up and people say the climate is undergoing a permanent shift.
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Jack Rabbits
S1 -
Plagues of jack rabbits swarmed the great plains destroying everything in their path.
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Gas Money
S1 -
"Do you have enough gas money?" Some people moved west to get away from the storms.
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Sanora Babb's Account Beat Out by the Grapes of Wrath
S1 -
Sanora Babb sent chapters of her book back to New York, but John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is so popular, that her editor recommends holding off on publication. It is eventually published in 2004, a year before her death.
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Snowstorm
S1 -
More hope came to the dust bowl after a snowstorm hit the Great Plains.
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Robert Boots McCoy Talks About The Southern Great Plains
S1 -
Robert Boots McCoy talks about the southern Great Plains
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Mechanized Agriculture
S1 -
Modern machinery made wheat farming more efficient and profitable.
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The Coen Brothers Talk About Jack Rabbits
S1 -
The Coen Brothers talk about jack rabbits.
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Recollection
S1 -
Meet some of the people who lived in the Great Plains and learn a little about the area. The Dust Bowl airs on PBS Nov 18 & 19, 2012.
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First Look | A Storm is Coming
S1 - 20s
The Dust Bowl was the worst man made ecological disaster in American History.
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Recovery
S1 -
In 1935, 850 million acres of topsoil are swept off the Great Plains, with more dust storms to come. President Franklin Roosevelt’s inner circle does not want the area to turn into an “Arabian Desert.”
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Modern Machinery
S1 -
Learn how modern machinery made farming more efficient.
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