USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Roughly 2.5 million people left the Dust Bowl states-Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma-during the 1930s. It was one of the largest migrations in American history. Oklahoma alone lost 440, 000 people to migration. Many of them, poverty-stricken, traveled west looking for work.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Dust Bowl exodus was the largest migration in American history. By 1940, 2.5 million people had moved out of the Plains states; of those, 200, 000 moved to California. When they reached the border, they did not receive a warm welcome as described in this 1935 excerpt from Collier’s magazine.

Detailed explanation-3: -Driven by the depression, drought, and the Dust Bowl, thousands upon thousands left their homes in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri. Over 300, 000 of them came to California. They looked to California as a land of promise.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Dust Bowl forced tens of thousands of poverty-stricken families, who were unable to pay mortgages or grow crops, to abandon their farms, and losses reached $25 million per day by 1936 (equivalent to $490 million in 2021).