USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -In the mid-1930s, during the Dust Bowl era, large numbers of farmers fleeing ecological disaster and the Great Depression migrated from the Great Plains and Southwest regions to California mostly along historic U.S. Route 66.

Detailed explanation-2: -Popular stories depicted California as a veritable promised land. Flyers advertising work for farm workers were widely circulated. In this pre-interstate-highway period, Route 66 provided a direct route from the Dust Bowl region to the Central Valley of California.

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: -These brave pioneers journeyed west for about five to six months along overland trails such as the California Trail, Gila River Trail, Mormon Trail, Old Spanish Trail, Oregon Trail, and the Santa Fe Trail for many different reasons.

Detailed explanation-5: -Eight decades ago hordes of migrants poured into California in search of a place to live and work. But those refugees weren’t from other countries, they were Americans and former inhabitants of the Great Plains and the Midwest who had lost their homes and livelihoods in the Dust Bowl.