Dust Bowl

What do you know about The Dust Bowl? Try this US History Made Easy Quiz.  "Check Your Answers" at the end of the page.

1. The Dust Bowl, or the dirty thirties, was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936 (in some areas until 1940), caused by severe drought coupled with decades of extensive farming without crop rotation or other techniques to prevent erosion.

• True or False?

2. The Dust Bowl was centered on the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, and adjacent parts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas. How many acres were affected?

• 100,000,000 acres
• 250,000,000 acres
• 500,000,000 acres

3. At times the clouds blackened the sky, reaching all the way to East Coast cities such as New York and Washington, D.C. Where did the soil end up being deposited?

• Atlantic Ocean
• Europe
• Caribbean

4. Some residents of the Plains, especially in Kansas and Oklahoma, fell ill and died from the Dust Bowl. What was NOT a cause?

• Dust pneumonia
• Malnutrition
• Bubonic dieses

5. During early European and American exploration of the Great Plains, the region in which the Dust Bowl occurred was thought suitable for agriculture; indeed, the region was known as the Great American Farmland.

• True or False?

6. When did the unusually wet period, which encouraged increased settlement and cultivation in the Great Plains, end?

• 1930
• 1925
• 1920

7. On May 9, 1934, a strong two-day dust storm removed massive amounts of Great Plains topsoil in one of the worst such storms of the Dust Bowl. The dust clouds blew all the way to Chicago where dirt fell like snow. Two days later, the same storm reached cities in the east, such as Buffalo, Boston, New York City, and Washington, D.C.

• True or False?

8. On April 14, 1935, twenty of the worst "Black Blizzards" occurred throughout the Dust Bowl, causing extensive damage and turning the day to night. Witnesses reported that they could not see five feet in front of them at certain points. What was the day called.

• Black Sunday
• Dust Bowl Sunday
• Pray for Rain Sunday

9. By 1940, how many people had moved out of the Plains states; of those, 200,000 moved to California.

• 1.5 million
• 2.5 million
• 5 million

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