One of the most catastrophic man-made disasters in American history that placed a burden on the land and its inhabitants was The Dust Bowl of the 1930’s. This name was given to the Great Plains region devastated by drought in depression-ridden America (Dust). In Stinging Dust & Forgotten Lives, it is mentioned that [The Dust Bowl] was a benchmark between human complacency and changes that would protect the landscape from further degradation (Stinging). When drought plagued the land from 1934 to 1937, …show more content…
The southern Plains filled with farms between 1886 and 1910 as wheat farming and cattle raising began to prosper (Dust Bowl 1931). With corporations buying out the land, freelance ranching was conducted on a large scale. Freelance ranching did not affect the land, but when operated on a larger scale, the quality of the land suffers. Farmers lost 70 percent of their cattle herds when drought occurred between 1910 and 1913 (Dust Bowl 1931). The careless attitudes toward the Earth hurt the environment and as a result, affected those who are to