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The Great Plow-Up

Season 1 Episode 1 | 1hr 55m 15s

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.

Aired: 11/17/12
Funding is provided by Bank of America, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, National Endowment for the Humanities, The Rockefeller Foundation, Wallace Genetic Foundation and members of The Better Angels Society, including the Dana A. Hamel Family Charitable Trust and Robert and Beverly Grappone.
Extras
Experience the conservation efforts to bring farms back to life
The storms and the Great Depression continued.
Ken Burns, Dayton Duncan, Julie Dunfey and Susan Shumaker talk about making The Dust Bowl.
The Dust Bowl chronicles the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history
With the dust storms, midday turned into midnight.
Those caught in the dust thought the end of the world was upon them.
The dust storms were so severe they could suffocate those trapped out of doors.
Feel the full force of the worst manmade environmental disaster in America’s history.
Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan discuss making The Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl was the worst man made ecological disaster in American History.
The storms and the Great Depression continued.