Dust Bowl Information

Norman events have 'tremendous' economic impact

“That’s what was attributed to the music festival last year, and it was a two-day event. A third day was added to the festival this year, plus it was held in conjunction with three other unique events,” Koranda said Monday.

Besides the music festival, which opened Thursday and ran through Saturday, the city celebrated ’89er Day with the arrival of a wagon train Friday and a downtown parade Saturday. The annual three-day May Fair Arts Festival began Friday in Andrews Park, and the Dustbowl Arts Market was Saturday on Grey Street.

Koranda said the bureau still is gathering information to assess the exact impact the festival and other events had on the city, “but it was tremendous. We know that. We’re very excited about it.”

An estimated crowd of at least 30,000 attended the Saturday music festival, Koranda said. Judy Travis, chairwoman of this year’s May Fair, said about that many people attended the arts festival Friday and Saturday. Sunday’s attendance was hurt by rain and cold weather, she said.

“I felt bad for the May Fair on Sunday, but Saturday was a picture-perfect day, and attendance couldn’t have been better,” Koranda said.

Music festival organizers estimated 50,000 people would attend the event this year, but Koranda said he will wait until all the information is in before speculating on that number.

The bureau will check this week with hotels, motels and restaurants, among other businesses, to get a more exact dollar figure of the economic impact on the city, Koranda said.

Blog Archive » Topic: The Dust Bowl Texas A&M News & Information ...

Q: You often hear of “the Dust Bowl.” Exactly what was it?

A:  It was the worst and most severe combination of drought and wind erosion that has ever occurred in the United States, says Brent McRoberts of Texas A&M University.  The Dust Bowl started in the early 1930s and lasted almost the entire decade and hit the Great Plains states the hardest.  “The Dust Bowl stretched 400 miles north and about 300 miles to the east and west,” says McRoberts, “and covered large parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas, about 150,000 square miles in all.  Droughts occur frequently in this region, but never before had there been the combination of drought and wind erosion as occurred in the 1930s.  The cost of the drought in 1934 alone amounted to one-half of the U.S. costs in World War I, and by 1936, farm losses had reached $25 million per day and more than two million farmers were drawing relief checks.”

Q:  Just how bad did it get?

A:  The period of 1934-36 was perhaps the worst time of the Dust Bowl, McRoberts adds.  “Many agree that the worst hit on April 17, 1935 when a 200-mile wide storm produced a black dust cloud that reached more than 1,000 feet into the air blowing at 60 miles per hour,” he explains. “The dust was so bad that some towns in Kansas were in total darkness for three hours. 

Newspapers reported that the dust from this storm reached Washington, D.C., and even to ships hundreds of miles at sea.

Dust Storms

Dust Bowl, the southern plains in the 1930s

Dust Bowl, A Problem-Based Unit

The Dust Bowl, an agricultural and social history

Social Science Resources in the Electronic Age: U.S. history