History of the dust bowl The dust bowl was a ecological and human disaster that took place in the southwestern Great Plains region of the United States in the early 1930's, including parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. It was caused by misuse of the land and years of sustained drought. Before farmers came,the region was covered by hardy grasses that held the soil in place in spite of the long recurrent droughts and occasional torrential rains characteristic of the period. However in the thirty years before World War I, a large number of homesteaders settled in the region, planting wheat and row crops and and raising cattle. Both these la