Question 1

True or false: The Dust Bowl only affected the state of Oklahoma.

Accepted Answer

False. It spanned parts of Kansas, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma—often called the Southern Plains.

Question 2

True or false: Some Dust Bowl storms were so severe they blackened skies hundreds of miles away.

Accepted Answer

True. On Black Sunday in 1935, a massive dust cloud darkened the sky in cities like Chicago and New York.

Question 3

True or false: The Dust Bowl was primarily caused by a severe drought combined with poor farming practices.

Accepted Answer

True. Overplowing and removal of native grasses made soil vulnerable; drought then turned it to dust, creating massive storms.

Question 4

True or false: Dust pneumonia was a common illness caused by breathing in the fine dust particles.

Accepted Answer

True. Many people died from dust pneumonia, as the fine silt filled their lungs and caused fatal infections.

Question 5

True or false: Most Dust Bowl refugees moved to California to work as migrant farm laborers.

Accepted Answer

False. While many did, the majority of displaced people actually moved to nearby cities or other Plains states.

Question 6

True or false: The Dust Bowl was the longest drought in U.S. history, lasting over 15 years.

Accepted Answer

False. The worst period was from 1930 to 1936, not 15 years. Other droughts, like the 1950s, lasted longer.

Question 7

True or false: The federal government paid farmers to plant trees as windbreaks to stop the dust.

Accepted Answer

True. The Shelterbelt Project planted over 200 million trees across the Great Plains to reduce wind erosion.

Question 8

True or false: The term 'Dust Bowl' was first used by a journalist named Robert Geiger in 1935.

Accepted Answer

False. Actually, it was coined by Associated Press reporter Robert E. Geiger, but in an April 1935 article describing the region.

1930 Dust Bowl Trivia Questions