Essay Questions

What was the Dust Bowl?

The Dust Bowl was the name given to a period in the 1930s that affected the High Plains. The Dust Bowl was a period characterized by great drought and massive sand storms that affected the lives of the people living in the area. Because of the sand storms, many families had to leave their home and farms and move to other areas as the draught lasted for more than 3 years. The storms left many people homeless and also took the lives of many poor families affected by the poverty and hardship that followed.

What is homesteading?

Homesteading refers to small communities or even a single household which is self-sufficient. Being self-sufficient in this sense means in this context being able to sustain themselves without help from the outside. This means that they are able to make their own clothes, food and make their own materials to build houses and whatever they might need. Many of the isolated communities in Texas were homesteads because they were too far away from other communities and had to rely on themselves to provide everything they needed to survive.

What was the XIT ranch?

The XIT ranch was a cattle ranch in Texas. The land where the ranch was build was sold to the owner after he agreed to build a building the State wanted to have it built. The ranch spread on more than 3,000,000 acres and had more than 150,000 cattle. The ranch was built in 1885 and during the time it existed the owners built more than 100 dams and more than 320 windmills. Unfortunately, because the cattle prices dropped, the owners could not make a profit and thus they started selling the ranch in 1901. The book mentions how the ranch owners had a set of special rules for the people living on the farm. They were prohibited, for example, from drinking, carrying weapons of any kind and from hunting. The strict regulations on the farm prompted the birth of many cities and villages with virtually no rules at all.