The migration
Advertisements for workers needed in California to pick crops
led to over one million people leaving Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri
from 1935 to 1940 in the “Dust Bowl migration.” To find labor, the Okies
traveled nearly 2,000 miles on Route 66, which they called the “Mother Road” to
California. The trip was extremely difficult because people had to sleep
outside, go to the bathroom in the woods, bathe in ditches, and eat whatever
they could find such as apple pits and coffee grounds. People had to live “in
tents and shacks made out of cardboard and tin” in the bottoms of dry lakes, on
ditch banks, and under bridges. This happened because the people that did make
it to California soon found that there were no jobs and that Californians
thought the Okies to be ignorant, filthy, “scum.” Farmers in California that had
extra crops would burn the extra crops instead of letting the Okies have it,
hoping the Okies would leave town. Since the farmers burned the crops, the Okies
were starving, which led to diseases such as epidemics of dysentery,
tuberculosis, and pneumonia that broke out into the camps called“Okievilles.”
When the Okies arrived to California, stores and even hospitals refused the
Okies, and even more people, especially children, died due to the Dust
Bowl.
led to over one million people leaving Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri
from 1935 to 1940 in the “Dust Bowl migration.” To find labor, the Okies
traveled nearly 2,000 miles on Route 66, which they called the “Mother Road” to
California. The trip was extremely difficult because people had to sleep
outside, go to the bathroom in the woods, bathe in ditches, and eat whatever
they could find such as apple pits and coffee grounds. People had to live “in
tents and shacks made out of cardboard and tin” in the bottoms of dry lakes, on
ditch banks, and under bridges. This happened because the people that did make
it to California soon found that there were no jobs and that Californians
thought the Okies to be ignorant, filthy, “scum.” Farmers in California that had
extra crops would burn the extra crops instead of letting the Okies have it,
hoping the Okies would leave town. Since the farmers burned the crops, the Okies
were starving, which led to diseases such as epidemics of dysentery,
tuberculosis, and pneumonia that broke out into the camps called“Okievilles.”
When the Okies arrived to California, stores and even hospitals refused the
Okies, and even more people, especially children, died due to the Dust
Bowl.