Page "Dust Bowl" Paragraph 17

The Dust Bowl exodus was the largest migration in American history within a short period of time.

By 1940, 2. 5 million people had moved out of the Plains states ; of those, 200, 000 moved to California.

In just over a year, over 86, 000 people migrated to California.

This number is more than the number of migrants to that area during the 1849 Gold Rush.

With their land barren and homes seized in foreclosure, many farm families were forced to leave.

Migrants left farms in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, Colorado and New Mexico, but were often generally referred to as " Okies ", " Arkies " or " Texies ".

Terms such as “ Okies ” and “ Arkies ” came to be known in the 1930s as the standard terms for those who had lost everything and were struggling the most during the Great Depression.