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An ecological and economic disaster of unprecedented proportions struck the southern great plains in the mid 1930s. The region had suffered several drought years in the yearly 1930s. Such dry spells occurred regualrly in roughly 20 year scycles. But this time the parched earth became swept up in violent dust storms the likes of wich had never been seen before. The dust storms were largery the consequence of years of striping the landscape of its natural vegetation. During World War I, wheat fetched record - high princes on the world market, and for the next 20 years great plains farmers had turned the region into a vast wheat factorly.