Dust buries a South Dakota farm in 1936. Wikimedia Commons
Eighty years ago, in 1934, over-plowed land in the interior lands of the United States began to spread. The drought was the worst in American history. As Public Broadcasting said in its meticulous notes about that period, dust storms spread beyond the boundaries of what people were calling the Dust Bowl area. The drought hit 27 states and more than 75 percent of the country.