The Dust Bowl happened for around 10 years in the 1930s – vast areas of the middle part of the US dried up in a severe drought and, along with unsustainable agricultural & cattle raising practices and strong winds, created parched ground and that blew around in big dust storms. Before that the region was mostly privately owned small to large family farms and ranches. Many people left – hightailing it to California as well as the East Coast because of the inability to make a living off the land anymore and the dire effects of the Great Depression. Afterwards, many of the mostly  abandoned areas were bought up and consolidated into large, highly irrigated corporate farms and concentrated cattle ranches, a system that exists to today.