The Great Depression inflicted an apocalyptic financial struggle on American cities, driving unemployment to a staggering 25%.

While urban areas faced widespread unemployment, poverty, and food scarcity, the Great Plains were grappling with an equally devastating crisis: the Dust Bowl, a disaster of epic proportions.

Short-sighted farming practices and historic droughts led to a decade of soil erosion, creating a series of suffocating dust storms that triggered a mass exodus from the region.