On April 14, 1935, sixty-mile-per-hour winds in the Oklahoma panhandle whipped up mile-high walls of dust, so massive they were compared to tornadoes lying on their sides. They blotted out the sun, and those caught outside could not see their hands in front of their faces. People cowered indoors, bidding each other farewell. The next day, an Associated Press reporter, Robert Geiger, gave the catastrophe its lasting name, rechristening the Great Plains as “the dust bowl.”
