Introduction The Dust Bowl was a major environmental disaster centered in the Southern Great Plains that took place in the1930s. People moved to the Great Plains prior to the Dust Bowl. Thousands of pioneers started moving west as a result of the Homestead Act of 1862, which offered 160 acres of free land in exchange for living on it for five years and making improvements to it. In 1909, a new act offered 320 acres of less desirable land, including the drier areas of the lower Great Plains. With this incentive, thousands more people flocked to the region Essential Question What is the relationship between human beings and the Earth?