During the 1930s, the land was so dry that dust storms forced farmers from all around Oklahoma to seek out more suitable farming lands to support their already deprived families. Many farmers that migrated from Oklahoma to other states gained the name “Okies”. Some of them traveled to cities but most farmers from Oklahoma migrated to California because of its mild climate that allowed for a long growing season.
California, the state that once advertised for migrant workers to come live there, was soon flooded with up to 7,000 migrant workers after the dust storms started to rage in the Oklahoma area. This was way more migrant workers than they had anticipated and more than they could even supply jobs for. At one point, California even deployed deputies to turn back any migrant workers who didn’t have any money with them at the time. The deputies were there for several months before California withdrew them after bordering states were angry that California was sending them the hobos.
Delbert and Alvin Apte, photographers during the Great Depression, caught many pictures of migrant workers, the “Okies”. The photographs garnered the sympathy of many hearts across the nation. But overall, there were uncountable mixed feelings about the farming conflicts, including the death, poverty, and overcrowding that devastated the United States during the 1930s.
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