Elkhart, Kansas, crouches before one of the terrifying black blizzards that struck the towns in the Dust Bowl throughout the 30s. Elkhart prided itself on being the 'Broomcorn capital of the Nation', but for 10 years it harvested little but dust. By 1933, the storms had reduced the Elkhart wheat crop to only 37 percent of its normal size. Visibility was sometimes limited to 20 feet for hours. The dirt did not stop blowing until the eve of the second world war. Unidentified photographer, May 21, 1937. The Dust Bowl of the 1930's proved to be an agricultural, ecological, and economic disaster in the Great Plains region of North America.