The Dust Bowl of the 1930s resulted from years of drought that dried out soil in the Central Plains states, making it susceptible to wind erosion. Farmers had depleted the soil by overplanting wheat, and the drought caused massive dust storms that engulfed the region. Over 250,000 people were forced to migrate west to California in search of work to escape the Dust Bowl conditions of failing farms, dust pneumonia, and poverty. Authors like John Steinbeck documented the extreme hardships faced by migrants.