The impact of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s was more widespread than some people may realize, according to Donald Berg, a professor emeritus of geography at South Dakota State University. People tend to think of the Dust Bowl as a phenomenon that only struck the southern Great Plains, but the truth is that northern parts of the Great Plains were also affected, Berg contends. "The concept of the Dust Bowl being exclusive to the southern Plains is in error and need of correction," he writes.