Plain We Live

The vast majority of these animals became extinct in North America at the end of the Pleistocene around 13, years ago. In general, the Great Plains have a wide variety of weather through the year, with very cold and harsh winters and very hot and humid summers. Wind speeds are often very high, especially in winter. Grasslands are among the least protected biomes. The Great Plains have dust storms mostly every year or so.

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In this context, the High Plains, as well as Southern Alberta , south-western Saskatchewan and Eastern Montana are mainly semi arid steppe land and are generally characterised by rangeland or marginal farmland. The region especially the High Plains is periodically subjected to extended periods of drought ; high winds in the region may then generate devastating dust storms.

The eastern Great Plains near the eastern boundary falls in the humid subtropical climate zone in the southern areas, and the northern and central areas fall in the humid continental climate. Many thunderstorms occur in the plains in the spring through summer. The southeastern portion of the Great Plains is the most tornado active area in the world and is sometimes referred to as Tornado Alley. The first Americans Paleo-Indians who arrived to the Great Plains were successive indigenous cultures who are known to have inhabited the Great Plains for thousands of years, over 15, years ago.

Historically the Great Plains were the range of the bison and of the culture of the Plains Indians , whose tribes included the Blackfoot , Crow , Sioux , Cheyenne , Arapaho , Comanche , and others. Eastern portions of the Great Plains were inhabited by tribes who lived in semi-permanent villages of earth lodges , such as the Arikara , Mandan , Pawnee and Wichita. In that same time period, Hernando de Soto crossed a west-northwest direction in what is now Oklahoma and Texas. Today this is known as the De Soto Trail.

Over the next one hundred years, founding of the fur trade brought thousands of ethnic Europeans into the Great Plains. Fur trappers from France, Spain, Britain, Russia and the young United States made their way across much of the region, making regular contacts with Native Americans. After the United States acquired the Louisiana Purchase in and conducted the Lewis and Clark Expedition in —, more information about the Plains became available and various pioneers entered the areas. Manuel Lisa , based in St.

Fur trading posts were often the basis of later settlements. Through the 19th century, more European Americans and Europeans migrated to the Great Plains as part of a vast westward expansion of population. New settlements became dotted across the Great Plains. The new immigrants also brought diseases against which the Native Americans had no resistance. Between a half and two-thirds of the Plains Indians are thought to have died of smallpox by the time of the Louisiana Purchase.

After , the new railroads across the Plains brought hunters who killed off almost all the bison for their hides. The railroads offered attractive packages of land and transportation to European farmers, who rushed to settle the land. They and Americans as well also took advantage of the homestead laws to obtain free farms. Land speculators and local boosters identified many potential towns, and those reached by the railroad had a chance, while the others became ghost towns. In Kansas, for example, nearly towns were mapped out, but by only were actually operating.

In the midth century, closeness to an interstate exchange determined whether a town would flourish or struggle for business. Much of the Great Plains became open range , or rangeland where cattle roamed free, hosting ranching operations where anyone was theoretically free to run cattle. In the spring and fall, ranchers held roundups where their cowboys branded new calves, treated animals and sorted the cattle for sale. Such ranching began in Texas and gradually moved northward. Between and , cowboys herded 10 million cattle north to rail heads such as Dodge City, Kansas [17] and Ogallala, Nebraska ; from there, cattle were shipped eastward.

Many foreign investors, especially British, financed the great ranches of the era. Overstocking of the range and the terrible winter of resulted in a disaster, with many cattle starved and frozen to death. Theodore Roosevelt , a rancher in the Dakotas, lost his entire investment; he returned east to reenter politics.

From then on, ranchers generally raised feed to ensure they could keep their cattle alive over winter. To allow for agricultural development of the Great Plains and house a growing population, the US passed the Homestead Acts of The provisions were expanded under the Kinkaid Act of to include a homestead of an entire section.

Hundreds of thousands of people claimed such homesteads, sometimes building sod houses out of the very turf of their land. Many of them were not skilled dryland farmers and failures were frequent. Much of the Plains were settled during relatively wet years. Government experts did not understand how farmers should cultivate the prairies and gave advice counter to what would have worked [ citation needed ].

Germans from Russia who had previously farmed, under similar circumstances, in what is now Ukraine were marginally more successful than other homesteaders. The Dominion Lands Act of served a similar function for establishing homesteads on the prairies in Canada. The railroads opened up the Great Plains for settlement, for now it was possible to ship wheat and other crops at low cost to the urban markets in the East, and Europe.

Homestead land was free for American settlers. Railroads sold their land at cheap rates to immigrants in expectation they would generate traffic as soon as farms were established. Immigrants poured in, especially from Germany and Scandinavia. On the plains, very few single men attempted to operate a farm or ranch by themselves; they clearly understood the need for a hard-working wife, and numerous children, to handle the many chores, including child-rearing, feeding and clothing the family, managing the housework, feeding the hired hands, and, especially after the s, handling paperwork and financial details.

After approximately one generation, women increasingly left the fields, thus redefining their roles within the family. New technology including sewing and washing machines encouraged women to turn to domestic roles. The scientific housekeeping movement, promoted across the land by the media and government extension agents, as well as county fairs which featured achievements in home cookery and canning, advice columns for women regarding farm bookkeeping, and home economics courses in the schools. Although the eastern image of farm life in the prairies emphasized the isolation of the lonely farmer and wife, plains residents created busy social lives for themselves.

They often sponsored activities that combined work, food and entertainment such as barn raisings , corn huskings, quilting bees, [22] Grange meetings, church activities and school functions. Women organized shared meals and potluck events, as well as extended visits between families. The region roughly centered on the Oklahoma Panhandle , including southeastern Colorado, southwestern Kansas, the Texas Panhandle , and extreme northeastern New Mexico was known as the Dust Bowl during the late s and early s. The effect of an extended drought, inappropriate cultivation, and financial crises of the Great Depression , forced many farmers off the land throughout the Great Plains.

From the s on, many areas of the Great Plains have become productive crop-growing areas because of extensive irrigation on large landholdings.

The United States is a major exporter of agricultural products. The southern portion of the Great Plains lies over the Ogallala Aquifer , a huge underground layer of water-bearing strata dating from the last ice age. Center pivot irrigation is used extensively in drier sections of the Great Plains, resulting in aquifer depletion at a rate that is greater than the ground's ability to recharge.

The rural Plains have lost a third of their population since Several hundred thousand square miles of the Great Plains have fewer than 6 inhabitants per square mile 2.

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Many have fewer than 2 inhabitants per square mile 0. There are more than 6, ghost towns in the state of Kansas alone, according to Kansas historian Daniel Fitzgerald. This problem is often exacerbated by the consolidation of farms and the difficulty of attracting modern industry to the region. In addition, the smaller school-age population has forced the consolidation of school districts and the closure of high schools in some communities.

The Great Plains contribute substantially to wind power in the United States. In July , T. Boone Pickens , who developed wind farms after a long career as a petroleum executive, called for the U. Pickens cited Sweetwater, Texas as an example of economic revitalization driven by wind power development. Sweetwater was a struggling town typical of the Plains, steadily losing businesses and population, until wind turbines came to surrounding Nolan County. Pickens claims the same economic benefits are possible throughout the Plains, which he refers to as North America's "wind corridor.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Great Plains disambiguation. Not to be confused with a southwestern portion of the Great Plains, the Llano Estacado , or another geographic region that overlaps the Great Plains, the Midwest. Approximate extent of the Great Plains [1].

List of French forts in North America. List of Hudson's Bay Company trading posts.

Cattle drives in the United States. Depopulation of the Great Plains. Geography of Canada portal. The Great Plains Region, In: Encyclopedia of the Great Plains , Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, pp. Historical Geography of the United States. Janis, Sarda Sahney, Michael J. Concordant patterns of early origin of hypsodonty in Great Plains ungulates and Glires. The Great Plains region.

They are structurally depressed areas of the world that make up some of the most extensive natural lowlands on the Earth's surface. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Plain disambiguation and Plains disambiguation. Changing seasonal hydrology and probable impacts on floodplain forests".

Dictionary of Physical Geography. Understanding the Earth 2nd ed. Archived from the original on Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology And Ancient Environments. Advances in Marine Biology. National Soil Survey Handbook—Part National Cooperative Soil Survey. Archived from the original on 22 October Retrieved 17 August Archived PDF from the original on Retrieved from " https: Views Read Edit View history.

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