Encyclopedia
The
Great Plains is the broad expanse of
prairie and
steppe which lies east of the
Rocky Mountains in the
United States and
Canada. This area covers all or parts of the
U.S. states of
Colorado,
Kansas,
Montana,
Nebraska,
New Mexico,
North Dakota,
Oklahoma,
South Dakota,
Texas and
Wyoming, and the
Canadian provinces of
Alberta,
Manitoba and
Saskatchewan. In Canada the term
prairie is more common, and the region is known as the
Canadian Prairies.
Subdivisions
The Great Plains is the westernmost portion of the vast
North American
Interior Plains, which extend east to the
Appalachian Plateau. The
United States Geological Survey divides the Great Plains in the United States into ten physiographic subdivisions:
- Missouri Plateau, glaciated east-central South Dakota, northern and eastern North Dakota and northeastern Montana
- Missouri Plateau, unglaciated western South Dakota, northeastern Wyoming, southwestern South Dakota and southeastern Montana
- Black Hills western South Dakota
- High Plains eastern New Mexico, northwestern Texas, western Oklahoma, eastern Colorado, western Kansas, most of Nebraska and southeastern Wyoming
- Plains Border central Kansas and northern Oklahoma
- Colorado Piedmont eastern Colorado
- Raton section northeastern New Mexico
- Pecos Valley eastern New Mexico
- Edwards Plateau south-central Texas
- Central Texas section central Texas
The High Plains is used in a related, more general context describe the elevated regions of the Great Plains, which are primarily west of the
100th meridian. The 100th meridian roughly corresponds with the line that divides the Great Plains into an area that receive 20 inches or more of rainfall per year and an area that receives less than 20 inches . In this context, the High Plains is semi-arid
steppe land and is generally characterized by
rangeland or marginal
farmland. The region is periodically subjected to extended periods of
drought; high winds in the region may then generate devastating
dust storms.
History
Before 1900
Historically, the Great Plains were the range of the
bison and of the Great Plains culture of the
Native American tribes of the
Blackfeet,
Crow,
Sioux,
Cheyenne,
Arapaho,
Comanche and others. Eastern portions of the Great Plains were inhabited by tribes who lived in semipermanent villages of earth lodges, such as the
Arikara,
Mandan,
Pawnee and Wichita.
After the almost near-extinction of the
buffalo and the removal of the
Native Americans to
Indian reservations in the 1870s, much of the Great Plains became home to
open range ranching; anyone was theoretically free to run
cattle. In the spring and fall, roundups were held and the new calves were branded and the cattle sorted out for sale. Ranching began in Texas and gradually moved northward. Texas cattle were driven north to
railroad lines in cities
Dodge City, Kansas and
Ogallala, Nebraska; from there, cattle were shipped eastward. Many foreign, especially
British, investors financed the great ranches of the era. Overstocking of the range and the terrible winter of 1886 eventually resulted in a disaster, with many cattle starved and frozen. From then onward,
ranchers generally turned to raising feed in order to
winter their cattle over.
The Homestead Act of 1862 provided that a settler could claim up to 160 acres of land, provided that he lived on it for a period of years and cultivated it. This was later expanded under the Kinkaid Act to include a homestead of an entire section. Hundreds of thousands of people claimed these 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. Germans from Russia who had previously farmed in similar circumstances in what is now
Ukraine were marginally more successful than the average homesteader. The Dominion Lands Act of 1871 served a similar function in Canada.
After 1900
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 1920s and early 1930s. The effect of the drought combined with the effects of the
Great Depression, forcing many farmers off the land throughout the Great Plains.
From the 1950s, on, many areas of the Great Plains have become productive crop-growing areas due to extensive
irrigation. The southern portion of the Great Plains lies over the
Ogallala Aquifer, a vast 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 has lost a third of its population since 1920. Several hundred thousand square miles of the Great Plains have fewer than six persons per square milethe density standard
Frederick Jackson Turner used to declare the American frontier "closed" in 1893. Many have fewer than two persons per square mile. There are more than 6,000
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. This continuing population loss has led some to suggest that the current use of the drier parts of the Great Plains is not sustainable, and propose that large parts be restored to native grassland grazed by buffalo, a proposal known as Buffalo Commons.
Further reading
- Chokecherry Places, Essays from the High Plains, Merrill Gilfillan, Johnson Press, Boulder, Colorado, trade paperback, ISBN 1-55566-227-7.
- Colorado Without Mountains, A High Plains Memoir, Harold Hamil, The Lowell Press, Kansas City, Missouri, 1976, Hardback, 284 pages, ISBN 0-913504-33-5.
- Down and Out on the Family Farm: Rural Rehabilitation in the Great Plains, 1929-1945, Michael Johnston Grant, University of Nebraska Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8032-7105-0
- The Dust Bowl: Men, Dirt, and Depression, Paul Bonnifield, University of New Mexico Press, Alquequerque, New Mexico, 1978, hardcover, ISBN 0-8263-0485-0.
- Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, David J. Wishart, University of Nebraska Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8032-4787-7.
- Woody Landscape Plants for the High Plains, D. H. Fairchild and J. E. Klete, Colorado State University, 1993, Technical Bulletin LTB93-1 .
- Wolf Willow, A history, a story, and a memory of the last plains frontier, Wallace Stegner, Viking Compass Book, New York, 1966, trade paperback, ISBN 0-670-00197-X
- The Tie That Binds , a novel about farming by Kent Haruf, Vintage Books 2000, paperback, ISBN 0-375-72438-9.
External links
- from Kansas Heritage Group tree
See also
