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Chapter 13 Section 2

Chapter 13 Section 2. Farming the Plains. Geography of the Great Plains. Was known as the “Great American Desert” Had been explored by Stephen Long in 1819 “almost wholly unfit for cultivation” The lack of wood and water would pose “an insuperable obstacle in…settling the country”.

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Chapter 13 Section 2

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  1. Chapter 13 Section 2 Farming the Plains

  2. Geography of the Great Plains • Was known as the “Great American Desert” • Had been explored by Stephen Long in 1819 • “almost wholly unfit for cultivation” • The lack of wood and water would pose “an insuperable obstacle in…settling the country”

  3. Where are the Great Plains?

  4. Geography of the Great Plains continued • Averages only 20 inches of rainfall a year • Birmingham averages 53 inches of rainfall a year • Trees only grow along streams and rivers • Mostly prairie grasses • Home to buffalo herds • Nomadic Native American groups (Arapaho, Sioux, Lakota, Pawnee, Cheyenne, Kiowahand others)

  5. Beginnings of Settlement • Railroad companies had been given land by the federal government • Could sell it and make a profit • New railroads encouraged settlement • 1862: Homestead Act • $10 fee • Live there for 5 years • Improve the land (plant crops & trees, build a house) • Get the land for free

  6. Rain follows the plough? • Had to drill a 300 foot well • Summer temps over 100 degrees • Constant threat of fires • Grasshopper swarms • Blizzards • “wind sickness” • Isolation

  7. The Wheat Belt • New inventions and farming methods made it easier • Dry farming • Mechanical reaper • Wheat grew best (North and South Dakota, parts of Nebraska and Kansas)

  8. Sodbusters • Bonanza farms • High failure rate • “Prairie madness”

  9. Hard Times for Farmers • 1890s…great year for wheat • But leads to lower prices on the world market • Many took out mortgages on their land • Became tenants for the new owners when they fell behind on payments • 1/3 of farmers on the plains were tenant farmers by 1900 • Prolonged drought began in the late 1880s.

  10. The Wheat Market declines

  11. Closing the Frontier • April 22,1889: Oklahoma Land Rush • Territory that became Oklahoma was opened for settlement • Had the west provided a “safety valve of social discontent”? (Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier thesis) • Was the frontier now closed and bringing about the end of an era?

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