Geography and Early History of Great Plains
- Created by: Megan Smyth
- Created on: 08-12-13 18:52
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- American West: Geography of Plains
- Stretched from Mississippi River in East to California/ Oregon in West
- Low Plains to the East: long grass and sufficient rainfall for farming
- High Plains to the West: short grass and little rainfall. Semi-arid desert in South (e.g. Salt Lake City)
- Low Plains to the East: long grass and sufficient rainfall for farming
- Why were the Plains inhospitable and difficult to travel across?
- Size - vast; difficult to navigate; isolated
- Lack of trees for firewood/ building
- Wild Animals - snakes; wolves; stampeding buffalo
- Weather - harsh climate
- Winter: very cold; high winds called 'northers'
- Summer: very hot; fires, drought and tornadoes
- Winter: very cold; high winds called 'northers'
- Natural barriers - mountains and rivers to cross
- Flat and featureless in East - easy to get lost; fierce heat in summer and no shelter
- Difficult to grow crops - lack of rainfall and pests (e.g. locusts/ grasshoppers) would eat crops
- Lack of rainfall - for drinking/ irrigating crops
- Indian attacks
- 1840: Whites reached Mississippi and found land to the West of this desolate and inhospitable
- Explorer Major Harriman-Long coined phrase 'Great American Desert' and described it as 'almost wholly unfit for cultivation and of course uninhabitable'
- Stretched from Mississippi River in East to California/ Oregon in West
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