Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
What would you think about moving into this region?
Living on the Great Plains
• Vast prairie in the Midwest Region of the US
Living on the Great Plains
• The states that are
part of the Great
Plains
Living on the Great Plains
• What did people think about the Great Plains in the beginning?
• “Treeless wasteland” • “Ocean of grass”• “Big Sky”• “Great American Desert”• Unsuitable for habitation
Living on the Great Plains
Living on the Great Plains
• Vast, open gradually rising (East to West)
Grassland (Prairie)
Living on the Great Plains
• Low rainfall• Dry area most of the year
Living on the Great Plains
• Few rivers• Trees along streams and rivers
Living on the Great Plains
• Frequent dust storms
Living on the Great Plains
• Land eroded by wind and water
Living on the Great Plains
• Tornadoes in the spring
Living on the Great Plains
• Winters with blizzards
Living on the Great Plains• "Blizzard Warning": winds expected to exceed 30 knots (35 mph)
and falling or blowing snow will reduce visibility to less than a quarter-mile for at least 3 hours
• "Stockmen's Warning": when severe winter weather threatens cattle in major ranching areas
• "Traveler's Warnings": when winter conditions make travel difficult or impossible
• "Blizzard of 1997": killed nearly $4.7 million worth of livestock, caused $6 million in farm property damage, and cost farmers $21 million for extra feed consumption
• 1-2 feet of snow typical in a blizzard, in a swath hundreds of miles wide and hundreds of miles long
• Due to the low water content of the snow, blowing and drifting snow is an added problem; snow drifts can reach 10-20 feet in a blizzard
Living on the Great Plains
• Why if it was so “uninhabitable?”• Free land after 1862• Inventions made it usable.• Adaptations made it usable.
Living on the Great Plains
• Free land from the US Government
Living on the Great Plains
• Steel Plow• John Deere
Living on the Great Plains
• Barbed Wire
Living on the Great Plains
• Windmills
Living on the Great Plains
• The Reaper and the Combine
Living on the Great Plains
• Wheat Farming
Living on the Great Plains
• Dry farming-plow and plant in the fall
Living on the Great Plains
• Dry farming-Fields covered by snow
Living on Great Plains
• Dry farming-New growth in the spring
Living on the Great Plains
• Dry farming-Ripening wheat crop
Living on the Great Plains
• Dry farming-Harvesting wheat
Living on the Great Plains
• Beef cattle raising
Living on the Great Plains
• Sod houses
Living on the Great Plains
• Sod house (soddie)
Living on the Great Plains
• Railroad
Living on the Great Plains
• Railroad
Living on the Great Plains
• Why was living on the Great Plains seen as a challenge to the first Americans crossing the Great Plains?
• What inventions and new technology changed those ideas?
• What ways did settlers use adaptations to make it possible to live on the Great Plains?
