1. What would you think about moving into this region?

2. Living on the Great Plains Vast prairie in the Midwest Region of the US

3. Living on the Great Plains The states that are part of the Great Plains

4. 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

5. Living on the Great Plains

6. Vast, open gradually rising (East to West) grassland (prairie)

7. Living on the Great Plains Low rainfall Dry area most of the year

8. Living on the Great Plains Few rivers Trees along streams and rivers

9. Living on the Great Plains Frequent dust storms

10. Living on the Great Plains Land eroded by wind and water

11. Living on the Great Plains Tornadoes in the spring

12. Living on the Great Plains Winters with blizzards

13. 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

14. Living on the Great Plains Why if it was so “uninhabitable?” Free land after 1862 Inventions made it usable Adaptations made it usable

15. Living on the Great Plains Free land from the US Government

16. Living on the Great Plains Steel Plow John Deere

17. Living on the Great Plains Barbed Wire

18. Living on the Great Plains Windmills

19. Living on the Great Plains The Reaper and the Combine

20. Living on the Great Plains Wheat Farming

21. Living on the Great Plains Dry farming-plow and plant in the fall

22. Living on the Great Plains Dry farming-fields covered by snow

23. Living on Great Plains Dry farming-new growth in the spring

24. Living on the Great Plains Dry farming-ripening wheat crop

25. Living on the Great Plains Dry farming-harvesting wheat

26. Living on the Great Plains Beef cattle raising

27. Living on the Great Plains Sod houses

28. Living on the Great Plains Sod house (soddie)

29. Living on the Great Plains Railroad

30. Living on the Great Plains Railroad

31. 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?