Chapter 3, Lesson2
Pioneers on the Plains
Mr. Julian’s 5th grade class
Lesson Essential Question
• Why did settlers begin
living on the Great
Plains in the mid1800’s?
Places to Know
• Great Plains
• Nicodemus, Kansas
People to Know
• Willa Cather
• Benjamin Singleton
• George Shima
Vocabulary
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Pioneer
Homestead Act
Homesteader
Sodbuster
Exoduster
Technology
The Great Plains
• The Great Plains was considered by
many in the mid-1800’s to be nothing
more than the “Great American Desert.”
• The U.S. government wanted to
encourage people to live on the Great
Plains.
• The President Lincoln signed the
Homestead Act.
The Great Plains
• The Homestead Act gave 160 acres of
land, for just $10, to men over the age
of 21 or women if they were the head of
the household. They had to farm and
live on the land for 5 years. After the five
years the land became theirs.
The Great Plains
• These pioneers or new settlers moved
to the Great Plains with the hope of
building a new and better life for
themselves.
• The settlers that claimed the new land
given in the Homestead Act were called
homesteaders.
Settling on the Plains
• Before the pioneers could begin farming
they had to rip up the thick grass on
their land.
• This was not easy as the grass on the
Great Plains had tangled roots and
were several inches thick.
Settling on the Plains
• Because the settlers on the Great
Plains had to bust through this “sod”
these farmers were also know as
sodbusters.
• After ripping up the sod from the land,
most sodbusters used the sod to make
their houses.
Settling on the Plains
• Sod houses were built from blocks of
sod that stayed cool in the summer and
warm in the winter.
• Unfortunately for the homesteaders the
sod walls were home to bugs, mice, and
snakes!
Settling on the Plains
• Once the homesteaders were able to
plant crops, they found the land to be
very fertile.
• Willa Cather, who grew-up on the
plains, described life on the Great in her
famous novel “O Pioneers.”
America Fever
• The stories of the Great Plains spread
quickly to Europe.
• Thousands of people moved to the U.S.
to live on the Great Plains.
• The Great Plains became, and still is
today, the most productive wheat
growing region in the world!
America Fever
• The Homestead Act also provided
opportunities for African Americans as
they still faced unfair treatment after the
end of slavery.
• Benjamin Singleton began urging
African Americans to leave the south
and move to the Great Plains.
America Fever
• The African Americans living on the
Great Plains began calling themselves
Exodusters. Exo - from the book in the
Bible, Exodus; and dusters - from all of
the dust on the Great Plains.
• Soon all African American communities
began forming over the Great Plains like
Nicodemus, Kansas.
Life on the Plains
• Living on the Great Plains required
some new technology to make life a
little bit easier. Technology is the use of
new ideas to make tools that improve
people’s lives.
• Even with the new technology life was
very difficult on the Great Plains.
Life on the Plains
• Weather was harsh on the plains.
Winters brought bitter cold and deadly
blizzards. The spring often brought
tornados, hailstorms, and flooding. The
summers meant blazing heat and little
rain.
Life on the Plains
• If the weather was not bad enough, the
settlers had to watch for fires and the
dreaded grasshopper.
• Grasshoppers were so many at times
that they blacked out the sun and were
up to 6 inches thick on the ground,
destroying everything in their path.
Technology on the Plains
• Steel Plows were
first invented by a
man named John
Deere. These plows
were made just for
the Great Plains.
Technology on the Plains
• Windmills helped people on the Great
Plains gather water as most of the water
was deep underground. With the steady
wind on the Plains, windmills were ideal
tools.
Technology on the Plains
• Barbed wire helped farmers keep
animals away from their crops. A man
named Joseph Glidden invented barbed
wire in 1874. Barbed wire fences were
cheap and easy to build.
Technology on the Plains
• Dry Farming was a way that farmers
grow crops with little rain. This method
uses moisture stored in the soil, rather
than rainfall. Farmers used dry farming
to grow wheat and other crops.
Growth in the West
• People continued to move further and
further west because of the new
railroads.
• Thousands of people settled in
Washington, Oregon, and California.
• The west also attracted people from
other countries.
Growth in the West
• Many Japanese built successful farms
in the west.
• One of the more famous farmers was
George Shima.
• He was born in Japan. When he arrived
in the U.S. he was so poor he had no
money for food.
Growth in the West
• Shima soon made enough money to
rent 10 acres of land.
• He experimented with growing potatoes.
• He became know as the “Potato King.”
Review
• What did the government hope the
Homestead Act would accomplish?
• Who were the exodusters? What
caused them to move to the Great
Plains?
• Describe two inventions that helped the
pioneese on the Great Plains.