SOL USII.2a
Notepage for Student
Page 1
Settlement of the Great Plains: Land, Climate and New
Technology
During the early 1800s, the large interior region of the United States was
called the “Great American Desert” and a “treeless wasteland.” The land
consisted of a vast, flat, plateau that rose gradually from the Mississippi
River to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Its climate was harsh with
freezing cold winters and hot, dry summers.
Although rainfall was
infrequent, hail, blizzards, tornadoes, and dust storms were common. The
soil, or sod, was held together by grass roots, but could be easily eroded
by water and wind when farmed. In spite of these conditions, thousands
of people began to move to the Great Plains region during the mid-1800s,
and adapted to a new life in a very challenging environment!
 What are the physical features of the Great Plains?
 What is the climate of the Great Plains?
 What is sod?
The expansion of the nation’s railroad system played an important role in
the westward movement of people into the Great Plains region. Over the
years, the government had given the railroad companies millions of acres
of land to encourage railroad construction into the western territories.
After the Civil War, these companies began to sell the land surrounding the
tracks to settlers at affordable prices. The railroad companies knew that
the land would bring settlers who would farm the land and start new
businesses.
These new businesses and new farmlands would need
railroads to transport products, crops, and livestock to market.
 What influenced the westward movement of people into the Great
Plains region?
 What did the railroad companies do to encourage people and
businesses to move west?
As the settlers arrived and claimed their homesteads, they had to adjust to
a very different environment. With lumber being very expensive and in
short supply, they built their homes out of sod instead of wood. Handcut sod squares that contained long grass roots made flexible “bricks” that
were strong enough to form walls and roofs. Although they were dusty and
prone to leaks, sod homes were well-insulated. They kept families warm in
the winter and cool in the summer.
 How did the settlers use sod?
 Why did the settlers use sod to build their homes?
As thousands of settlers began to move west, new technological
advances helped people see the Great Plains not as a “treeless wasteland”
but as a vast area to be settled! One of these new technologies was the
windmill powered water pump.
Windmills allowed settlers to use the
wind to tap into underground water. This water supply was used to meet
the daily needs of households and livestock as well as to irrigate crops.
Windmill water pumps also supplied water to railroads for their engines and
allowed cattle ranchers to create green pastures for their growing herds.
 What helped the settlers change their view of the Great Plains?
 What was one new technology that helped the settlers survive?
As farmlands expanded, new technologies were needed to plant and
harvest in the dry, dusty soil. One such advance was the steel plow. An
Illinois blacksmith, by the name of John Deere, designed the first steel
plow.
These large plows, called grasshopper plows, were made to cut
through the tough sod of the Plains.
 What new technology helped farmers plant and harvest in the Great
Plains?
Another advance in the area of agriculture was called dry farming. This
method was developed in the late 1800s for use on the Great Plains. In
dry farming, the soil was plowed deeply to break up the sod and help keep
the moisture in the soil clumps. Farmers soon found that wheat was one
of the few crops that did well on dry farms. It quickly became one of the
major cash crops of the Great Plains.
Hundreds of large farms called
Bonanza farms grew wheat and made large profits for their investors back
East.
 What is dry farming?
 How did dry farming help the settlers?
 What was one of the major cash crops of the Great Plains?
 Why did farmers begin to grow wheat?
As the farming industry grew and prospered in the Great Plains, so did the
cattle industry. After the Civil War, cattle ranches stretched across the
Great Plains.
Railroads assisted in this growth by helping ranchers get
their cattle to Northern cities where the demand for beef was high. As the
ranches grew so did their need for land.
Before long, ranchers were
allowing their huge herds to graze on the open grasslands of the Great
Plains. As the cattle industry grew, farmers and ranchers began to compete
for land. As a result, farmers put up fences to keep the cattle out of their
fields and many ranchers did the same to keep their cattle from wandering
off. There was a need for cheap fencing materials to close in huge areas of
land.
Before long a new type of fencing called barbed wire was
developed. It consisted of twisted steel wires strung between wooden
fence posts. Barbed wire fencing was easier and cheaper to build than
fences made of wood or stones.
 What other industry grew and prospered in the Great Plains?
 Why was barbed wire developed?