Great Plains

For other uses, see Great Plains (disambiguation).

The Great Plains covers much of the central United States, portions of Canada and Mexico. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. The 100th meridian west is denoted with the red line.

The Great Plains are the broad expanse of prairie and steppe which lie east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. Prairie, from the French prairie ("meadow" "grassland" "pasture" refers to an area of land of low topographic relief that historically In physical Geography, a steppe ( German, from степь - "a flat and arid land" степ - /stɛp/ тал - tal дала - /dɑlɑ/ pronounced Mountain peaks of the Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, often called the Rockies, are a Mountain range in western North America. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page This area covers parts of the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. A US state is any one of the fifty subnational entities of the United States of America that share Sovereignty with the federal government The State of Colorado ( or chiefly by nonresidents) is a state located in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States of America. Kansas ( is a Midwestern state in the central region of the United States of America, an area often referred to as the American " Montana ( is a state in the Western United States. One-third of the state in the western part contains numerous mountain ranges (approximately 77 named of the northern Nebraska ( is a state located on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States and New Mexico ( is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States of America. North Dakota ( is a state located in the Midwestern and Western regions of the United States of America. Oklahoma ( is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. South Dakota ( is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America. Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. The State of Wyoming ( is a sparsely populated state in the western region of the United States. The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second largest country in total area. Alberta (ælˈbɝtə is one of Canada's prairie provinces. It became a province on September 1 1905 Manitoba (English ˌmænɨˈtoʊbə French /manitoba/ is a province of Canada, spanning 647797 square kilometres (250116 sq mi of North America Saskatchewan (səˈskætʃəwən) is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of 588276 In Canada the term prairie is more common, and the region is known as the Prairie Provinces or simply "the Prairies". The Canadian Prairies is a region in western Canada, which may correspond to several different definitions natural or political

Some current thinking regarding the geographic location of the Great Plains is shown by a map [1] at the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It extends the eastern boundary of the Great Plains down the Assiniboine River to Winnipeg, Canada, southward down the Red River of the North to South Dakota’s and Nebraska’s eastern border then down the Missouri River to Kansas City, down the eastern border of Kansas to Oklahoma where it breaks southwest toward Oklahoma City before continuing south through Ft. Worth and central Texas then west toward the Big Bend of the Rio Grande River. The Assiniboine River is a long River that runs through the Prairies of Western Canada in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Winnipeg (ˈwɪnɨpɛg is the capital and largest city in the Canadian province of Manitoba, and 7th largest municipality in Canada with a population Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page The Red River (rivière Rouge is a North American river Formed by the confluence of the Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail rivers in the United States South Dakota ( is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America. Nebraska ( is a state located on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States and Kansas City Missouri only Items for the metro area Kansas City Kansas or North Kansas City MO should go on their respective pages Kansas ( is a Midwestern state in the central region of the United States of America, an area often referred to as the American " Oklahoma ( is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the US state of Oklahoma. Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas and the seventeenth-largest city in the United States. Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. The region is about 500 miles (800 km) east to west and 2,000 miles (3,200 km) north to south. Much of the region was home to gigantic buffalo (American bison) herds until their decimation during the mid/late 1800s. The American bison ( Bison bison) is a Bovine Mammal, also commonly known as the American buffalo.

1 Divisions
2 History
3 Animals
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links
7 See also

Divisions

Great Plains near Kearney, Nebraska

The Great Plains are the westernmost portion of the vast North American Interior Plains, which extend east to the Appalachian Plateau. Kearney is a city in Buffalo County, Nebraska, United States. The Interior Plains is a vast physiographic region that spreads across the Laurentian craton of North America The Appalachian Plateau is the western part of the Appalachian mountains, stretching from New York to Georgia and Alabama. The United States Geological Survey divides the Great Plains in the United States into ten physiographic subdivisions:

Missouri Plateau, glaciated – east-central South Dakota, northern and eastern North Dakota and northeastern Montana
Missouri Plateau, unglaciated – western South Dakota, northeastern Wyoming, southwestern South Dakota and southeastern Montana
Black Hills – western South Dakota
High Plains – eastern New Mexico, northwestern Texas, western Oklahoma, eastern Colorado, western Kansas, most of Nebraska (including the Sand Hills) and southeastern Wyoming
Plains Border – central Kansas and northern Oklahoma (including the Flint, Red and Smoky Hills)
Colorado Piedmont – eastern Colorado
Raton section – northeastern New Mexico
Pecos Valley – eastern New Mexico
Edwards Plateau – south-central Texas
Central Texas section – central Texas

The High Plains is used in a related, more general context to describe the elevated regions of the Great Plains, which are primarily west of the 100th meridian. The United States Geological Survey ( USGS) is a scientific agency of the United States government. The Coteau du Missouri, or Missouri Plateau, is a large Plateau that stretches along the eastern side of the valley of the Missouri River in central The Coteau du Missouri, or Missouri Plateau, is a large Plateau that stretches along the eastern side of the valley of the Missouri River in central The Black Hills ( Pahá Sápa in Lakota, Moˀȯhta-voˀhonáaeva in Cheyenne) are a small isolated Mountain range rising from the This article is about a geographic region in the United States The Sand Hills is a region of mixed-grass Prairie in north-central Nebraska, covering just over one quarter of the state The Flint Hills, historically known as Bluestem Pastures or Blue Stem Hills, are a band of hills in eastern Kansas stretching into north-central Oklahoma The Red Hills is the name of a Prairie region in the southern and central parts of Kansas. The Smoky Hills are hills in the north central section of Kansas, USA The Colorado Piedmont is the geologic term for an area along the base of the foothills of the Front Range in north central Colorado in the United States Raton is a city in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 7282 at the 2000 census. The Pecos River or Rio Pecos as it is sometimes known in New Mexico, arises near Pecos New Mexico, United States, and flows for through the eastern The Edwards Plateau is a region of west-central Texas which is bounded by the Balcones Fault to the south and east the Llano Uplift and the plains region Central Texas (a part of which is Texas Hill Country) is a region (and a physiographic section as it pertains to geography in the U This article is about a geographic region in the United States The 100th meridian roughly corresponds with the line that divides the Great Plains into an area that receive 20 inches (500 mm) or more of rainfall per year and an area that receives less than 20 inches (500 mm). In this context, the High Plains is semi-arid steppe land and is generally characterized by rangeland or marginal farmland. A Semi-arid climate or steppe climate generally describes climatic regions that receive low annual Rainfall (250-500 mm or 10-20 in In physical Geography, a steppe ( German, from степь - "a flat and arid land" степ - /stɛp/ тал - tal дала - /dɑlɑ/ pronounced A ranch is an area of landscape including various structures given primarily to the practice of ranching the practice of raising grazing livestock such as Cattle Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants and fungi and the raising of domesticated Animals The study of agriculture The region is periodically subjected to extended periods of drought; high winds in the region may then generate devastating dust storms. A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply

During the Cretaceous Period (145-65 million years ago), the Great Plains was covered by a shallow inland sea called Western Interior Seaway. The Cretaceous (kriːˈteɪʃəs, usually abbreviated 'K' for its German translation "Kreide" is a geologic period and system, reaching from the end of The Western Interior Seaway, also called the Cretaceous Seaway, the Niobraran Sea, and the North American Inland Sea, was a huge inland Sea However, during the Late Cretaceous to the Paleocene (65-55 million years ago), the seaway had begun to recede, leaving behind thick marine deposits and a relatively flat terrain where the seaway had once occupied. Late Cretaceous (100mya - 65mya refers to the second half of the Cretaceous Period, named after the famous white Chalk cliffs of southern England The Paleocene or Palaeocene, "early dawn of the recent" is a geologic epoch that lasted from 65

History

Pre-European contact

Historically, the Great Plains were the range of the bison and of the Great Plains culture of the Native American tribes of the Blackfeet, Crow, Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche and others. The American bison ( Bison bison) is a Bovine Mammal, also commonly known as the American buffalo. The Plains Indians are the Indigenous peoples who live on the plains and rolling hills of the Great Plains of North America. The Plains Indians are the Indigenous peoples who live on the plains and rolling hills of the Great Plains of North America. The Piegan Blackfeet ( Aamsskáápipikani (Southern Pikáni /Piegan or simply as Pikáni in Blackfoot) are a tribe of Native Americans The Crow, also called the Absaroka or Apsáalooke, are a tribe of Native Americans who historically lived in the Yellowstone Sioux (pronounced SUE are a Native American and First Nations people Cheyenne are a Native American nation of the Great Plains. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taa'e (more commonly The Arapaho (in French: Gens de Vache) tribe of Native Americans historically living on the eastern plains of Colorado and Wyoming The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose range (the Comancheria) consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado Eastern portions of the Great Plains were inhabited by tribes who lived in semipermanent villages of earth lodges, such as the Arikara, Mandan, Pawnee and Wichita. This article is about the modern housing style for Native American earth lodges see Earth lodge. Arikara (also Sahnish Arikaree Ree refers to a group of Native Americans that speak a Caddoan language. The Mandan are a Native American tribe that historically lived along the banks of the Missouri River and two of its tributaries—the Heart and The Pawnee (also Paneassa, Pari, Pariki) are a Native American tribe that historically lived along the Platte, Loup and The Wichita are a Tribe of Native Americans, indigenous inhabitants of North America, who speak Wichita, a Caddoan language.

European contact

With the arrival of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, a Spanish conquistador, the first recorded history of Europeans in the Great Plains happened in Texas, Kansas and Nebraska from 1540-1542. Francisco Vázquez de Coronado y Luján (Born in 1510 &ndash Died on September 22 1554 was a Spanish Conquistador, who visited New Mexico and other This article is about the Spanish explorer soldiers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuriesfor other uses see Conquistador (disambiguation A Conquistador In that same time period, Hernando de Soto crossed a west-northwest direction in what is now Oklahoma and Texas. Hernando de Soto ( Jerez de los Caballeros, Badajoz, Spain, c Oklahoma ( is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. Today this is known as the De Soto Trail. The Spanish thought the Great Plains were the location of the mythological Quivira and Cíbola, a place rich in gold. Quivira and Cíbola are two of the fantastic Seven Cities of Gold existing only in a myth that originated around the year 1150 when the Moors conquered Mérida

In the next one hundred years the fur trade injected thousands of Europeans onto the Great Plains, as fur trappers from France, Spain, Britain, Russia and the young United States made their way across much of the region. The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal Fur. With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and subsequent Lewis & Clark Expedition in 1804, the Great Plains became more accessible. For the film see Louisiana Purchase (film. The Louisiana Purchase (French Vente de la Louisiane "Louisiana Sale" A major fur trading site was located at Fort Lisa on the Missouri River in Nebraska. Fort Lisa is the name of two locations significant to Fur trading in the Midwestern United States This type of early settlement opened the door to vast westward expansion, with settlements rising across the Great Plains. This is a simplified list of United States territorial acquisitions, beginning with American independence.

Early settlements on the Great Plains

Pioneer settlement

This settlement led to the near-extinction of the buffalo and the removal of the Native Americans to Indian reservations in the 1870s. Fort Lisa is the name of two locations significant to Fur trading in the Midwestern United States Fontenelle's Post, first known as Pilcher's Post and also the basis of the community of Bellevue, was built in 1822 in the Nebraska Territory by trader Cabanne's Trading Post was established in 1822 by the American Fur Company as Fort Robidoux near present-day Dodge Park in North Omaha, The American bison ( Bison bison) is a Bovine Mammal, also commonly known as the American buffalo. Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States An Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American Tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau Much of the Great Plains became open range, hosting ranching operations where anyone was theoretically free to run cattle. A ranch is an area of landscape including various structures given primarily to the practice of ranching the practice of raising grazing livestock such as Cattle Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domesticated Ungulates a member of the Subfamily Bovinae of the family In the spring and fall, roundups were held and the new calves were branded and the cattle sorted out for sale. Ranching began in Texas and gradually moved northward. Texas cattle were driven north to railroad lines in cities Dodge City, Kansas and Ogallala, Nebraska; from there, cattle were shipped eastward. For the 1939 Western movie, see Dodge City (1939 film. Dodge City is a City and County seat of Ford Ogallala is a city in Keith County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 4930 at the 2000 census. Many foreign, especially British, investors financed the great ranches of the era. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Overstocking of the range and the terrible winter of 1886 eventually resulted in a disaster, with many cattle starved and frozen. From then onward, ranchers generally turned to raising feed in order to winter their cattle over. A ranch is an area of landscape including various structures given primarily to the practice of ranching the practice of raising grazing livestock such as Cattle

Pioneer towns on the Great Plains

The Homestead Act of 1862 provided that a settler could claim up to 160 acres (65 hectares) of land, provided that he lived on it for a period of five years and cultivated it. Sioux City (ˌsuːˈsɪti is a city located in northwest Iowa in the United States. Sioux Falls (ˌsuː ˈfɔːlz is the largest city in the US state of South Dakota. Fargo is a city in Cass County, North Dakota in the United States. The city of Pierre (ˈpɪər "peer") is the Capital of the U Saint Joseph (informally St Joe) is the largest city in Northwest Missouri, serving as the County seat for Buchanan County. Las Vegas is a city in San Miguel County, New Mexico, United States. Florence is a Neighborhood in Omaha Nebraska on the city's north end. Winter Quarters was an encampment formed by approximately 2500 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as they waited during the winter of 1846-1847 for better The' Homestead Act' was a United States Federal law that gave an applicant freehold title to 160 Acres (one quarter section or about 65 Hectares Explanation The hectare is commonly used in most countries around the world especially in domains concerned with land planning and management such as Agriculture, This was later expanded under the Kinkaid Act to include a homestead of an entire section. The Kinkaid Act of 1904 is a US Statute that amended the 1862 Homestead Act so that one section (1 mi² 2 In US land surveying, a section is an area nominally one Mile square containing 640 Acres (2 Hundreds of thousands of people claimed these homesteads, sometimes building sod houses out of the very turf of their land. Sod or turf is grass and the part of the Soil beneath it held together by the Roots or a piece of this material Sod or turf is grass and the part of the Soil beneath it held together by the Roots or a piece of this material Many of them were not skilled dryland farmers and failures were frequent. Dryland farming is an Agricultural technique for cultivating land which receives little Rainfall. Germans from Russia who had previously farmed in similar circumstances in what is now Ukraine were marginally more successful than the average homesteader. The German minority in Russia and the Soviet Union was created from several sources and in several waves Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe. The Dominion Lands Act of 1871 served a similar function in Canada. The Dominion Lands Act (short for An Act Respecting the Public Lands of the Dominion) was an 1872 Canadian law that aimed to encourage the settlement of Canada's

After 1900

The region roughly centered on the Oklahoma Panhandle, including southeastern Colorado, southwestern Kansas, the Texas Panhandle, and extreme northeastern New Mexico was known as the Dust Bowl during the late 1920s and early 1930s. The Texas Panhandle is a region of the US state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state The Dust Bowl, or the dirty thirties, was a period of severe Dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and The effect of the drought combined with the effects of the Great Depression, forced many farmers off the land throughout the Great Plains.

From the 1950s, on, many areas of the Great Plains have become productive crop-growing areas because of extensive irrigation. Irrigation is an artificial application of water to the soil usually for assisting in growing crops The southern portion of the Great Plains lies over the Ogallala Aquifer, a vast underground layer of water-bearing strata dating from the last ice age. The Ogallala Aquifer, also known as the High Plains Aquifer, is a vast yet shallow underground Water table Aquifer located beneath the Great Plains An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the Temperature of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere resulting in an expansion of continental Ice sheets Center pivot irrigation is used extensively in drier sections of the Great Plains, resulting in aquifer depletion at a rate that is greater than the ground's ability to recharge. Center-pivot irrigation (sometimes called central pivot irrigation) also called circle irrigation, is a method of crop Irrigation in which equipment An aquifer is an underground layer of Water -bearing Permeable rock or unconsolidated materials ( Gravel, Sand, Silt, or Clay

Abandoned gas station west of North Platte, Nebraska

The rural Plains have lost a third of their population since 1920. North Platte is a city in and the County seat of Lincoln County, Nebraska, United States. Several hundred thousand square miles of the Great Plains have fewer than six persons per square mile—the density standard Frederick Jackson Turner used to declare the American frontier "closed" in 1893. For other people of this same name see Frederick Jackson and Frederick Turner Frederick Jackson Turner ( November 14, 1861 A frontier is a Political and Geographical term referring to areas near or beyond a boundary, or of a different nature Many have fewer than two persons per square mile. There are more than 6,000 ghost towns in the State of Kansas alone, according to Kansas historian Daniel Fitzgerald. A ghost town is a Town or City that has been abandoned usually because the economic activity that supported it has failed or due to natural or human-caused Kansas ( is a Midwestern state in the central region of the United States of America, an area often referred to as the American " This problem is often exacerbated by the consolidation of farms and the difficulty of attracting modern industry to the region. In addition, the smaller school-age population has forced the consolidation of school districts and the closure of high schools in some communities. This continuing population loss has led some to suggest that the current use of the drier parts of the Great Plains is not sustainable, and propose that large parts be restored to native grassland grazed by buffalo, a proposal known as Buffalo Commons. Sustainability, in a general sense is the capacity to maintain a certain process or state indefinitely The Buffalo Commons is a conceptual proposal to create a vast Nature preserve by returning of the drier portion of the Great Plains to native Prairie,

Animals

The Great American Bison is the most famous animal of the Great Plains.

References

Common mammals in the great plains are ground squirrels, prairie dogs, and rabbits. The swift fox was once very common, but humans have almost caused them to be extinct. Poisoning and hunting meant to kill wolves and coyotes often inadvertently harms the swift fox, and its habitat is rapidly being destroyed by humans.

External links

Dictionary

-proper noun

The relatively flat region of land occupying much of the central US and southern central Canada.

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