The Great Plains

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The Great Plains
SOL USII2a
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. What does perception mean?

• Perception is your idea about something..how you
  think of it

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What were peoples perceptions of the Great
Plains before the Civil War?

• Full of Indians and buffalo
• Rolling plains
• Dry plateaus
• Deserts

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Empty and uninviting to mosta treeless
wasteland
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..but after the Civil War those ideas were about
to change.

• Because of new technologies, people saw the Great
  Plains as a vast area to be settled

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What are the physical features of the Great
Plains?

• Flatlands that rise gradually from east to west

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• 2. Land eroded by wind and water.

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• 3. Low rainfall

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What are the physical features of the Great
Plains?

• 4. Frequent dust storms

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After the Civil War, settlers had inventions and
adaptations to make life on the Great Plains
easier.

• 1. Barbed wire was used to fence in sheep. Put
  and end to long cattle drives.

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2. Steel Plows

• Steel plow improvements helped farmers to slice
  through tough sod on the great plains

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3. Dry farming

• Used in areas of low rainfall to conserve the
  moisture in the ground. Allowing areas to remain
  fallow every other year and rotating crops grown
  on the land.

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4. Sod houses

• Dwellings made of buffalo grass cut into two or
  three foot strips. The chunks of sod/grass were
  laid into two rows as walls.

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4. Sod houses

• Sod houses stayed warm in winter and cool in
  summer, but roofs leaked and mice, snakes and
  bugs got in.

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5. Beef cattle raising

• Cattle ranchers discovered they could drive their
  livestock to the railroad in Kansas and sell them
  to beef hungry people in the East.

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6. Wheat farming

• Wheat grew nicely in the dry plains. Farmers
  were able to double their production of wheat
  from 1860-1890 with the help of reapers and
  threshers.

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7. Windmills

• Windmills were built on the great plains to allow
  farmers to pump water from deep beneath the
  ground.

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8. Railroads

• Rails brought settlers and supplies to the Great
  Plains. They also took crops and livestock back
  east to buyers.

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so how did the advances in transportation link
resources, products and markets?
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They moved natural resources like copper and lead
to eastern factories.
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they moved iron ore deposits to steel mills in
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
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And finally they transported the finished
products to national markets.
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There were 3 major manufacturing areas in the
late 1800s

• Textile industryin the New England States

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• 2. Automobile industry in Detroit, Michigan

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• 3. Steel industryin Pittsburg, Pennsylvania

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This has been another..

• Fabulous
• S. Cole Production!

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