The Great Plains Technological advances during the 19 th century allowed people to live in more...

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The Great Plains

Technological advances during the 19th century allowed people to live in more challenging environments.

Physical Features of the Great Plains

• Flatlands that rise gradually from east to west

• Land Eroded by Wind and Water

• Low Rainfall

• Frequent Dust Storms

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Because of New Technologies…

• People saw the Great Plains not as a “treeless wasteland” but as a vast area to be settled

What new technologies allowed settlement?

• Barbed wire: allowed farmers to fence in farm land and eliminated open range cattle grazing

• Steel Plows: allowed farmers to farm more land and to plant more crops

Attach cow or horse here to plow the earth.

• Dry Farming: allowed crops to grow in very dry conditions with little water.

• Sod Homes: allowed families to build homes from the soil on the treeless plains

• Beef Cattle Raising: provided cattle that were shipped east to factories for processing

• Wheat Farming: provided grain to be shipped to markets in the East.

• Windmills: provided water for families, crops, and livestock on the plains

• Railroads: shipped raw materials produced on the Great Plains to markets for processing and sale in the East.

Advances in transportation linked resources, products and markets.

• Transportation– Moving natural resources (copper, lead) to

eastern factories– Moving iron ore deposits to sites of steel

mills (Pittsburgh)– Transporting finished products to national

markets

Examples of Manufacturing areas:

• Textile Industry: New EnglandTextile Braiding Machine

• Automobile Industry: Detroit

Duryea Brothers' automobile factory

1896, Massachusetts

• Steel Industry:

Pittsburgh

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