The Great Plains geography

The Great Plains Geography

• Running from Canada to Texas and bordered by the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Plateau, the Great Plains make up one-third of the continental United States.
• Take a moment to look over the following words and definitions. It will help you understand the different physical features of the Great Plains.

The Great Plains Physical Features

Physical features include an area's landforms, bodies of water, soil, climate, vegetation, and animal life.

What are the Great Plains?

The phrase Great Plains refers to a large area of grasslands in the central United States that extends into Canada. It is generally large and flat with a low elevation. The land was home to indigenous tribes before settlers from European nations displaced them to occupy it themselves.

Fig. 1: Map of the Great Plains.

Where are the Great Plains?

The land that makes up the Great Plains is between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Plateau. Texas makes up the southern border of the plains, while the region extends north into Canada. The Great Plains make up one-third of the land of the continental United States. Its altitude at the base of the Rocky Mountains is between 5,000 and 6,000 feet. It drops to about 1,500 at the Appalachian Plateau.

What's it like in the Great Plains?

The Great Plains has generally dry dirt and rocky plains. Dirt storms often occur there.

The Great Plains have a continental climate. The weather gets drier the farther you go. Most of the region has cold winters and warm summers. There is low precipitation and humidity but high levels of wind which can make farming tricky.

The Great Plains Physical Landforms

The Great Plains are between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Plateau. The terrain there is generally level. However, there are some rolling hills in various parts. The landforms include plateaus, prairies, grasslands, mountains, hills, and valleys.

Fig. 2: Black Hills Road in the Black Hills.

Examples of Landforms

The Black Hills and Sand Hills are located in the western and southern parts of the Great Plains. The Black Hills are in western South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming. They are over a million acres of densely forested hills and mountains. The Sand Hills in Nebraska are sand dunes created by the wind blowing glacial material around.

Fig. 3: The Badlands

The Badlands are also in South Dakota. It is a desolate area of land characterized by buttes (hills with steep sides and flat tops), plateaus, and deep canyons and gorges. Wind and water erosion made the sedimentary layers of the rock visible to the eye.

The Missouri Plateau runs along the Missouri River, from North Dakota to South Dakota. Farmers use the area for farming and raising livestock.

The High Plains make up the southern portion of the Great Plains. They cover parts of Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas. The High Plains are a flat grassland. Farmers use the High Plains for raising livestock like cattle and farming.

Plants and Animals

Most of the vegetation in the Great Plains is naturally-occurring grass, but a large amount of it has been removed to create agricultural land or was overgrazed by livestock. Before European explorers settled the Great Plains, it was home to buffalo herds, prairie dogs, coyotes, moose, caribou, and gray wolves.

Settlement in the Great Plains

Indigenous people lived in the Great Plains before its settlement by white settlers.

Indigenous People in the Great Plains

The Great Plains were sparsely populated until the 1600s. Spanish colonists later occupied them. The plains Indians adapted to horses and cattle introduced to the area by the Spanish colonists.

The Cheyenne Indians in the Great Plains

The Cheyenne Indians initially settled in modern-day Minnesota but resettled in the Great Plains after being introduced to horses. In Minnesota, they lived in homes that were earthen lodges (wood frames packed with earth and grass) and hunted buffalo.

After the Cheyenne resettled in the Great Plains, they lived in teepees. They spoke their own language, which was a derivative of the Algonquian language. The Cheyenne found themselves in a tricky position with white settlers taking up their land. They eventually signed a treaty with the U.S. government guaranteeing them land. However, the agreement was followed through, and they still lost a significant amount of land. As a result, the Cheyenne attempted to band together with other tribes but failed and had to go to a reservation. Northern Cheyenne made their settlements on a reservation in Montana, while Southern Cheyenne began living in Oklahoma.

Homestead Act

In 1862, the United States passed a piece of legislation called the Homestead Act. This piece of legislation turned over previously public domain land to private citizens. An individual or head of household over 21 years of age could claim a 160-acre piece of land. The passing of the Homestead Act encouraged settlement in the great plains.

As a requirement for obtaining a piece of land, settlers had to promise to live on the land, build a home, farm, and generally maintain the land. Previously wide-open spaces became farms managed by new settlers.

Farming in the Great Plains

The Great Plains are the land between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Plateau, bordered by Texas in the south and Canada in the North. The great expanse of land allows for various crops and livestock to be cultivated. For example, sheep and goats are raised on the Edwards Plateau in Texas.

The most important crop is wheat. The wheat grown in the United States and Canada makes up half of the world's wheat exports. Barley, canola, cotton, and soybeans also grow in the Great Plains.

The geography of the Great Plains features raw materials employed for urban manufacturing. This, along with rivers and roads, makes the Great Plains a diverse economic area.

Native Americans Farming

Early farmers hunted animals and were dedicated to agriculture. The crops in the region are threatened by grasshoppers, drought, and cold weather. Thus, Native Americans resorted to resilient crops, like maize, the primary crop, but they also grew beans and squash. Many tribes grew tobacco as it was a valuable crop to trade.

Fig. 4: Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

European Settlers

European settlers learned how to grow corn from the native tribes in the area. Corn and wheat became essential crops to the Europeans. They also raised cattle.

When Homestead settlers first began farming on new land, they had to use large animals to help plow and overturn the land before planting new crops.

Fig. 5: The Rocky Mountains.

The Great Plains Geography: Summary

Running from Canada to Texas and bordered by the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Plateau, the Great Plains make up one-third of the continental United States. The region varies in altitude, ranging from 6,000 to 1,500 feet above sea level, with a total area of 1,100,000 square miles.

There are a variety of landforms in the Great Plains, including plateaus, prairies, buttes, grasslands, mountains, hills, valleys, and gorges. Real-life examples include the Black Hills, the Badlands, the Missouri Plateau, and the High Plains.

Before being settled by Europeans, native tribes such as the Cheyenne lived on the plains alongside buffalo, coyotes, caribou, and grey wolves. Indigenous people not only raised livestock but grew crops like wheat and maize. They taught settlers how to raise maize and wheat. They adapted to the horses and cattle brought to the area by Spanish settlers.

Settlers in the area were encouraged by the Homestead Act. They took over the land, forcing indigenous tribes onto reservations. Settlers changed the land, plowing it to begin growing crops.