The Great Plains

1
The Great Plains

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

2
Physical Features of the Great Plains

• Flatlands that rise gradually from east to west

3
Physical Features of the Great Plains

• Land Eroded by Wind and Water

4
Physical Features of the Great Plains

• Low Rainfall

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Physical Features of the Great Plains

• 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

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What new technologies allowed settlement?

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

8
What new technologies allowed settlement?

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

Attach cow or horse here to plow the earth.
9
What new technologies allowed settlement?

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

10
What new technologies allowed settlement?

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

11
What new technologies allowed settlement?

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

12
What new technologies allowed settlement?

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

13
What new technologies allowed settlement?

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

14
What new technologies allowed settlement?

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

15
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

16
Examples of Manufacturing areas

• Textile Industry New England

Textile Braiding Machine
17
Examples of Manufacturing areas

• Automobile Industry Detroit

Duryea Brothers' automobile factory 1896,
Massachusetts
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Examples of Manufacturing areas

• Steel Industry
• Pittsburgh

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Northeast
Midwest
Pacific
Rocky Mountains
Southeast
Southwest
Noncontiguous