Life on the Great Plains The Great Plains is the large landmass or region of prairie which lie east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area includes parts of Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming. The region is about 500 miles east to west and 2,000 miles north to south

Geography of the Great Plains The Great Plains region extends from western Texas north to the Rocky Mtns. , through the Dakotas, and into Canada. This area gets less than 20 in. of rain per year. Large herds of buffalo once roamed the area.

The Beginning of Settlement Railroads provided easy access to the Plains. But the railroads would also lead to the demise of the buffalo herds and an end to the Indians way of life.

The Wheat Belt The Wheat Belt began on the eastern edge of the Great Plains and included much of the Dakotas and the western part of Kansas and Nebraska Wheat became an important crop because it was resistant to drought. Sodbusters were farmers who worked the Great Plains.

The Wheat Belt New farming equipment and new methods made the area profitable. Dry farming technique By the 1860s steel plows, seed drills, reapers and threshing machines made planting large tracts of land possible

The Wheat Belt Bonanza farms were large farms of up to 50,000 acres A glut of wheat caused prices to drop and many farms failed. Many farmers could not repay their bank loans.

Closing the Frontier In 1889 the government opened the land for settlement that later became Oklahoma. In 1890, the Census Bureau reported the frontier was closing