Where is the West The Great Plains o The major factor for expeditions and expansion was grain o The Great Plains were Isohyets which are places where there is equal amount of o The early name for the Great Plains was the Great Dessert o You needed 30 inches of rain to grow anything and the Great Plains never had rain fall every year this o The Indians lived on the outside of the Great Plains and never spent much time in the Great Plains and only went in to hunt buffalo o Pioneers lives had to change a to live on the Great Plains o The Great Plains go from North Dakota to Texas o The Great Plains don t get any rain because of the Rain Shadow Effect which is the Rocky Mountains blocked most of the moisture that came off the ocean and so on one side of the mountain has rain and the other doesn t o The Windmill changes everything on the Great Plains because it allows the farmer to gain water from underground and use it in everyday life o There isn t a lot of Timbre on the Great Plains and it only grew along the river systems on the banks so the settlers could build anything they need for everyday life o The settlers have to adapt to live on the Great Plains like using Sod for building Cabins Barbed Wire for fences etc o The river systems on the Great Plains were very poor and couldn t hold boat for resupplying o Until the railroads come about the settlers had a hard time getting supplies and even when the railroads came they charged the farmers highly for their supplies o The Great Plains had 25 million of buffalo in the 1850 and other game this leads to people letting their cattle graze on the grains o The largest wheat farmers and corn suppliers came from the Great Plains this was because the soil was so rich and all it needed was irrigation for farming o Everyone that moved onto the Great Plains had to change to survive on it the Indians need horses Settlers need irrigation and so on o West of the Great Plains held the Rocky Mountains and the Great Basin o The Great Basin was one a large lake that over time has shrunk into the Salt Lake o The Great Basin had the same problems with water supplies that the Great Plains there were flash floods as a result of the low water supplies o The only reason the Mormon religion could survive and live on the Great Basin was because of irrigation o In 1846 there was irrigation like the Windmill until later so they funneled down the ice and snow from the Mountains and used it on their crops o The Southwest part around what is New Mexico and Arizona are now only survived because of the channels the Spanish dug for water supplies o The American Southwest is rich with mineral that are in the mountains also in the North around the Dakotas and other states this is what drew people to the land o Silver Gold Tin and other minerals draw people out west and leads to the explosion of Mining in the west o California Oregon and Washington where the 3 states that gained all the rain that came from the ocean this allows vast woodlands and games supplies o The earliest fur trade was in Washington and Oregon this also allows for fertile soil and amply amount of fishing o The Gold Rush happens outside of San Francisco and southern California held the land and temperature that people really wanted o Wheat could be grown and they could grow grapes olives avocadoes oranges and others because of the climate o This also leads the foundation of movies because of the good weather it held and this leads to the expansion of L A and the changing of farm towns to suburbs