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Kyle Keith
Frinq Sustainability 124A
1/21/14
Settlement in the High Plains
The term Great American Desert was first used by Major Stephen Long in the early 19
th

century to describe what is now referred to as the High Plains (Egan, 2006). The region was
primarily home to the numerous herds of buffalo and other wildlife that once grazed the region.
The relatively low amounts of annual rainfall and complete lack of trees were contributing
factors leading early explorations to conclude that these grasslands were unsuitable for farming
and agriculture.
Lieutenant Zebulon Pike was the first to explore the Louisiana Purchase from 1805-7,
and compared the high plains to the African Sahara in his report back to Thomas Jefferson.
Pikes map of these vast plains included the very insightful comment, not a stick of timber
(Meinig, 1993). At the time, land without trees were not considered sufficient for farming or profitable
agriculture.
Major Stephen Long led the subsequent expedition through the high plains in the early 1820s.
According to Long, In regard to this extensive section of the country, I do not hesitate in giving the
opinion that it is almost wholly uninhabitable by a people depending on agriculture for their subsistence
(Egan, 2006). He also noted that the overwhelming lack of wood and water would be the greatest
barrier to human settlement.
The United States Geolocical Survey produced a report at the end of the nineteenth
century that stated: The High Plains continues to be the most alluring body of unoccupied land
in the United States, and will remain such until the best means of their utilization have been
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worked out (Egan, 2006). I believe this comment illustrates that Pike and Long were absolutely
correct in their observations, and reinforces the idea of the high plains as a generally undesirable
region that was virtually worthless at the time.
















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References
Egan, Timothy (2006). The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great
American Dust Bowl. New York: Houghton Mifflin. 340 p.

Pike, Z. M. Exploratory Travels Through the Western Territories of North America, Performed in the
Years 1805, IO06, 1807. London, England, l8ll.(Ross & Haines, Inc., 1316 Welcome Avenue,
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55^ 22-a facsimile printing of Dr. Coues edition of l895 3 Vols* in two,
1965).

Meinig, D.W. (1993). The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History,
Volume 2: Continental America, 1800-1867. New Haven: Yale University Press; pg. 76.