1.
Weld County, Colorado
–
Weld County is one of the 64 counties of the U. S. state of Colorado. As of the 2010 census, the population was 252,825, Weld County comprises the Greeley, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Denver-Aurora, CO Combined Statistical Area. On May 30,1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act created the Nebraska Territory, present-day Weld County, Colorado, lay in the southwestern portion of the Nebraska Territory, bordering the Kansas Territory. In July 1858, gold was discovered along the South Platte River in Arapahoe County and this discovery precipitated the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. Many residents of the region felt disconnected from the remote territorial governments of Kansas and Nebraska. The following month, the Jefferson Territorial Legislature organized 12 counties for the new territory, St. Vrain County was named in honor of Ceran de Hault de Lassus de St. Vrain, the French trader who established the first trading post on the upper South Platte River. St. Vrain County encompassed much of what is today Weld County, the Jefferson Territory never received federal sanction, but on February 28,1861, U. S. President James Buchanan signed an act organizing the Territory of Colorado. On November 1,1861, the Colorado General Assembly organized 17 counties, including Weld County, Weld County was named for Lewis Ledyard Weld, a lawyer and territorial secretary. He died while serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, until February 9,1887, Weld Countys boundaries included the area now comprising Weld County, Washington County, Logan County, Morgan County, Yuma County, Phillips County, and Sedgwick County. Graham was tried and convicted of the crime, and executed in 1957, in northeastern Weld County, Minuteman III missile silo N-8, one of the many unmanned silos there, was the target of symbolic vandalism by Catholic peace activists in 2002. In 2013, conservative Weld County commissioners began a campaign to secede from the State of Colorado, the legality of this initiative has been questioned by local attorneys. On Nov 5th,2013,6 out of 11 Colorado counties voted no for secession, elbert, Lincoln, Logan, Moffat, Sedgwick, and Weld counties voted no, while Cheyenne, Kit Carson, Phillips, Washington, and Yuma counties voted yes. Weld County also holds the distinction of having the most confirmed tornado sightings in the U. S. from 1950-2011, with 252 confirmed reports. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 4,017 square miles. It is the third-largest county in Colorado by area, along the western border hilly areas betray the presence of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains further west. The county is served by two highways, I-25 runs through the southwestern corner and I-76 from the south central edge northeastward to the Morgan county border. Other major roads include US85 and US34, which intersect near Greeley, and State Highway 14, pawnee National Grassland Fort Vasquez State History Museum St. The population density was 45 people per square mile, there were 66,194 housing units at an average density of 17 per square mile
2.
Colorado
–
Colorado is a state in the United States encompassing most of the Southern Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains. Colorado is part of the Western United States, the Southwestern United States, Colorado is the 8th most extensive and the 21st most populous of the 50 United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Colorado was 5,540,545 on July 1,2016, the state was named for the Colorado River, which Spanish travelers named the Río Colorado for the ruddy silt the river carried from the mountains. The Territory of Colorado was organized on February 28,1861, Colorado is nicknamed the Centennial State because it became a state in the same year as the centennial of the United States Declaration of Independence. Colorado is noted for its landscape of mountains, forests, high plains, mesas, canyons, plateaus, rivers. Denver is the capital and the most populous city of Colorado, residents of the state are properly known as Coloradans, although the term Coloradoan has been used archaically and lives on in the title of Fort Collins newspaper, the Coloradoan. Colorado, Wyoming and Utah are the states which have boundaries defined solely by lines of latitude and longitude. The summit of Mount Elbert at 14,440 feet elevation in Lake County is the highest point in Colorado, Colorado is the only U. S. state that lies entirely above 1,000 meters elevation. The point where the Arikaree River flows out of Yuma County, Colorado and this point, which holds the distinction of being the highest low elevation point of any state, is higher than the high elevation points of 18 states and the District of Columbia. A little less than one half of the area of Colorado is flat, East of the Rocky Mountains are the Colorado Eastern Plains of the High Plains, the section of the Great Plains within Nebraska at elevations ranging from roughly 3,350 to 7,500 feet. The Colorado plains were mostly prairies, but they have many patches of forests, buttes. Eastern Colorado is presently covered in farmland and rangeland, along with small farming villages. Precipitation is fair, averaging from 15 to 25 inches annually, corn, wheat, hay, soybeans, and oats are all typical crops, and most of the villages and towns in this region boast both a water tower and a grain elevator. Irrigation water is available from the South Platte, the Arkansas River, and a few other streams, however, heavy use of ground water from wells for irrigation has caused underground water reserves to decline. As well as agriculture, eastern Colorado hosts considerable livestock, such as cattle ranches. Roughly 70% of Colorados population resides along the edge of the Rocky Mountains in the Front Range Urban Corridor between Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Pueblo, Colorado. This region is protected from prevailing storms that blow in from the Pacific Ocean region by the high Rockies in the middle of Colorado. The Front Range includes Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Loveland, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Greeley and other townships, on the other side of the Rockies, the significant population centers in Western Colorado are the cities of Grand Junction, Durango, and Montrose
3.
United States Forest Service
–
The United States Forest Service is an agency of the U. S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nations 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass 193 million acres. Major divisions of the include the National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, Business Operations. Managing approximately 25% of federal lands, it is the major national land agency that is outside the U. S. Department of the Interior. The concept of the National Forests was born from Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation group, Boone and Crockett Club, in 1876, Congress created the office of Special Agent in the Department of Agriculture to assess the quality and conditions of forests in the United States. Hough was appointed the head of the office, in 1881, the office was expanded into the newly formed Division of Forestry. The Forest Reserve Act of 1891 authorized withdrawing land from the domain as forest reserves. In 1901, the Division of Forestry was renamed the Bureau of Forestry, gifford Pinchot was the first United States Chief Forester in the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. As of 2009, the Forest Service has a budget authority of $5.5 billion. The Forest Service employs 34,250 employees in 750 locations, including 10,050 firefighters,737 law enforcement personnel, and 500 scientists. The mission of the Forest Service is To sustain the health, diversity and its motto is Caring for the land and serving people. As the lead agency in natural resource conservation, the US Forest Service provides leadership in the protection, management, and use of the nations forest, rangeland. The agencys ecosystem approach to management integrates ecological, economic, and social factors to maintain and enhance the quality of the environment to meet current, the everyday work of the Forest Service balances resource extraction, resource protection, and providing recreation.5 billion trees per year. Further, the Forest Service fought fires on 2,996,000 acres of land in 2007, the Forest Service organization includes ranger districts, national forests, regions, research stations and research work units and the Northeastern Area Office for State and Private Forestry. Each level has responsibility for a variety of functions, the Chief of the Forest Service is a career federal employee who oversees the entire agency. The Chief reports to the Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment in the U. S. Department of Agriculture, there are five deputy chiefs for the following areas, National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, Research and Development, Business Operations, and Finance. The Forest Service Research and Development deputy area includes five stations, the Forest Products Laboratory. Station directors, like regional foresters, report to the Chief, Research stations include Northern, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Southwest, Rocky Mountain, and Southern. There are 92 research work units located at 67 sites throughout the United States, there are 80 Experimental Forests and Ranges that have been established progressively since 1908, many sites are more than 50 years old
4.
United States National Grassland
–
National Grassland is a classification of protected and managed federal lands in the United States authorized by Title III of the Bankhead–Jones Farm Tenant Act of 1937. For administrative purposes, they are identical to United States National Forests. Like National Forests, National Grasslands may be open for hunting, grazing, mineral extraction, recreation, various National Grasslands are typically administered in conjunction with nearby National Forests. All but three National Grasslands are on or at the edge of the Great Plains and those three are in southeastern Idaho, northeastern California, and central Oregon. The three National Grasslands in North Dakota, together with one in northwestern South Dakota, are administered jointly as the Dakota Prairie Grasslands, National Grasslands are generally much smaller than National Forests. Whereas a typical National Forest would be about 1,000,000 acres, the largest National Grassland, the Little Missouri National Grassland in North Dakota, covers 1,028,784 acres, which is approximately the median size of a National Forest. As of September 30,2007, the area of all 20 National Grasslands was 3,838,280 acres. The catastrophic Dust Bowl of the 1930s led to the creation of the Soil Conservation Service in 1933 and this and subsequent federal laws paved the way for establishing national grasslands. Grassland Prairie Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands List of U. S. National Forests Wilderness preservation systems in the United States
5.
Eastern Plains
–
The Eastern Plains of Colorado refers to a region of the U. S. state of Colorado east of the Rocky Mountains and east of the population centers of the Front Range. The Eastern Plains are part of the High Plains, which are the westernmost portion of the Great Plains, the region is characterized by mostly rolling plains, divided by the South Platte River and Arkansas River valleys. There are also several deciduous forests, canyons, buttes, the Eastern Plains rise from approximately 3,400 feet at the eastern border of Colorado with Kansas, where the Arkansas River leaves the state, to 7,500 feet east of the Denver Basin. Most of the Eastern Plains region lies within Colorados 4th congressional district, the Eastern Plains have a semi-arid climate and receive little rainfall. Much of the area relies on irrigation to survive, summers are typically hot and dry, often bringing thunderstorms, which are often severe, to the area, with some occasionally forming landspouts and tornadoes. Eastern Colorado winters are cold and dry, with significant snowfalls, temperatures can sometimes fall to -40 to -30 degrees Fahrenheit in extreme cold waves, although this is rare. Eastern Colorado was once home to many Native American tribes, the Plains Indians that lived in the region included the Arapahoe, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Pawnee, and Sioux. The Ute people formally ruled all over central and western Colorado, the Comanche once ruled all over southeastern Colorado, and the Jicarilla Apache ruled in southeastern Colorado as well. In 1541, the Spanish came to the now known as the south eastern portion of Colorado. Not having found any gold, the Spanish largely left the area untouched, during the late 17th and 18th century Spain and France claimed southeastern Colorado. In 1803 the United States gained possession of the land east of Rocky Mountains with the Louisiana Purchase, Pike was sent by the federal government to lay out the boundary lines of territory in 1806. This expedition investigated the area now known as Colorado Springs, the prominent mountain in the area was named Pikes Peak after Pike, the leading commander of the exploration. There were multiple expeditions sent to lay out and explore the territory throughout the early 1800s and this created multiple trading posts with fur trades attracting many backcountry adventurers. There was still no permanent settlement created until after the conclusion of the Mexican War in 1848, San Luis was founded on the Culebra River in 1851. Spanish-speaking settlers who had moved north from New Mexico founded it, San Luis was shortly followed by settlements of San Pedro, San Acacio and Guadalupe. The Eastern Colorado plains are among the most sparsely populated areas in the continental United States, the Dust Bowl devastated the region and further accelerated this outmigration. Kiowa County demonstrates the population decline and its associated effects, both the Pawnee National Grasslands and Comanche National Grasslands are located in the Eastern Plains. They are composed of marginal farmlands that were withdrawn from agriculture, Eastern Colorado is largely farmland, with many small farming communities
6.
South Platte River
–
The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River. Flowing through the U. S. states of Colorado and Nebraska, it is itself a major river of the American Midwest and it joins the North Platte River in western Nebraska to form the Platte, which then flows across Nebraska to the Missouri. The river serves as the source of water for eastern Colorado. In its valley along the foothills in Colorado, it has permitted agriculture in an area of the Colorado Piedmont and Great Plains that is otherwise arid. The river is formed in Park County, Colorado, southwest of Denver in the South Park grassland basin by the confluence of the South Fork and Middle Fork, approximately 15 miles southeast of Fairplay. Both forks rise along the flank of the Mosquito Range, on the western side of South Park. From South Park, it passes through 50 miles of the Platte Canyon, here, it is joined by the North Fork before emerging from the foothills southwest of the Denver suburb of Littleton. At Littleton, the river is impounded to form Chatfield Reservoir, the river flows north through central Denver, which was founded along its banks at its confluence with Cherry Creek. The valley through Denver is highly industrialized, serving generally as the route for both the lines, as well as Interstate 25. On the north side of Denver it is joined somewhat inconspicuously by Clear Creek, North of Denver it flows through the agricultural heartland of the Piedmont. East of Greeley it turns eastward, flowing across the Colorado Eastern Plains, past Fort Morgan and Brush and it continues past Sterling, and runs into Nebraska between Julesburg, Colorado and Big Springs, Nebraska. In Nebraska, it passes south of Ogallala and joins the North Platte River near the city of North Platte. The South Platte River through Denver is on the U. S. EPAs list of impaired waterbodies for pathogen impairment, other water issues involve the appearance of the New Zealand Mud Snail and of the Zebra Mussel. The South Platte was originally called Niinéniiniicíihéhe by the native Arapaho people who lived on its banks, the early Spanish explorers called it the Rio Chato. The South Platte River also served as a water source in Colorado. Long before the city of Denver was created many travelers came to the South Platte River to escape the arid Great Plains and these people could survive the heat but not without the vital water source that the South Platte River gave them. Buckets and wells sufficed as a system for a while. In an arid region of the United States, the South Platte is marked with several dams, the first notable water impoundment on the South Platte is Antero Reservoir
7.
Sterling, Colorado
–
Sterling is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Logan County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 18,211 at the 2010 census, Sterling is located at 40°37′32″N 103°12′42″W. It is 128 miles northeast of Denver, and is located on Interstate 76, According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 6.9 square miles, all of it land. A post office called Sterling has been in operation since 1874, the community was named for Sterling, Illinois, the native home of a railroad official. Sterling is the largest city in Northeastern Colorado and the county seat of Logan County, Sterling is the home of Northeastern Junior College, a residential two year liberal arts college in Colorado. Sterling is the shopping hub for most of northeastern Colorado and hosts stores like Wal-Mart, The Home Depot. Penney, as well as local retailers located primarily on Main Street. Sterling is a center for health care as well, and is the home of the Sterling Regional Medical Center. The Colorado Department of Corrections operates the Sterling Correctional Facility in Sterling, just a few miles northeast of Sterling is located the North Sterling State Park, situated on the North Sterling Reservoir, a man-made lake fed by waters from the South Platte River. This new state park has three state of the art boat ramps, and three camping areas with over 150 camping sites, as well as multiple picnicking sites. The park is famous for its swimming, boating, waterskiing, camping. Pheasant, duck, and deer hunting are excellent in the high plains, Sterling is the home of two beautiful golf courses, Riverview Golf Course and the Northeastern Eighteen, each offering excellent 18-hole courses. Museum admission is three dollars, and picnic grounds are adjacent, the Recreation Center now has an indoor pool with a capacity of 225, including the diving well and an outdoor pool with a capacity of nearly 450. The largest attraction at the pool is the double flumed slide, complete with a translucent blue speed slide about 130 feet long, picnic tables and chairs can accommodate over 300 patrons and the seven shade structures provide plenty of protection from the suns ultra violet rays. Http, //www. sterlingcolo. com/pages/dept/plr/reccenter. php According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Sterling has a semi-arid climate, crosson Field Municipal Airport serves Sterling, but there are no scheduled flights available from there. The closest airport served by scheduled flights is Denver International Airport, Sterling is also served by railroads, although only freight carriers serve the town. The main rail operator is Burlington Northern Santa Fe, but other operators, like Union Pacific, the closest Amtrak station is located in Fort Morgan, about 47 miles away. Scheduled bus service is offered by Black Hills Stage Lines with service to Ft. Morgan and Denver in Colorado, as well as number of cities in Nebraska including North Platte, Kearney, and Omaha
8.
Wyoming
–
Wyoming /waɪˈoʊmɪŋ/ is a state in the mountain region of the western United States. The state is the tenth largest by area, the least populous, Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho. Cheyenne is the capital and the most populous city in Wyoming, the state population was estimated at 586,107 in 2015, which is less than the population of 31 of the largest U. S. cities. The Crow, Arapaho, Lakota, and Shoshone were some of the inhabitants of the region. Southwestern Wyoming was included in the Spanish Empire and then Mexican territory until it was ceded to the United States in 1848 at the end of the Mexican–American War. The region acquired the name Wyoming when a bill was introduced to Congress in 1865 to provide a government for the territory of Wyoming. The territory was named after the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, with the name ultimately being derived from the Munsee word xwé, wamənk, the mineral extraction industry—especially coal, oil, natural gas, and trona—along with the travel and tourism sector are the main drivers behind Wyomings economy. Agriculture has historically been an important component of the economy with the main commodities being livestock, hay, sugar beets, grain. The climate is generally semi-arid and continental, being drier and windier in comparison to the rest of the United States, except for the 1964 election, Wyoming has been a politically conservative state since the 1950s, with the Republican party winning every presidential election. Wyoming is one of three states to have borders along only straight latitudinal and longitudinal lines, rather than being defined by natural landmarks. Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho. It is the tenth largest state in the United States in total area, from the north border to the south border it is 276 miles, and from the east to the west border is 365 miles at its south end and 342 miles at the north end. The Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming, the state is a great plateau broken by many mountain ranges. Surface elevations range from the summit of Gannett Peak in the Wind River Mountain Range, at 13,804 feet, to the Belle Fourche River valley in the states northeast corner, at 3,125 feet. In the northwest are the Absaroka, Owl Creek, Gros Ventre, Wind River, in the north central are the Big Horn Mountains, in the northeast, the Black Hills, and in the southern region the Laramie, Snowy and Sierra Madre ranges. The Snowy Range in the central part of the state is an extension of the Colorado Rockies in both geology and appearance. The Wind River Range in the west central part of the state is remote and includes more than 40 mountain peaks in excess of 13,000 ft tall in addition to Gannett Peak, the highest peak in the state. The Big Horn Mountains in the central portion are somewhat isolated from the bulk of the Rocky Mountains
9.
Nebraska
–
Nebraska /nᵻˈbræskə/ is a state that lies in both the Great Plains and the Midwestern United States. Its area is just over 77,220 sq mi with almost 1.9 million people and its largest city is Omaha, which is on the Missouri River. The state is crossed by many trails and was explored by the Lewis. Nebraska was admitted as the 37th state of the United States in 1867 and it is the only state in the United States whose legislature is unicameral and officially nonpartisan. Nebraska is composed of two major regions, the Dissected Till Plains and the Great Plains. The Dissected Till Plains is a region of rolling hills. The Great Plains occupy most of western Nebraska, characterized by treeless prairie, the state has a large agriculture sector and is a major producer of beef, pork, corn, and soybeans. Two major climatic zones are represented in Nebraska, the half of the state has a humid continental climate, and the western half. Indigenous peoples lived in the region of present-day Nebraska for thousands of years before European exploration. The historic tribes in the state included the Omaha, Missouria, Ponca, Pawnee, Otoe, when European exploration, trade, and settlement began, both Spain and France sought to control the region. In the 1690s, Spain established trade connections with the Apaches, by 1703, France had developed a regular trade with the native peoples along the Missouri River in Nebraska, and by 1719 had signed treaties with several of these peoples. After war broke out between the two countries, Spain dispatched an expedition to Nebraska under Lieutenant General Pedro de Villasur in 1720. The party was attacked and destroyed near present-day Columbus by a force of Pawnees and Otoes. The massacre of the Villasur expedition effectively put an end to Spanish exploration of Nebraska for the remainder of the 18th century, in 1762, during the Seven Years War, France ceded the Louisiana territory to Spain. Frances withdrawal from the area left Britain and Spain competing for dominance along the Mississippi, by 1773, later that year, Mackays party built a trading post, dubbed Fort Carlos IV, near present-day Homer. In 1819, the United States established Fort Atkinson as the first U. S. Army post west of the Missouri River, the army abandoned the fort in 1827 as migration moved further west. European-American settlement did not begin in any numbers until after 1848, on May 30,1854, the US Congress created the Kansas and the Nebraska territories, divided by the Parallel 40° North, under the Kansas–Nebraska Act. The Nebraska Territory included parts of the current states of Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, the territorial capital of Nebraska was Omaha
10.
Fort Collins, Colorado
–
Fort Collins is the Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Larimer County, Colorado, United States. Situated on the Cache La Poudre River along the Colorado Front Range, with a 2016 estimated population of 161,000, it is the fourth most populous city in Colorado after Denver, Colorado Springs, and Aurora. Fort Collins is a college city, home to Colorado State University. Fort Collins was founded as a military outpost of the United States Army in 1864 and it succeeded a previous encampment, known as Camp Collins, on the Cache La Poudre River, near what is known today as Laporte. Camp Collins was erected during the Indian wars of the mid-1860s to protect the Overland mail route that had recently relocated through the region. Travelers crossing the county on the Overland Trail would camp there, the post was manned originally by two companies of the 11th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry and never had walls. Settlers began arriving in the vicinity of the fort nearly immediately, the fort was decommissioned in 1867. The original fort site is now adjacent to the present historic Old Town portion of the city, the first school and church opened in 1866, and the town was platted in 1867. The civilian population of Fort Collins, led by local businessman Joseph Mason, led an effort to relocate the county seat to Fort Collins from LaPorte, the citys first population boom came in 1872, with the establishment of an agricultural colony. Hundreds of settlers arrived, developing lots just south of the original Old Town, tension between new settlers and earlier inhabitants led to political divisions in the new town, which was incorporated in 1873. Although the Colorado Agricultural College was founded in 1870, the first classes were held in 1879, the 1880s saw the construction of a number of elegant homes and commercial buildings and the growth of a distinctive identity for Fort Collins. Stone quarrying, sugar-beet farming, and the slaughter of sheep were among the areas earliest industries, in 1901 the Great Western sugar processing plant was built in the neighboring city of Loveland. Although the city was affected by the Great Depression and simultaneous drought, it nevertheless experienced slow, during the decade following World War II, the population doubled and an era of economic prosperity occurred. Old buildings were razed to make way for new, modern structures, along with revitalization came many changes, including the closing of the Great Western sugar factory in 1955, and a new city charter, adopting a council-manager form of government in 1954. Similarly, Colorado State Universitys enrollment doubled during the 1960s, making it the primary economic force by the end of the century. During that same period, civil activism and anti-war disturbances heightened tensions in the city. During the late 20th century, Fort Collins expanded rapidly to the south, adding new development, management of city growth patterns became a political priority during the 1980s, as well as the revitalization of Fort Collins Old Town with the creation of a Downtown Development Authority. In late July 1997, the city experienced a flood after
11.
Great Plains
–
The region is known for supporting extensive cattle ranching and dry farming. The Canadian portion of the Plains is known as the Prairies, some geographers include some territory of northern Mexico in the Plains, but many stop at the Rio Grande. The term Great Plains is used in the United States to describe a sub-section of the even more vast Interior Plains physiographic division and it also has currency as a region of human geography, referring to the Plains Indians or the Plains States. There is no region referred to as the Great Plains in The Atlas of Canada, in terms of human geography, the term prairie is more commonly used in Canada, and the region is known as the Prairie Provinces or simply the Prairies. The region is about 500 mi east to west and 2,000 mi north to south, much of the region was home to American bison herds until they were hunted to near extinction during the mid/late 19th century. It has an area of approximately 500,000 sq mi, current thinking regarding the geographic boundaries of the Great Plains is shown by this map at the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The term Great Plains, for the region west of about the 96th or 98th meridian, nevin Fennemans 1916 study, Physiographic Subdivision of the United States, brought the term Great Plains into more widespread usage. Before that the region was almost invariably called the High Plains, today the term High Plains is used for a subregion of the Great Plains. The Great Plains are the westernmost portion of the vast North American Interior Plains, during the Cretaceous Period, the Great Plains were covered by a shallow inland sea called the Western Interior Seaway. However, during the Late Cretaceous to the Paleocene, the seaway had begun to recede, leaving thick marine deposits. During the Cenozoic era, specifically about 25 million years ago during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs, existing forest biomes declined and grasslands became much more widespread. The grasslands provided a new niche for mammals, including many ungulates and glires, traditionally, the spread of grasslands and the development of grazers have been strongly linked. The vast majority of animals became extinct in North America at the end of the Pleistocene. In general, the Great Plains have a variety of weather through the year, with very cold and harsh winters and very hot. Wind speeds are very high, especially in winter. Grasslands are among the least protected biomes, humans have converted much of the prairies for agricultural purposes or to create pastures. The Great Plains have dust storms mostly every year or so, the 100th meridian roughly corresponds with the line that divides the Great Plains into an area that receive 20 in or more of rainfall per year and an area that receives less than 20 in. The region is subjected to extended periods of drought, high winds in the region may then generate devastating dust storms
12.
Dust Bowl
–
The drought came in three waves,1934,1936, and 1939–1940, but some regions of the high plains experienced drought conditions for as many as eight years. During the drought of the 1930s, the unanchored soil turned to dust, which the prevailing winds blew away in huge clouds that sometimes blackened the sky. These choking billows of dust – named black blizzards or black rollers – traveled cross country, reaching as far as the East Coast and striking such cities as New York City and Washington, on the Plains, they often reduced visibility to 1 metre or less. While the term the Dust Bowl was originally a reference to the area affected by the dust, today it is usually used to refer to the event. The drought and erosion of the Dust Bowl affected 100,000,000 acres that centered on the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma and touched adjacent sections of New Mexico, Colorado, the Dust Bowl forced tens of thousands of families to abandon their farms. The Dust Bowl area lies principally west of the 100th meridian on the High Plains, elevation ranges from 2,500 feet in the east to 6,000 feet at the base of the Rocky Mountains. The area is semiarid, receiving less than 20 inches of rain annually, the region is also prone to extended drought, alternating with unusual wetness of equivalent duration. During wet years, the soil provides bountiful agricultural output. The region is subject to high winds. During early European and American exploration of the Great Plains, this region was thought unsuitable for European-style agriculture, the lack of surface water and timber made the region less attractive than other areas for pioneer settlement and agriculture. The federal government encouraged settlement and development of the Plains for agriculture via the Homestead Act of 1862, an unusually wet period in the Great Plains mistakenly led settlers and the federal government to believe that rain follows the plow and that the climate of the region had changed permanently. Waves of European settlers arrived in the plains at the beginning of the 20th century, a return of unusually wet weather seemingly confirmed a previously held opinion that the formerly semiarid area could support large-scale agriculture. At the same time, technological improvements such as mechanized plowing, for example, in the Llano Estacado of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas, the area of farmland was doubled between 1900 and 1920, then tripled again between 1925 and 1930. The agricultural methods favored by farmers during this period created the conditions for large-scale erosion under certain environmental conditions, when severe drought struck the Great Plains region in the 1930s, it resulted in erosion and loss of topsoil because of farming practices at the time. The drought dried the topsoil and over time it became friable, without the indigenous grasses in place, the high winds that occur on the plains picked up the topsoil and created the massive dust storms that marked the Dust Bowl period. The persistent dry weather caused crops to fail, leaving the plowed fields exposed to wind erosion, the fine soil of the Great Plains was easily eroded and carried east by strong continental winds. On November 11,1933, a very strong dust storm stripped topsoil from desiccated South Dakota farmlands in just one of a series of severe dust storms that year. Beginning on May 9,1934, a strong, two-day dust storm removed massive amounts of Great Plains topsoil in one of the worst such storms of the Dust Bowl, the dust clouds blew all the way to Chicago, where they deposited 12 million pounds of dust
Definitions from Wiktionary
Media from Wikimedia Commons
News from Wikinews
Quotations from Wikiquote
Texts from Wikisource
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Learning resources from Wikiversity
