The Great Plains (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1931), 3-36.
Page 3
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
So it appears that topography, fauna, and flora ... form an
environment-complex, and as such go far to determine the areas of culture
diffusion ... and though we once said that culture mocks at the bounds
set up by politics, we may now add that it approaches geographical
boundaries with its hat in its hand.1 -- CLARK WISSLER
They were not yet out of the woods.... In the spring of 1857 they
began
their last long trek to a new and a different world. They turned their
faces to the west which they had for generations seen at sunset through
traceries
of the twigs and leafage of the primal forests, and finally stepped out
into the open, where God had cleared the fields, and stood at last with
the forests behind them.... It was the end of Book One of our
history.2
HERBERT
QUICK
THE Great Plains area, as the term will be used in this book, does not
conform in its boundaries to those commonly given by geographers and
historians. The Great Plains comprise a much greater area than is usually
designated, -an area which may best be defined in terms of topography,
vegetation, and rainfall.
A plains environment, such as that found in the western United States,
presents three distinguishing characteristics:
2. It is a treeless land, an unforested area.
3. It is a region where rainfall is insufficient for the ordinary
intensive agriculture common to lands of a humid climate. The climate is
sub-humid. 2. From One Man's Life. Copyright, 1925. Used
by special permission of the publishers, The
Bobbs-Merrill Company. In the region west of the Mississippi River, the region under
consideration here, these three characteristics of a plains environment are
not coextensive or coterminal. The three are not found in conjunction
except in a portion of what is commonly called the Central Great Plains;
that is, in the High Plains, or the Plains proper. In the High Plains the
land is relatively level and unscored, it is barren of timber, and the
climate is sub-humid, semi-arid, or arid. The High Plains constitute the
heart of what may be called the Great Plains, and exemplify to the highest
degree the features of a plane surface, a treeless region, and a sub-humid
one.
The Great Plains area, or, better, the Plains environment, spreads out
both to the east and to the west of the High Plains, retaining in either
case at least two of the three features of a plains environment. As judged
by the historical and institutional development in the United States, the
presence of any two of the three features gives the region the cultural
character of the Plains. Illinois, for example, is comparatively treeless
and level, though it is neither and nor semi-arid. It has much in common
with Kansas and western Texas. New Mexico and Colorado are treeless and
semi-arid, though they have by no means a plane surface. They have much in
common with Kansas and western Texas - certainly more than they have with
the mountainous portions of Pennsylvania and Tennessee; that is to say, the
High Plains, extending in a broad belt from Texas to Nebraska, are flanked
on either side by marginal regions tied closely to the Plains environment
in a cultural way. To determine the true Plains environment, it will be
necessary to find the limits or extent of each of the three features named
as fundamental.
The level land surface. This feature of the Plains environment - a
plane land surface - extends eastward from the Mississippi River to the
foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. West of the great river the surface
is plane, comparatively speaking, to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains,
beyond which the mountains alternate with great valleys,
While it is true that many of the facts cited
will be familiar we are about to look at them in new Ways.1 --
CLARK WISSLER
1. It exhibits a comparatively level surface of great
extent.
1. Clark Wissler, Man and Culture. By permission of Thomas Y.
Crowell Company.
Page 4
plateaus, and basins interspersed with small level plains. Topographically speaking, the Great Plains may be said to extend from mountain base to mountain base.
The treeless region. This region lies almost wholly west of the Mississippi River, crossing it only in the northern part to include Illinois and a part of Wisconsin. This timber line I comes out of Canada near the eastern boundary of North Dakota, swings southeastward into Minnesota, and passes just south of St. Paul into Wisconsin. The line here approaches Lake Michigan north of Milwaukee, and follows the lake shore to Chicago, and thence describes a semicircle to the southward, inclosing in a giant horseshoe of surrounding forest a part of Indiana and practically all Illinois. It crosses to the west side of the Mississippi near Davenport, Iowa, and then turns southward across the Missouri near Omaha, Nebraska. The line then runs southward through eastern Kansas and eastern Oklahoma and enters Texas near Sherman. It cuts Texas on a north-and-south line about the center, passing near Waco, Austin, and San Antonio. From Austin it swings eastward to the now extinct town of Indianola, on the Gulf of Mexico. For the most part the boundary between the timber and the prairie lies between the ninety-fourth and ninety-eighth meridians, though it swings farther eastward in Iowa and Illinois.
The timber-line boundary falls far short of - is far west of - the topographical boundary of the Plains, which, as before indicated, follows the base of the Appalachian Mountains. But to the west of the High Plains another aspect of the case is presented: the treeless region extends beyond the topographical line along the base of the Rockies; in fact, it extends beyond or through the Rockies themselves to the Pacific slope. It is true that exceptions are found here, like
oases in a desert. There are islands of timber, notably on the mountain tops in Colorado, Wyoming, and elsewhere; but when compared with the timberless area these small forested areas are as insignificant as islands are in the expanse of the ocean surrounding them.1
It is only on the Pacific slope - in Washington, Oregon, and northern California - that the forest covers any appreciable area in the West. Measured, therefore, by the criterion of the absence of timber, the Plains environment would extend approximately from the ninety-fifth meridian to the Pacific slope. On the east the exception is found in the extension of the treeless region into the natural timber belt of Iowa and Illinois; on the west the exception is in the isolated forests on the mountain slopes.
A sub-humid or and climate. The third characteristic, an in reality the most important one in determining a plains environment as exhibited in the United States, is a subhumid or semi-arid climate; that is, a climate deficient in rainfall.2 Again the High Plains may be taken as the point of departure. The rainfall ranges from twenty-five inches on the east downward to fifteen inches on the west. The humid line (if that term may be used in the sense in which " timber line " was used) is not identical on the east with the timber line; it roughly parallels it, but, for reasons that will be given later, it remains west of it. In the north the humid line swings westward into the Dakotas, and the timber line goes the other way into Indiana; in the south it approaches near to the timber line, but is never identical with it. As a result there is a V-shaped region between the timber line and the humid line that is sufficiently well watered for agricultural purposes, but treeless withal. This is the prairie region, sometimes called the Prairie Plains in order -to distinguish it from the
2. A climate is said to be deficient in rainfall wherever the annual average precipitation is less than twenty inches; or, from the point of view of practical hullian affairs, it is deficient when the precipitation is such that ordinary intensive agriculture cannot be carried on with profit.
plains proper. It is the best and most profitable agricultural region in the United States.1
To the west of the High Plains the sub-humid or semi-arid region merges gradually into an and one, where rainfall is below ten inches. Again, as in the case of timber, there are exceptions, for in some mountain regions the rainfall is abundant; but, at best, these areas are only wet islands, produced by local causes. They are offset by true deserts; for in this region the clouds will not be robbed of more than a certain amount of moisture. If the rain falls on the windward side of the mountains, the leeward side must suffer all the more. The average is sub-humid or semi-arid. This region stretches roughly from the ninety-eighth meridian to the one hundred and eighteenth or one hundred and twentieth.
It is now possible to determine, on the bases adopted, the area and the extent of what has been designated here as the Plains environment. A plains environment is characterized by a plane, or level, surface, is treeless, and is sub-humid. The High Plains have all three characteristics. Eastward of the High Plains the limits of the Plains environment are marked by the timber line, including a humid, but treeless, level surface called the Prairie Plains. West of the High Plains the surface is broken, no longer plane; but two other characteristics remain,--absence of trees and semi-aridity,--and these two characteristics are generally found in conjunction all the way to the Pacific slope. Thus we find the High Plains flanked on either hand by land belts exhibiting two of
"Probably there is no other equally large area in the world which surpassed it in original fertility; and it is certain that no equally large area can be compared to it in Present fertility Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana have by far the largest percentage of improved lands of any states in the Union, varying in Iowa from nearly 90 per cent to more than 75 per cent in Indiana."--By permission of The Macmillan Company, publishers.
the three essential elements of a plains environment. The High Plains in the center, the Prairie Plains on the east, and the and mountainous section on the west constitute the Great Plains environment of the United States (see Map 1).
The purpose of this book is to show how this area, with its three dominant characteristics, affected the various peoples, nations as well as individuals, who came to take and occupy it, and was affected by them; for this land, with the unity given it by its three dominant characteristics, has from the beginning worked its inexorable effect upon nature's children. The historical truth that becomes apparent in the end is that the Great Plains have bent and molded Anglo-American life, have destroyed traditions, and have influenced institutions in a most singular manner.
The Great Plains offered such a contrast to the region east of the ninety-eighth meridian, the region with which American civilization had been familiar until about 1840, as to bring about a marked change in the ways of pioneering and living. For two centuries American pioneers had been working out a technique for the utilization of the humid regions east of the Mississippi River. They had found solutions for their problems and were conquering the frontier at a steadily accelerating rate. Then in the early nineteenth century they crossed the Mississippi and came out on the Great Plains, an environment with which they had had no experience. The result was a complete though temporary breakdown of the machinery and ways of pioneering. They began to make adjustments, and this book is the story of those adjustments.
As one contrasts the civilization of the Great Plains with that of the eastern timberland, one sees what may be called an institutional fault (comparable to a geological fault) running from middle Texas to Illinois or Dakota, roughly following the ninety-eighth meridian. At this fault the ways of life and of living changed. Practically every institution that was carried across it was either broken and remade or else greatly altered. The ways of travel, the weapons, the method of tilling the soil, the plows and other agricultural
implements, and even the laws themselves were modified. When people first crossed this line they did not immediately realize the imperceptible change that had taken place in their environment, nor, more is the tragedy, did they foresee the full consequences which that change was to bring in their own characters and in their modes of life. In the new region - level, timberless, and semi-arid - they were thrown by Mother Necessity into the clutch of new circumstances. Their plight has been stated in this way: east of the Mississippi civilization stood on three legs - land, water, and timber; west of the Mississippi not one but two of these legs were withdrawn, -- water and timber, -- and civilization was left on one leg -- land. It is small wonder that it toppled over in temporary failure.
THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF THE GREAT PLAINS ENVIRONMENT
Grasslands characterize areas in which trees have failed to develop, either because of unfavorable oil conditions, poor drainage and aëratio,, intense cold and wind, deficient moisture supply, or repeated fires.
H. L. SCHANTZ and RAPHAEL ZON
AN EFFORT to understand the historical influence of the Great Plains on American civilization would be futile without a clear comprehension of the physical forces that have worked and continue to work in the region. These forces, historically speaking, are constant and eternal; therefore the make a permanent factor in the interpretation of history one that must be understood. If the Great Plains forced m to make radical changes, sweeping innovations in his ways o living, the cause lies almost wholly in the physical aspects of the land. A study of these physical aspects - land formation, rainfall, vegetation, and animal life - not only illuminates t later historical development, but in large measure serves t explain it. These aspects themselves, when compared an contrasted with those of the humid area, go far to explain why a civilization entering the Great Plains was compelled modify its methods and means of utilization.
In the geological formation of the Great Plains is found the first contrast between the and West and the humid East.1
In general the surface topography of the East is what it is by virtue of stream erosion and degradation, by virtue of a surplus of moisture; the topography of the Great Plains is what it is by virtue of a desert condition, by virtue of stream deposit or aggradation.
The upper soil of the Great Plains rests upon a "structural slope of marine-rock sheets, uplifted with general uniform eastward inclination."1 It is not necessary to go into the geology of this underlying slope, because the surface alone concerns us; it is necessary, however, to study the structure that has been laid upon this foundation, because that structure constitutes the soil and the surface of the Great Plains.
The surface of the Great Plains, as it appears today, is mantled by a débris apron composed of the material brought by the "swinging rivers" down from the mountains; or, to put it another way, the Great Plains (that is, the level surface) were created by the wearing down of the mountains and the spreading of the débris as a foot-slope. This long foot-slope is a characteristic of desert mountains.2 Thus it appears that in surface origin the Great Plains afford a striking contrast to the land forms of the humid East. There plains are built at the seashore by delta formation, whereas in the and country plains are formed where the streams issue from the mountains onto a more nearly level surface.
The mantle of soil, the débris apron, laid down on the marine-rock sheet, varies in thickness from a few feet at the mountain base to five hundred feet. The way in which the débris apron -that is, the surface of the Great Plains and the High Plains - was built -up is instructive and serves to explain many aspects of plains life, particularly with reference to ground water and well-making. The débris apron is "a built product of dry-climate drainage."3 Stripped of technical modi-
2. in reality there is no such thing as a desert mountain. A mountain in an and region is relatively humid. It is the rain and snow of the mountains that furnish the vehicle for carrying the mountain waste away and spreading it out as a foot-slope or plain.
3. See Johnson, "The High Plains," p. 627.
fications, the steps which are involved in this building-up proc. ess may be stated as follows:
1. The mountainous region west of the Great Plain supplies moisture,, as rain or snow, much of which must eventually find its way eastward toward the Mississippi2. Within the mountains the grades are steep, and the streams run strong and " carry through." They are loaded with silt and débris, weathered away and washed down from the mountains.
3. Once the streams pass beyond the mountain boundaries into the and land, they dwindle, fail, and deposit their load. Their failure is due to rapid evaporation into the dry air, to absorption into the dry, porous earth, and to lack of local precipitation and augmentation from I tributaries. If, for the sake of clarity, it is suppose that the stream emerges into a true desert and is dried up completely, then it is easy to see that its total load will be deposited there on the surface, and thus the stream bed will be built up; but when this is not the case, when the stream is strong enough to carry through as is the case with the larger streams of the Plains, then the result is the same. The stream fluctuates in volume and rate, and as it approaches the level plain both volume and rate diminish, with the result that the stream must deposit a part of its load.
4. Thus, when in a dry climate a stream issues from mountain range, it spreads an apron of débris extending from the mountain's base. The process is almost identical with that of delta formation by which coastal plains are built up.
5. The next step in the process is evident from the preceding one. With this constant aggradation the bed of the stream rises above the level of the plain and eventually overflows into new channels to the right or left, repeating the process and forming in time a fan-shape deposit, a desert delta mantling the foot of a mountain.
Again there is a close analogy between the fan formed by the desert stream at the foot of the mountain from which it emerges and the delta that is built at the mouth of the coastal stream. There is, however, this marked difference: the delta may be separated from the tributary fan by a great distance, but in the desert stream the tributary and distributary systems are closely coupled.6. Along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains many fan-building streams have been working, more or less in multiple, parallel to one another. These alluvial fans join as they spread outward and downward away from the mountain face, and in time the mountains appear as rising above a gentle and apparently level foot-slope of great extent.
By way of summary it may be repeated that the Great Plains surface is composed of a débris apron built up, or graded, by streams playing across the surface.' Theoretically, this débris apron stretched its level surface unbroken from the foot of the mountains to the humid region of the Mississippi Valley; actually, it probably never had a perfectly plane surface, owing to the fact that disturbing influences, incomplete work, and earth-shifting changes combined to disturb the equilibrium of a graded plane.2
2. The theory that the level surface of the High Plains is due either to marine or lacustrine origin is apparently effectually disposed of by Johnson. The theory of marine origin is untenable because the fossil remains are of land animals. The lacustrine, or fresh-water-lake, theory, is not thus easily disposed of. It was set forth by Professor Williston in a paper on "Semi-arid Kansas," published in the University of Kansas Quarterly, Vol. 111 (1895), No. 4, pp. 213-214. He believes that the Plains are lake beds raised by geological forces. Johnson points out in support of his theory that (1) the buried valleys of the Great Plains have much the same form and direction that the present ones have; (2) the deposits of silt and the gravel beds are elongated in an east-and-west direction and are interlaced, a natural result of laced stream-flow; (3) gravel beds are formed, extending from the mountains to the eastward limits of the Great Plains, but the size of the stones composing these beds constantly decreases away from the mountains. These facts, if no others were available, would seem to establish Johnson's theory of the stream origin of the surface of the High Plains.
The present surface of the Great Plains, the topography has been disturbed by forces which have altered the original surface. There is, however, a part of the Great Plains that survives as an undisturbed fragment or fragments of the original débris apron. This survival, the High Plains, remain as a belt, a plateau belt, set upon the middle of the Great Plains. On the profile cross-section map of the United State as shown by Lobeck, the High Plains appear as a slightly raised platform built upon a more extended but lower plain.
The original graded slope, of which the High Plains are a survival, has been etched away on both sides, leaving fragments of the original and true Plains in high relief. On the east are the low Plains; on the west is the bad-land topography.1
It remains to explain the survival of the High Plains above grade in the midst of destructive forces that have etched both their eastern and western margins to a lower level. The explanation is found in the climate and in the vegetation that the climate produces. The High Plains lie well within the sub-humid belt, between the humid region on the east and the arid region on the west. Erosion has been more rapid or both marginal sections than on the High Plains, the resistance of the High Plains being due to the sod cover - the grass turf that mats the surface and saves it. In the eastern humid region the rainfall is so heavy that the grass gives way and
erosion begins and goes on at a rapid rate; in the arid west the sod disappears, and bunch grass takes its place. A Johnson puts it, "The tufted growths of bunch grass and light 'brush' of the arid zone fail almost completely in protection because they do not constitute a continuous cover; sod, on the other hand, is completely effective, not because it resists the erosive work of well-developed drainage, for that it cannot do, but because it prevents the initiation of drainage. It is effective against the first faint beginnings." It is a fact, however, that the High Plains are still being etched from both sides, thus being reduced to a new level. They are disappearing fragments of the old débris apron.
This brief account of the origin of the Great Plains, and of the High Plains which lie upon them, has been necessary to make clear the nature of the land under consideration and to furnish a basis for understanding a number of problem incidental to the occupation of the region. The structure of the Great Plains and of the High Plains has been treated, not exhaustively, but still at some length. Although the inter-mountain region between the Rocky Mountains and the crest of the Pacific slope forms a portion of the Great Plains environment as here defined, it will not be treated structurally , all. This does not mean that the Great Plains are, in a geological sense, typical of the mountain region. Parts of the basin lying within the mountain region are of lacustrine origin; other parts are of stream origin. It was not in this Far Western region that the utilization of the Plains was worked out: there the mountains dominated, but in the plains and valleys the institutions adapted to the Great Plains could be used. The determining factor of this intermountain region has be aridity. From this explanation, brief though it is, certain features of the Great Plains become intelligible at once:
1. The Plains are barren of minerals, especially metal because the surface is of fluvial origin. The oil found
the region lies for the most part below the fluvial soil, under the surface of the marine-rock foundation.2. The rivers are unsuited to navigation because they are aggrading and shallow; therefore river boating played no part in the life or development of the Plains.
3. The rivers were full of quicksand and dangerous to the travelers and cattle drivers, a condition due solely to the fact that they are aggrading. For the same reason, the waters of the streams are unpalatable because of alkali, gypsum, salt, and other minerals held in solution.
The distinguishing climatic. characteristic of the Great Plains environment from the ninety-eighth meridian to the Pacific slope is a deficiency in the most essential climatic element - water. Within this area there are humid spots due to local causes of elevation, but there is a deficiency in the average amount of rainfall for the entire region. This deficiency accounts for many of the peculiar ways of life in the West. It conditions plant life, animal life, and human life and institutions. In this deficiency is found the key to what may be called the Plains civilization. It is the feature that makes the whole aspect of life west of the ninety-eighth meridian such a contrast to life east of that line.
The map on page 18, which shows the average annual precipitation,
illustrates the condition in the Great Plains environment. The line
representing twenty inches of annual precipitation follows approximately
the hundredth meridian. In no appreciable area between that line and the
Pacific slope does the rainfall run far above twenty inches. Over great
stretches it falls below twenty to fifteen, to ten, and, in the true
desert, to five inches. The rainfall in the mountains complicates the
problem to such an extent that any effort to arrive at a mean average for
the entire area would be a mere approximation. It seems safe to say,
however, that it Probably does not far exceed fifteen inches.
PagePage 18
It is generally agreed that wherever precipitation is less than twenty inches the climate is deficient. This means, or has come to mean, that the land in such areas cannot be utilized under the same methods that are employed in the region where precipitation is more than twenty inches.1
Precipitation is not the only factor that must be taken into account in determining climate with reference to rainfall; seasonal distribution and the rate of evaporation are of vital importance. From the standpoint of utilization, particularly agricultural utilization, the seasonal and monthly distribution of rainfall is of importance. With reference to distribution the western region falls into three fairly well-defined rainfall types -- two sharply defined, and the third transitional between the two. They are the Great Plains type, the intermountain type, and the Pacific type. In the Plains proper the rain falls in the summer months, beginning in April, approaching a maximum in May or June, and reverting to the minimum in November and December. In the Great Plains the summers are wet and the winters are dry. On the Pacific the reverse is the case: from April to October is the dry season, and in December, January, and February the season is wet. The region which lies between the Pacific slope and the Plains, the intermountain type, presents great irregularity. In general, however, it may be said to be more closely akin to the Pacific type.2 This variation in rainfall types, as will be shown later, in the treatment of dry farming, has had important historical consequences.
2. Lyman J. Briggs and J. 0. Belz, "Dry Farming in Relation to Rainfall and Evaporation," Bulletin No. 188, United States Bureau of Plant Industry (1910), P. 12.
The rate and amount of evaporation also are of importance in an arid and semi-arid region. The effective precipitation is only the actual precipitation minus the evaporation an the run-off. An examination of an evaporation chart of the United States reveals clearly why, owing to variation in temperature, much more precipitation is needed in the southern
portion of the Great Plains environment than in the northern latitude.
At San Antonio, Texas, for example, the evaporation during the growing
season (from April to September) forty-six inches; at Williston, North
Dakota, it is only thirty inches. San Antonio would have to receive sixteen
inch more rainfall than Williston in order to have equivalent rainfall. It
follows that the southern portion of the Great Plains has a much drier
climate with a given amount of rainfall than the northern portion. This
fact has had a great effect on native vegetation and on agriculture. The
vegetation
zones tend to cut diagonally across the precipitation zones.
The growth of short grass, which extends from Montana to Texas, serves to
illustrate this statement. In Montana short grass grows where rainfall
approximates fourteen inches; in Colorado, where it is seventeen inches;
and in Texas, where it is twenty-one inches.1
Another climatic feature that has had important economic and historical
consequences for the Great Plains environment is the wind. Nowhere in the
world, perhaps, has the wind done more effective work than in the Great
Plains. As compared with the humid East, the Great Plains country,
particularly the High Plains, is a region of high wind velocity. The level
surface and the absence of trees give the air currents free play. On the
whole, the wind blows harder and more constantly on the Plains than it does
in any other portion of the United States, save on the seashore. The
average wind velocity on the Plains is equal to that on thq seashore. "
Does the wind blow this way here all the time?
asked the ranch visitor in the West.
"No, Mister," answered the cowboy; "it'll maybe No* this way for a week
or ten days, and then it'll take a change! and blow like hell for a while."
The Plains are full of such stories, folk-expression of new experiences.
The effect of the wind on the life in the Great Plains offers an alluring
study for the student of social institutions and for the
psychologist.' Says Professor Ward:
The prevalence of wind, as we shall see later, has compensated in some
measure for the scarcity of water in the Great Plains country. On the other
hand, certain special weather features in which the wind often plays a
malevolent pa merit notice. These special features are the chinook, the
norther, and the blizzard, named here in the order of descending
temperature.
2. Robert DeCourcy Ward, The Climates of the United States, pp. 156
f. Ginn and
Company. Ward's comparison of the Plains and the Plains winds to the ocean
and the ocean winds is but one example of those who have noted this analogy
See also P. C. Day's article "The Winds of the United States and their
Economic
Uses," Yearbook of the United
States Department of Agriculture
(1911), pp. 337-350.
The hot winds blow in summer in the southern portion
of the Great Plains, principally in the High Plains, between
34 degrees and 45 degrees latitude.
few yards to a few miles in width of somewhat less terrific heat between
them.... Their direction is usually southwesterly or southerly, but
occasionally they blow from the southeast and even from the north. Their
velocity varies from a gentle breeze to a gale.... July
and August bring most of the hot winds, but they also occur before
June and into September.1
The economic disaster occasioned by these hot winds is
terrible. Everything goes before the furnace blast. It has
been reported that over ten million bushels of corn were
destroyed in Kansas in one season. It is not uncommon for fine fields of
dark-green corn to be destroyed in two days. The hope of the farmer is to
mature the corn before the . hot wind begin to blow. Ward reports that a
case, for which he make no citation, is on record where traffic on the
Southern Pacific Railroad was once suspended for a time because the
excessive heat expanded the rails till they were warped out of alignment A
more common effect is that these hot winds render people irritable and
incite nervousness. The throat and respiratory organs become dry, the lips
crack, and the eyes smart and burn.1
The chinook occurs in the northern Great Plains along the eastern
foot-slope of the Rocky Mountains from Montana southward to Colorado. It
has been observed westward through the mountains to the Pacific slope, and
there have been doubtful reports of its occurrence eastward on the Plains,
The chinook is a warm wind that blows from the mountain down into a colder
region, mitigating greatly the severity the cold, melting the snow, and in
some cases evaporating so rapidly that the ground on which it lay is
perfectly dry. "Evaporation and melting are so rapid that a foot of snow in
disappear within a few hours, being sucked up from the ground without even
a trickle of water as one description has it."2
"Northern" is the name given in Texas to a cold wind
descending from the north over the Great Plains into a warm!
area. In this respect it is the reverse of the chinook, a warm
wind descending into a cold area. The
northern may be "wet"
or "dry." "Northern" is said to be the local name for a cold wave, and
ordinarily is the clear-weather side of a revolving gale. It comes suddenly
from the north or northwest, is often accompanied by a solid sheet of black
cloud and clouds of
2. On page 417 of his book Ward says that the term "chinook wind" is
applied to a warm, moist wind on the coast of Washington and Oregon. This,
he says, is a wrong use of the term. The chinook is a dry wind from the
mountain, identical with the Swiss foehn.
sand, and causes the thermometer to drop with incredible speed from
twenty-five degrees to fifty degrees. The northern lasts from one to three
days, when the wind shifts and warmer weather prevails. While it lasts it
occasions suffering for range stock and discomfort for people.
The blizzard is the grizzly of the Plains. Ward suggests that the word
may have been derived from the German word blitzartig, which means
"lightning-like," and applied to the weather phenomenon that it now
describes.' It seems, however, that "blizzard" was used long before the
Germans, or others, took UP their abode in the open country. It was used by
David Crockett to denote a blast, a devastating volley, either of shot or
of words, a blazing away. It was first applied to a weather phenomenon by
O.C. Bates, the erratic editor of an Iowa newspaper, in reference to the
storm of March 14, 1870.1 With its new meaning it spread rapidly
over the Plains, and is now applied loosely to any severe cold wave
accompanied by high wind, sleet, and snow. This, declares Ward, is. un-
fortunate. Blizzards occur rarely in the East, and their real home is on
the northern Plains. The blizzard is the most ferocious weather feature, as
the following description of a North Dakota blizzard indicates.
2. For an exhaustive account of the origin and evolution of the
term, as applied to climate in the United States, see Allan Walker Read,
"The Word Blizzard," American Speech, Vol. III, pp. 191-217.
3. C. A. Lounsberry in the Northwest Magazine, reprinted in
American Meteorological Journal, Vol. fil (1886-1887), pp. 112-115,
quoted by Ward on pages 380381. See also Herbert Quick's
Vandemark's Folly and 0 E, Rölvaag's Giants in the Earth,
novels of the prairie and Plains region.
Another weather feature of importance in considering hu man life
on the Great Plains is hail. The subject should per haps have
received consideration in the paragraph devoted to rainfall.
Economically, hail is not rain: it is more nearly akin to hot
winds and blizzards, a curse on the country it visits, whereas
rain is a blessing. The hail area lies almost wholly within the
Great Plains1 (see the accompanying map)
Page 21
Briggs and Belz have illustrated, on
the chart here reproduced, the influence of evaporation. So far as the
effect on plant life is concerned, twenty inches of rainfall on the
Canadian line is equivalent to thirty or more in Texas. This fact explains
why the timber line in the South swings eastward into a region with an
annual rainfall of twenty-five or more inches.
1. Briggs and Belz, "Dry Farming
in Relation to Rainfall and Evaporation," Bulletin No. 188, United
States Bureau of Plant industry (1910), p. 20.
Page 22
Very striking is the broad zone of the Great
Plains, with wind velocities closely resembling those along the eastern
seaboard and the Great Lakes - winds which are ocean-like in character, as
vast stretches of the Plains are themselves ocean-like in their monotony
and in their unbroken sweep to the far-away horizon. No more striking
illustration of the wind velocities on the Great Plains h ever been given
than Captain Lewis's description of the occasion, o the famous Lewis and
Clark expedition, when one of his boats, which was being transported on
wheels, was blown along by the wind, the boat's sails being set! Surely
this story emphasizes the analogy between the winds of the ocean and the
winds of the Plains. Over the great treeless open country, but little
retarded by friction, blow win of remarkable uniformity and of relatively
high velocity, averaging ten to twelve miles an hour, and even reaching
fourteen or fifteen miles in the region of the Texas
Panhandle."2
1. The Wind, by Dorothy
Scarborough, is a suggestive psychological study of the
tragedy the wind wrought in the soul of a sensitive woman.
Page 23
The chief characteristics of these winds are
their intense heat and
their extreme dryness. They come in narrow bands of excessively hot
winds, ranging from perhaps one hundred feet to a half mile or so in
width, in a general hot spell, with intermediate belts varying from a
1. Ward, Climates, p. 405.
Page 24
1. The writer has relied
largely on Robert DeCourcy Ward's book The Climates of the United States
for the facts set forth here on hot winds, chinooks, northers, and
blizzards. The purpose is to call attention to the fact of the existence of
these weather features and not to deal with controverted points. Ward's
bibliography on each subject is ample.
Page 25
It was a mad, rushing combination of wind and
snow which neither man nor beast could face. The snow found its way through
every crack and crevice. Barns and stacks were literally covered by
drifting snow, and, when the storm was over, cattle fed from the tops of
the stacks.... Persons lost upon the prairie were almost certain to meet
with death, unless familiar with the nature of these storms.... I learned
of many instances where persons were lost in trying to go from the house to
the barn, and of other instances where cords were fastened to the house so
that, if the barn should be missed, by holding on to the cord the house
could be found again.3
1. The Climates of the
United States, pp. 381-382.
Page 26
The five weather phenomena - hot winds and chinook, northers, blizzards, and hailstorms - are all localized in Great Plains country. Four of the five bring distress an economic ruin to man and beast and crop; yearly they take their toll, amounting in the aggregate to millions of dollars they are a significant part of the unusual conditions which civilization had to meet and overcome in the Great Plains.
1. Ward, The Climates of the United States, pp. 335-338: "The maximum frequency of hail during the frostless season is seen to occur over the Plains an, Rocky Mountain region."
Vegetation furnishes the most obvious evidence of the contrast between the eastern and western parts of the United States. It is, in turn, an index to climate, particularly to rainfall, or precipitation. The natural vegetation zones correspond in general with the isohyetal lines, and that correspondence extends into the mountains, where both are conditioned by the accidents of altitude. A vegetation map is a rainfall map slightly modified by latitude and altitude.
The ninety-eighth meridian separates the vegetation of the East from that of the West. In its primeval state practically the entire region east of this line was heavily timbered, truly a forest land. West of the line (excepting the northern Pacific slope and the islands in the mountains) there is a scarcity or a complete absence of timber. In their monumental work Forest Resources of the World, Raphael Zon and William N. Sparhawk set forth the forest situation in North America:
In general, there are three broad forest belts. One stretches inland from the Atlantic Ocean to beyond the Mississippi River, with its farthest limits at approximately the ninety-seventh meridian. The second extends eastward from the Pacific Coast across the Sierra and Cascade ranges. The third, which is more or less interrupted, lies along the Rocky Mountains and outlying ranges, from the Canadian boundary to Mexico. Between the eastern and Rocky Mountain forests is a wide expanse of grassland, with occasional tree growth along the streams, while the region between the Rockies and the Sierra-Cascade ranges and also east of the Rockies in New Mexico and Texas is a more or less desert country covered for the most part with low shrubs, or in more favorable situations with open woodland of stunted trees. On the higher mountains there are forests of better timber of varying density.1
According to figures given by these writers the central region, which is called the Rocky Mountain region, contains 8 Per cent of the timber acreage of the United States and 10 per cent of the saw timber in cubic feet. Originally two
thirds of the timber was in the eastern region, but at the present time this region contains about 40 per cent, "while over half is in the three Pacific states."1 By deduction this leaves less than 10 per cent for the Great Plains region, including the Rocky Mountains, where the timber is mostly found.
As has been indicated, the distribution of forests in the Rocky Mountains is very uneven and is closely related t both altitude and rainfall. For the most part, except in the extreme south, they have been largely utilized to meet local requirements.2 There are timber islands crowning the mountains that rise above the plain. The Black Hills are a example. The level land is barren and treeless, a true plan
The position of the grassland in the United States and in North America may be most accurately pictured when taken in connection with the timber regions or the rainfall map. The eastern forest and the Western forest come together in Canada, where they form a continuous subarctic forest extending from ocean to ocean.3 In the south the two forest belts unite in Mexico. Between these belts is a great oval whose characteristic natural vegetation is grass and desert shrub. This grassland "acts as a barrier between the species of the two regions even more effectively than a body of water of the same extent." The non-forested area, the Great Plains environment, falls into three subdivisions: the tall grass, or prairie; the short grass, or Plains; and the desert shrub, These areas lie in north-to-south belts from east to west in the order named; they correspond closely to the rainfall of the regions, as indicated in the following table:
| Tall grass | Humid | Low Plains and prairie |
| short grass | Sub-humid | High Plains |
| Desert grass (mesquite grass) | Semi-arid | Southwestern Plains |
| Desert shrub | Arid | Intermountain |
2. Ibid. p. 524.
3 H. L. Schantz and Raphael Zon, "Natural Vegetation," Atlas of American Agriculture, Part I, Sect. E. p. 3.
in a historical study of the Great Plains the reason for the existence of grasslands throws considerable light on the nature of the country as an abode for man; to put the matter briefly, grass prevails only where conditions are unfavorable to more luxuriant forms of plant life.
Grasslands characterize areas in which trees have failed to develop, either because of unfavorable soil conditions, poor drainage and aëation, intense cold and wind, deficient moisture supply, or repeated fires. Grasses of one kind or another are admirably suited to withstand conditions of excess moisture, excess drought, and fires which would destroy tree growth.1
European civilization has developed largely in a forested region rather than in a plains environment.
The highly generalized map of native vegetation on the next page shows the relation between the timbered and nontimbered regions. Within the non-timbered region it shows the areas of tall grass, of short grass, and of desert shrub, classified as prairie grassland, Plains grassland, and desert grassland.
From east to west, from the humid region to the and region, the grass differs in the form in which it grows. The tall grass, as the name indicates, is luxuriant and has deep roots and rank growth. The short grass forms a sod, a heavy carpet, though the roots do not penetrate to great depth. Farther west the sod gives way to tufts, or bunch grass, because the climate is too dry to support a continuous growth. It is a characteristic of the desert that all vegetation is widely spaced. In wet seasons tall grass encroaches on the shortgrass area, the short grass encroaches on the bunch grass, and, theoretically, the bunch grass would tend to push into the desert. In extremely dry seasons the reverse is true.
In the prairie country the tall grass falls into three subdivisions, or communities: the blue-stem sod, the blue-stem bunch grass, and the needle grass and slender wheat grass. The blue-stem sod is found in Illinois, Iowa, eastern Kansas,
in parts of Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas, and in western Minnesota, eastern North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska. The whole region is rich, and the central portion forms what is known as the corn belt.'
The blue-stem bunch grass lies west of the blue-stem sod and extends along the boundary between the short and tall grass from Nebraska to Texas, having its best growth in central Kansas and Oklahoma. The rainfall here is from twenty to thirty inches, and the soil moisture is from two to four feet, with dry subsoil beneath. This is the great winter-wheat region. The needle grass and the slender wheat grass grow in the northern Plains and in Nebraska, North and South Dakota, and Minnesota. The rainfall ranges from eighteen to thirty inches. This region has become a part of the winter-wheat region.
The short, or Plains, grasses are the grama, galleta, buffalo, and mesquite. All these types occur west of the ninety-eighth meridian. The grama-grass area extends through Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. It is by no means continuous, but occurs in the higher valleys and plateaus. "The grama-grass type marks the portion of the short-grass area which has the lowest evaporation and the coolest, shortest season, but which has a relatively low rainfall."2 The galletagrass area lies south and west of the grama. It is found in northern New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. The grama and buffalo grasses cover a wide belt extending from South Dakota along the boundary line of Wyoming and Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas, and New Mexico and the Panhandle of both Oklahoma and Texas. The mesquite grass is classified as a desert grass. It grows in western Texas, in southern New Mexico, and in Arizona. It is a grass of summer rainfall, though it can lie dormant for long periods during summer, reviving with a little rain.
West of the grasslands lies the desert-shrub area, the intermountain region. This vegetation belongs to three general
2. Ibid. p. 18.
types: sagebrush, or northern-desert shrub; creosote bus or southern-desert shrub; greasewood, or salt-desert shrub. In all this region the desert type of vegetation prevails over the grassland. From the point of view of utilization, ho ever, the whole region is closely akin to the Plains; that is, the problems of utilization are similar.
In Texas the ninety-eighth meridian is generally accepted as a dividing line for both the floral and the faunal species.1
In this study of vegetation attention has been devoted grass because grass is the dominant feature of the Plains and is at the same time an index to their history. Grass is t visible feature that distinguishes the Plains from the desert. Grass grows, has its natural habitat, in the transition are between timber and desert. It grows where conditions Z too hard for timber but not hard enough to destroy all vegetation. The history of the Plains is the history of the grass lands. Civilization develops on level ground. The fundamental problems that man faced when he crossed the line are not problems of the mountains but of the Plains. In the United States these problems are found not only on the Plains proper
but in the mountains wherever Plains conditions appear. So far as civilization is concerned the mountains are negligible. Unless they contain minerals they are of relatively little importance in the development of human society.
The purpose of this survey of animal life in the Great Plains is not to make an exhaustive study of the animals, nor even to mention all of them. That task lies in another field than history. The purpose here is to select for consideration only such animals among those having their habitats on the Plains as will throw light directly or indirectly on the history of that area. Historically the Plains animals are significant or they are important, or they may be both. They are significant in so far as they exhibit characteristics which suggest peculiar adaptation to the environment under consideration; or, to be more precise, their characteristics are significant because they indicate the nature of the country, serve as an index to the problems of the Plains, and suggest with some definiteness the directions of institutional development. These characteristics may be offered as more or less tangible evidence of, and emphasis upon, the contrast existing between the two regions that lie one to the east and one to the west of the ninety-eighth meridian.
The Plains animals are also of direct historical importance. They are important if they have affected man directly, either for good or for evil. In the Plains area lived one animal that Came nearer to dominating the life and shaping the institutions of a human race than any other in all the land, if not in the world - the buffalo. True it is that the race was a savage race, but it was not without its effect on the invading civilization. Therefore it may be said that the buffalo has had a direct effect on American life. Some of the animals of the Plains are both significant and important. The jack rabbit is an example. Its marvelous speed is significant, but the animal is important because of its destructive habits with growing crops.
The American antelope, or pronghorn, is the purest type of Plains animal, and seems to have developed only in the Great Plains of North America. It is not a member of the antelope family of Europe and Asia. Its true common name is prong horn, and its scientific name is Antilocapra americana. It seems to occupy an intermediate position between the goat and the deer. Its horns are hollow, like those of cattle or goats; yet it sheds them like the deer. It has the caution and timidity of the deer and the curiosity of the goat.1 The habitat of the pronghorn extends from Saskatchewan to Mexico and from the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains, and in the north to the Cascade Range of Oregon and Washington. It has its abode solely in the Plains country, and has a special antipathy for the woods and cañons.
The antelope is peculiarly well fitted for its chosen environment. First, its sense of sight is such that it can " detect danger at an immense distance." Secondly, it is the swiftest runner among the wild animals on this continent and can be pulled down only by the greyhound. But with the antelope, curiosity and caution are strangely mingled. It wants to observe any unusual object, and this makes it a mark for hunters. In the primitive state of nature this characteristic led to no fatal results, but with the advent of man and the high-powered rifles it became disastrous.2 Thirdly, the antelope is equipped with a signal system which enables it to communicate danger at great distances. This is the white patch on the rump, lighter in color than the body. When frightened or interested in anything unusual the antelope contracts its muscles and the patch becomes a flare of white. Ernest Seton-Thompson records that these flares can be seen farther than can the ani-
1. Witmer Stone and William E. Cram, American Animals, p. 54.
2. Colonel Richard I. Dodge, in Hunting Grounds of the Great West, p. 198, says that the antelope does not connect sound with danger. Hunters could draw antelope within range by firing guns. The animals were attracted by the dust made by the bullet striking the ground, but paid no attention to the sound of the gun. They were ruled by sight and curiosity.
mal itself, flashing in the sun "like a tin pan." Within these patches there is a musk gland that throws off a characteristic odor when the flash is made. Thus do these animals communicate danger through the senses of sight and smell.1 Seton-Thompson calls the flash system the antelope's heliograph. It is suggestive of the development of the sign language and the American army flag-signal system, both of which developed in the Great Plains.2 Fourthly, the antelope, like all Plains animals, possesses great vitality. Dodge says that "antelope will carry off more lead in proportion to their size than any other animal."3
The western portion of the United States or of No America seems to be the natural home of rabbits and hares. In the plateau region, comprising the and mountain or basin, region of western North America, they are most abundant as individuals and in specific and subgeneric types. This region extends from Canada into Mexico and in some places is eight hundred miles wide. "The climate throughout most of the area is hot and extremely and in summer." Nelson calls this the Desert Plateau region.4 Here are found all four genera,' and all but one of the subgenera known in the continent. "The missing subgenus, Tapeti, belongs mainly to tropical America and the southeast coast region of the United States and is Preëminently a forest-loving group." 5
Within the American Desert Plateau the rabbits seem to be concentrated in two centers, one in the Valley of Mexico and one in southern Idaho. Nelson thinks the American rabbits, as well as rodents to which the rabbit is kin and which are especially numerous here, may have had their place of
2. The mountain goat and sheep are other Western animals, though not Plains animals. The mountain goat "is not a goat but an outlying member of the great antelope tribe, to which, by the way, our American 'antelope' does not belong."
3 Dodge, The Hunting Grounds of the Great West, p. 301.
4. E. W. Nelson, "The Rabbits of North America," North American Fauna No. 29 (1909), p. 16. United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Biological Survey.
5. Ibid. Only one representative of Tapeti lives on the western coast, and that. one is in Mexico. where the two cultural areas tend to unite.
origin and of distribution in this region. "The scarcity of rabbits," he says, "both individuals and species, in such humid, heavily forested sections as exist on the northwest
coast and even in the wooded eastern third of the United States is in strong contrast to their abundance on the and plains of the Desert Plateau."
Although the theory that American rabbits originated in the Great Plains environment, and the fact that they remain most numerous there, need not detain us, we know that they are found all over the continent, from the arctic region to the tropics. The jack rabbits are the true Plains rabbits; they are restricted to the region west of the Mississippi River and are ever to be found in the open country.
The jack rabbits have certain qualities that well fit them for Plains
life. Their long ears, which make them resemble the burro, gave them the name of jackass rabbit, later shortened to the
present form. Since they live on the Plains they rely for safety on their
keen sense of hearing and their speed, " and all they ask of a coyote is a
fair start and an open field." I While their long ears would seem to
accentuate their auditory sense, they do not always flee from sound, but
often seek safety in crouching. Their highly developed hind legs, much
longer than their forelegs, make them swift runners and cause them to seek
level country or an upgrade, as they are likely to turn end over end when
going downgrade. They run straight or on wide curves, rarely resort to
dodging or ruses, and refuse refuge in holes, rock fences, or hollow trees.
It should be pointed out that the jack rabbit is not a rabbit at all, but a
true hare. It makes no form, does not burrow, and its young are born with a
full coat of hair and with eyes open.
Because of their size the jack rabbits do much harm to growing crops,
and it is a common saying in the West that one, rabbit will eat as much as
a horse. They eat voraciously all young and tender farm and garden plants
and strip young fruit trees of bark. Because of this impartial destruction
of grain and forage crops, of gardens and nurseries, the farmers have waged
constant war against the rabbits, ' Bounties have been offered for their
ears in practically all, Western states; one county in Idaho paid in one
year bounties amounting to $300,000. Great rabbit drives are organized, one
of which resulted in the taking of 20,000 rabbits. In the ten-year period
1888-1897 a total of 494,634 were killed in California in drives. They are
hunted with long-range guns, poisoned, run with greyhounds, and the farmers
and small boys kill the young as they are found in the fields. In spite of
such widespread destruction, the rabbits are still innumerable and bring to
the farmers in some seasons heavy losses.2
2. T. S. Palmer, "The Jack Rabbits of the United States,"
Bulletin No. 8, United States Department of Agriculture,
Bureau of Biological Survey, 1927. A reliable source referred to by
nearly all later writers. See also C. V. Piper and others, " Our
Forage Resources," Yearbook of the United States Department of
Agriculture, 1923, p. 399; Dodge, The Hunting Grounds of the
Great West, p. 210.
The prairie dog, like many Plains animals, wears an assumed name: he has
"no more of the dog about him than an ordinary gray squirrel."1
Prairie dogs inhabit the high, dry Plains and live in colonies, large or
small. Their food is grass. Not only do they eat the blades, but they dig
up the roots, destroying vegetation "root and branch." Vernon Bailey tells
of a prairie-dog town on the Texas plains, between San Angelo and
Clarendon, which covered 25,000 square miles and which was estimated to
contain 400,000,000 prairie dogs. He estimates the number in Texas at that
time (1901) at 800,000,000 and states that these would require as much
grass as 3,125,000 cattle.2
The prairie dog is the squirrel of the Plains. The Eastern woodland
squirrel seeks safety in hollow trees; the Plains squirrel seeks it in the
ground. An old stage-driver said to Vernon Bailey: "If them things was
called by their right names, there would not be one left in the country.
They are just as good as squirrel, and I don't believe they are any
relation to dogs."3 Bailey agrees, and adds that "they are in
reality a big, plump burrowing squirrel of irreproachable habits as regards
food and cleanliness." Colonel Dodge says: "I regard the prairie dog as a
machine designed by nature to convert grass into flesh, and thus furnish
proper food to the carnivora of the plains, which would undoubtedly soon
starve but for the presence in such numbers of this little animal.... He
requires no moisture and no variety of food."4 The Plains
squirrel, alias the prairie dog, has constituted a serious economic problem
in the West. He can be reached only by poison, and even by this means it is
a matter of the greatest difficulty to exterminate him in the region that
attracts his fancy.5
2. Bailey, "Biological Survey of Texas," North American Fauna No.
25, p. 90; C. V. Piper and others, "Our Forage Resources," Yearbook
of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1923, p. 400.
3. Bailey, "Biological Survey of Texas," North American Fauna
No. 25, p. 92.
4. Dodge, The Hunting Grounds of the Great West, p. 211.
5. C. Hart Merriman, "The Prairie Dog of the Great Plains," Yearbook
of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1901, pp. 257-270.
The Plains squirrel is well equipped to survive in his environment. He
exemplifies what frequently happened when men crossed the line. In the East
men were accustomed to a squirrel that climbed trees; when they struck the
Plains they found that the animal no longer went up but down.
The contrast was more than their minds could grasp, and so they made
the Plains squirrel a dog!
The wolf and the coyote, though arrant cowards, are the outlaws of the
Plains, the enemies of all animals, especially those in misfortune. Horace
Greeley described the coyote as "a sneaking, cowardly little wretch of dull
or dirty-white color, much resembling a small short-bodied dog set up on
pretty long legs." It ekes out a rather miserable living on insects,
rodents, prairie dogs, and the helpless young of the smaller animals. Its
range is almost identical with that of the jack rabbit, extending from the
central Mississippi Valley to the Pacific coast and from Costa Rica to
northern Athabasca. Within this area are to be found a dozen species,
differing slightly from one another in size and habits.
Greeley described the gray wolf as "a scoundrel of more imposing
caliber," whose delight it was to cut off a cow from the buffalo herd, rip
the hamstrings, and then pull the animal down at leisure. He much
preferred, however, to find a buffalo that some hunter had wounded. Such an
animal soon ceased to be a buffalo and became "mere wolf-meat before
another morning." The wolf's impudence, cunning, and cautious opportunism
which induced him to prey on those in misfortune led the tactless Greeley
to denominate him the prairie lawyer.1
Since the coming of American civilization the wolves and coyotes have
always been serious economic problems for the Western stockman. Most of the
large ranches keep dogs with which to chase them, usually the larger and
swifter
breeds, such as staghounds, Russian wolfhounds, greyhounds, and their
crosses. Sometimes wolf hunts are conducted by drives similar to the
jack-rabbit drives already described. Lantz tells of a drive in Oklahoma
participated in by seven hundred people. Despite the numbers engaged in the
hunt, only eleven wolves were killed. Nearly every Western state offers or
has offered bounties for wolf pelts. The state bounty is usually
supplemented by county bounties and community bounties. Where these
bounties are large, professional wolfhunters trap the wolves or pursue them
with dogs.1
The Plains animals exhibit certain common characteristics:
1. All, save the coyote and the wolf, are grass-eaters.
2. Two types, the antelope and the jack rabbit, are noted for their
speed, and both stick to the open country, depending primarily on speed
for safety.
3. All can get along with little or no actual water supply. The
prairie dog and the jack rabbit need none. The antelope exhibits great
ingenuity in finding water and, by virtue of its speed, can travel far
for its supply.
4. All these animals are extremely shy, and must be hunted with
long-range guns, a fact that had a marked influence on the development
of weapons in the United States. In common with all Plains animals,
Indians included, those mentioned here possess great vitality -the
antelope most of all. Colonel Dodge says, "All Plains-animals have
extraordinary vitality; and nothing but the breaking of the backbone or
a shot in the brain will certainly bring one down 'in his tracks.' Any
one of these animals is liable to run for a quarter of a mile, though
his heart be split as with a knife."2
A further fact worth remembering about the Plains animals is that most of
those peculiar to the Plains have been Popularly misnamed. The buffalo is
the bison, the prairie dog
2. The Hunting Grounds of the Great West, P. 112.
The buffalo is, or was,
the most important of
the Plains animals, and
has attracted more attention than any other
animal indigenous to the
United States. Originally its range was not
confined to the Plains,
but it was only in the
Plains that the animal
grew in sufficient numbers to exert any
appreciable effect upon man,
savage or civilized. It is
said that the first buffalo seen by a white man was viewed by Cortes and
his men in 1521 at Anahuac, where Montezuma. maintained a menagerie.
Hornaday says that the nearest place from which this animal could have
come was the state of Coahuila, which contains an extension of the Great
Plains of the United States south of the Rio Grande.
A few years later, probably about 1530, Alvar Nufiez Cabeza
de Vaca saw buffalo hides on the edge of the plains in southern
Texas. He described these animals and mentioned the fact
that the Indians killed them for food. Coronado reached the buffalo
country from the other direction in 1542. De Soto's men touched it at one
time. None of the other early Spanish explorers saw the buffalo until the
beginning of the seventeenth century.1
The English settlers found buffalo as early as 1612, when Samuel Argoll
records seeing the animal, probably near the head of the Potomac River. In
1679 the French missionary Father Hennepin ascended the St. Lawrence and
went into the buffalo country bordering the Great Lakes. Colonel William
Byrd's party found buffalo in 1729, when surveying the boundary between
North Carolina and Virginia. But the important fact is that buffalo were
rare in the Eastern woodland area, not numerous enough to exert any
influence either on the native races or on the newcomers from Europe. It
was not until the settlements approached the prairies, the tall
grasslands, which stretched along the margin of the timber line, that the
buffalo appear in sufficiently large numbers to make an impression on
human life.
The true home of the buffalo was on the Great Plains. Hornaday's map
shows that they were practically exterminated east of the ninety-fifth
meridian by 1850. West of this line they were still innumerable. Hornaday
says:
It is not maintained that buffaloes were confined to the Plains, but
it is essential to understand that their occupation
2. Ibid. P. 387.
of the forest and mountains was merely incidental, an overflow from their
natural habitat. Hornaday's study seems to imply that the herds were
invading the East when the white
man came; but he declares that the animals east of the Mississippi "were
mere stragglers from the innumerable mass
which covered the great western region from the Mississippi
to the Rocky Mountains and from the Rio Grande to the
Great Slave Lake."1
A discussion of the migration and habits of the buffalo,
interesting though it might be, lies outside the scope of this
study. It is necessary, however9 to have some idea of the size of the
individual herds that roamed the Great Plains, leaving the methods of
hunting and the various uses of the animal to be discussed in Chapter III,
which deals with the Indians.
Dodge describes a herd which was estimated to cover fifty
square miles, containing in sight about 500,000. Hornaday
estimates that herds might total 12,000,000 and that they
certainly would reach 4,000,000 as a minimum estimate. The
important Point is that here, under the natural conditions on
the Plains, was an inexhaustible beef supply, unrivaled by
anything elsewhere known to man.
The buffalo had few qualities, save massive size and gregariousness,
that fitted it to the Plains. It is described by all observers, from
Catlin on, as a stupid animal, the easiest victim to the hunter, whether
the redman with bow and arrow or the white man with his long-range
buffalo gun. The buffalo was slow of gait, clumsy in movement, and had
relatively poor eyesight and little fear of sound. Though it had a
fairly keen sense of smell, this sense was useless to it when it was
approached from down the wind.
Historically the buffalo had more influence on man than all other
Plains animals combined. It was life, food, raiment, and shelter to the
Indians. The buffalo and the Plains Indians lived together, and together
passed away. The year 1876 marks practically the end of both.
Page 38
1. Vernon Bailey, "Biological
Survey of Texas," North American Fauna No. 25, (1905), p. 155.
Page 39
1. Dodge, The Hunting
Grounds of the Great West, p. 211.
Page
40
1. Horace Greeley, An
Overland journey, pp. 92-93; David E. Lantz, "The Relation of
Coyotes to Stock-raising in the West," Farmers' Bulletin No.
226; Ernest Seton-Thompson, "Tito: The Story of the Coyote that
Learned How," Scribner's Magazine, Vol. XXVIL pp. 131-145,
316-325.
Page 41
1. T.S. Palmer "Extermination of
Noxious Animals by Bounties," Yearbook of the United States Department
of Agriculture, 1896, pp. 55-68.
Page
42
42
is a marmot, the jack rabbit is a true
hare. This is suggestive of what happened when a people having their back-
ground in a humid, forested region came out into a new
environment The point is not important except as a symptom of
the Easterner's
misunderstanding of the
West. The Plains animals depend primarily
on the sense of sight
and smell to warn them
of approaching danger.
The rabbit is perhaps
the exception.
Page 43
Of all the quadrupeds that have lived upon the
earth, probably no other species has ever marshaled such innumerable hosts
as those of the American bison. It would have been as easy to count or to
estimate the number of leaves in a forest as to calculate the number of
buffaloes living at any given time during the history of the species
previous to 1870.2
1. This account is based on the
naturalist W. T. Hornaday's thorough work "The Extermination of the
American Bison," Annual Repo7l of the United States National Museum
(Smithsonian Institution, 1887), Part II, pp. 373 ff. In his prefatory
note Hornaday states that the true name of the animal is " bison " (Bison
ame7icanus), but that since he is called "buffalo" by millions of
people it would be useless for the naturalists to try to change the custom.
Page 44
1. Hornaday, "The
American Bison," p. 388.
Page
45
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page and Company, New York, 1913.
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46