Settling the Great Plains

1. Settling the Great Plains Between 1862 and 1900 Thousands of people poured in to settle the Great Plains

2. Objective • Identify the factors that drew people to settle on the Great Plains.

3. Homesteaders Factors that drew people to settle on the Great Plains • Homestead Act • Railroad Land Sales • Hope for a better life By 1890 there were 5 million people living on the Great Plains

4. Life on the Family Farm

5. Life on the Family Farm Dramatic Differences • Shortage of wood • Extreme weather changes • Insect swarms • Prairie fires

6. Shortage of Wood Plenty of Sod (sod-soil in which thick grass grows) Advantages of Sod Homes • Cool in Summer • Warm in Winter • Didn’t catch fire easily Disadvantages of Sod Homes • Hard to keep clean • Leaky roofs

7. Extreme Weather Changes • Summer sun baked the ground making the prairie catch fire more easily • Hailstorms came often sometimes ruining entire crops • Winter snow and freezing temperatures made life very difficult

8. Insect Swarms • Grasshoppers attacked the Great Plains in 1874 • Millions of ate anything that was green • Destroying entire crops in minutes

9. New Technology saves the Family Farm • New models of windmills -lets farmers pump water from hundreds of feet below ground • Stronger plows help homesteaders cut through thick sod • Harvesting machines make farm work easier

10. Your Life in a Soddy • Look under your desk • Get out the journal and the bag of sod • Write ”Personal Journal of & Your Name” on the label on the front of the journal • Beginning on the front of the first page create a journal entry as if you were living in a soddy on the prairie onOctober 31, 1885. • The entry should be in your best handwriting • The entry should contain at least three (3) good descriptive paragraphs

11. Brochure Project • This week we will each work to create a brochure about life on the Great Plains • You will use the computers and the program Microsoft Word to create your own brochure • Brochure due Oct. 13th