Little Blue Valley
“For years Marysville, Kansas, marked the end of the truly settled country; but the Little Blue Valley, so, charming and so fertile, sheltered a sort of border zone of ranches…
The Big Blue
“Except under abnormal conditions the camp site under these old trees [by the Big Blue] was an oasis, comfortable and even luxurious with fresh-water clams from the river, berries from…
The Ocean and the Great Plains
"Much evidence of the immediate effects may be found in the reaction of men who came to the Plains. If we again visualize a migrating host suddenly emerging from the forests on…
Prairie Grasses
In the prairie country the tall grass falls into three sub. ,ions, or communities: the blue-stem sod, the blue-stem 1ch grass, and the needle grass and slender wheat grass. blue-stem…
Army of the West on the Plains
"They left the high grass behind and timber with it, so that part of the duty of the soldier was to collect buffalo chips during the last hour of marching.…
The Hundredth Meridian
"The hundredth meridian of west longitude, a geographer's symbol of the true beginning of the West (meaning the point beyond which the annual rainfall is less than twenty inches), strikes…
Drinking from Desert Wells
"the carson Route offered no advantage in crossing the Forty Mile Desert, though—in fact, it may have been worse. A few dug wells supplied some water ("intensely brackish, bitter with…
Droppings of the Lesser Redneck
"Interstate 80 swings well south of the emigrant trail through the Truckee Dunes today. Only the hiss of windblown sand disturbs the graveyard quiet now. Jeep tracks follow the trail across…
Wyoming Wind
"Wind—tyrant king of Wyoming. Wind-driven sand blasts the paint off buildings and gnaws out the softer layers of wood between the harder growth rings. For most houses on the exposed plains, a…
Land Between the North Platte and the Sweetwater
"Once across the [North Platte] river, the emigrants faced 50 desiccated miles of sagebrush plains as they passed overland to the Sweetwater River. It was a bleak crossing—as Henry Bloom described: No…
North Platte
"Emerging from Ash Hollow, the trains rolled on-ever west-along the south bank of the North Platte. "Its width is not so great [as the Platte]," Edwin Bryant observed, "but still it is…
Great Plains Hailstorms
"Of all the Great Plains storms, hailstorms were the worst. Elizabeth Dixon Smith endured one on July 8, 1847. "To day we had the dredfulest hail storm that I ever witnessed ...…
Mile 1695: Bates’s/ Butte/ Robber’s Roost Station
"While the Shoshonee is tracking and driving the old mare, we will glance around the "Robber's Roost," which will answer for a study of the Western man's home. It is about as civilized…
Mile 1478: Fish Springs
"At Fish Springs, whose water was filled with small, perch-like fish, two men had charge of the usual number of horses and mules. The water was warm and had a…
Mile 1421: Point Lookout
"Beyond [Faust's, or Rush Valley Station] was Point Lookout, which was the doorway to the worst desert on the North American Continent. Ahead lay a country of bare, rocky mountain…