THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT

THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT

• Land Between the Missouri River and Rocky Mountains
• Reputation for being an uncultivable desert
• Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike
• Stephen H. Long

"Between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains is almost wholly unfit for cultivation, and of course uninhabitable by a people depending upon agriculture for their substinence" - Stephen H. Long

Was Its Name Deserved?

• In a word, no.
• Diverse Land and People
• Stores of Natural Resources
• Mining, farming and ranching oppertunites

Buffalo. Yes. These are Buffalo.

Impact on Westward Expansion

• Reputation repelled would-be farmers and frontiersmen
• Poeple passed through on their journey west
• No substantial settlements until 19th century