the GREAT PLAINS.

629 Pages·2022·14.272 MB·English

by  WALTER PRESCOTT WEBB

The GreaT Plains
Second Edition

The
GreaT
Plains

Second Edition
Walter Prescott Webb
Introduction by andrew r. Graybill
Published in Cooperation with the William P. Clements Center
for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University
UniversiTy of nebraska Press——lincoln
© 2022 by the Board of Regents of the
University of Nebraska
1931, 1959 © Walter Prescott Webb. First
paperback printing 1981.
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication
Data
Names: Webb, Walter Prescott, 1888– 1963,
author. | Graybill, Andrew R., 1971– , writer of
introduction. | William P. Clements Center for
Southwest Studies.
Title: The Great Plains / Walter Prescott Webb;
introduction by Andrew R. Graybill.
Description: Second edition. | Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 2022. | Originally
published: 1931. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2021038331
isbn 9781496231338 (paperback)
Subjects: lcsh: Great Plains— History. |
Mississippi River Valley— History. | Frontier
and pioneer life— Great Plains. | Great Plains—
Environmental conditions. | Agriculture—
Great Plains—H istory. | United States—
Territorial expansion.
Classification: lcc f591 .w35 2022 | ddc
978— dc23
lc record available at
https:// lccn .loc .gov /2021038331
Designed and set in Adobe Text Pro
by Mikala R. Kolander.
conTenTs
Introduction ix
Andrew R. Graybill
Preface 3
I. Introduction 7
II. The Physical Basis of the Great
Plains Environment 13
1. How the Great Plains Were Built 13
2. The Climate of the Great Plains 19
3. The Plant Life of the Great Plains 29
4. Animal Life on the Great Plains 35
III. The Plains Indians 47
1. Characteristics of the Plains Indians 48
2. The Spread and Use of the Horse among the Plains Indians 53
3. Horsemanship and Weapons 60
4. The Sign Language of the Plains Indians 68
iv. The Spanish Approach to the Great Plains 85
1. The Spanish Colonial System Unsuited to the Great Plains 87
2. The Spanish Explorers on the Plains: A Period of Success 94
3. The Spanish Colonial Period: The Beginning of Failure 112
v. The American Approach to
the Great Plains 135
1. Exploring the Great Plains: Marking the Trails 136
2. Creating the Tradition of the “Great American Desert” 147
3. The Texas Approach to the Great Plains:
The Texans Touch the Plains 154
4. The Great Plains Block the Expansion of the South 175
vi. The Cattle Kingdom 193
1. The Origin of the Kingdom 195
2. The Spread of the Kingdom 204
3. The Evolution of the Range and Ranch
Cattle Industry, 1866– 1928 215
4. The Ways of Life on the Cattle Range 231
5. The Twin Spectacles of the Range:
the Round-up and the Drive 244
vii. Transportation and Fencing 259
1. Railroads in the Great Plains 262
2. The Fence Problem 271
viii. The Search for Water in
the Great Plains 311
1. The Available Supply of Moisture in the Great Plains 313
2. Well- Making and Windmills 325
3. Irrigation in the Great Plains 341
4. Dry Farming: Conservation of Soil Moisture 358
5. Some Vagaries of the Search for Water 367
ix. New Laws for Land and Water 375
1. Enlarging the Land Unit 377
2. The Development of the Land Law for the West 388
3. Development of the Western Water Laws 420
x. The Literature of the Great Plains
and About the Great Plains 443
1. The Literature of the Frontier and the Cattle Kingdom 444
2. The Literature of the Farm 460
xi. The Mysteries of the Great Plains
in American Life 475
1. What Immediate Effects Did the Great Plains
Have Upon the Anglo- American? 476
2. Did Man Originate on the Plains or in the Forest? 480
3. Why Is the West Considered Spectacular and Romantic? 482
4. Why Was the West Considered Lawless?
Was It Really Lawless or Did It Merely Appear Lawless? 486
5. Why Is the West Politically Radical? 492
6. What Has Been the Spiritual Effect of the
American Adventure in the Great Plains on Women? 495
7. In Conclusion: Let Us Inquire What Has Been
and What Is to Be the Meaning of the Great Plains
in American Life 497
Notes 507
Bibliography 551
Index 561

inTrodUc Tion
Andrew R. Graybill
The first review of Walter Prescott Webb’s The Great Plains was
damning, and Webb himself was partly to blame. Upon the book’s
release in the summer of 1931, Webb sent a copy to a friend who
wrote for multiple Texas newspapers, hoping that readers in his
native Lone Star State would take notice. Instead the critic dis-
missed the book as based on secondary sources and devoid of fresh
observations.1 But Webb’s surprise and irritation abated that fall
when the New York Times ran a glowing assessment on the front
page of its Sunday books section, hailing his study as “one of the
most original and significant contributions that has been made at
any time to the history of the American West.” The illustration that
accompanied the essay—N . C. Wyeth’s painting The Opening of the
Prairies, which depicts a Native American man offering guidance to
a caravan of white pioneers—p erfectly captured the central theme
of Webb’s book: the nineteenth- century Anglo- American conquest
of the nation’s midsection.2
The academic community saluted Webb’s achievement, too.
Henry Steele Commager, then emerging as one of the brightest
young stars in the history profession, argued that the book’s region-
al focus should not obscure its broader importance, insisting that
“both its technique and its conclusions should find application to
the whole field of American history.”3 Webb won second place in