1 ene 1879 año - John Wesley Powell presents REport on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States

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Background:
homesteaders:-lots of challenges: grasshoppers, prairie fire, hailstorms, tornadoes, blizzards, hard to find lumber/water, had to make dugouts in hillsides at first.
-homesteaders realized grasslands couldn't do wheat/grains w/ dry rainfall. Many fled. Others came up with new farming techniques. 160-acre homesteads didn't work, so they tried smaller or bigger ones w/ dry farming (deep planting to bring subsoil moisture to the roots and quick harrowing after rainfalls to slow evaporation, mostly in hige corporate farms in teh Red River Valley of North Dakota).
-Families struggled with low crop prices and unpredictable climates, calling themselves "nature's conquerors"
-destroying biodiversity (farming the plains)->exotic, destructive pests/weeds
-removing native grassed->erosion
-Lots of cattle/sheep/crops like wheat from great plains, but that was not sustainable in drier regions.

John Wesley Powell- one-armed Unionveteran, with U.S. Geological Survey, led expedition West and made the report. To congress, He said that 160-acre homesteads won't work in dry regions. He recommended the Mormon's irrigation projects. He said the gov should develop western water resources (dams, canals, putting landowners i local districts to operate those). He thought individualism wouldn't get ppl far in teh west and recommended cooperation under gov control

-Congress rejected it, saying he listened to large ranching corporations. Others wanted small homesteads. Debate. Looking back, ppl don't agree with Powell's proposed solutions, but they know he got all the issues marked correctly. Eventaully, the gov paid for dams and canals in the west after lots of suffering.

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