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Weblog for HIST 431: The North American PlainsThursday, September 27, 2007
Lecture 3: The Great American Desert
Lecture 3: The Great American Desert
This lecture is all about the exploration of our GP's, and it first focused on Coronado the conquistador. He basically came searching for riches. This really got me laughing. Cibola and The 7 Cities of Gold? I really want to know where he got this information. I can't even imagine 1 city let alone 7. I think this "prize in his eyes" came from a sense of "having to find something worth going exploring for." Despite not breaking the bank, the Spanish enjoyed our landscape, as it mirrored Spains. They weren't without hardship though. The Turk surely had caused some trouble, leading the men in circles. Coronado wasn't the last from Spain to come exploring. Many other exploration missions took place from 1601 to 1720.
Most of the Spainish exploration missions generally traveled south to north. In the opposite fashion, French explorers came from Canada, and traveled south. The explorers, the Verendryes, got as far as Mandan, ND and stayed in the Villages that are still there. Here we got to hear a great story about the shrine in SD that proudly pronounced who had been there and when.
Not to be one-upped by foreign exploration, two US men set out on an epic journey- Bartholomew Hunt (Chris Farley) and Leslie Edwards (Matthew Perry)! (Actually that was Almost Heroes) It was, of course, Lewis and Clark. They were the first Americans to brave to GP's and reach the Pacific, which they did, and solidified their clame to fame. A lot of their success came from the stories they told about the animals, treasures, and fierce weather. They weren't above "treasure hunting" either. They heard rumor of a salt mountain, welsh indians, and 10ft tall bears. Again, rumors.
The close of the lecture talked about exploration in the southern US moving east to west. Again it was a hard journey, but most of these explorers were trading goods and doing business, so their minds were aimed at speed. Here is where the title, Great American Desert, comes into play. It's wasn't the landscape. It was the poplution density. Imagine being in NYC and being the only one around for miles. You might get the same feeling. Although the term 'desert' has certain connotations, it wasn't the Sahara. It was the beautiful landscape that we live in today.
This lecture is all about the exploration of our GP's, and it first focused on Coronado the conquistador. He basically came searching for riches. This really got me laughing. Cibola and The 7 Cities of Gold? I really want to know where he got this information. I can't even imagine 1 city let alone 7. I think this "prize in his eyes" came from a sense of "having to find something worth going exploring for." Despite not breaking the bank, the Spanish enjoyed our landscape, as it mirrored Spains. They weren't without hardship though. The Turk surely had caused some trouble, leading the men in circles. Coronado wasn't the last from Spain to come exploring. Many other exploration missions took place from 1601 to 1720.
Most of the Spainish exploration missions generally traveled south to north. In the opposite fashion, French explorers came from Canada, and traveled south. The explorers, the Verendryes, got as far as Mandan, ND and stayed in the Villages that are still there. Here we got to hear a great story about the shrine in SD that proudly pronounced who had been there and when.
Not to be one-upped by foreign exploration, two US men set out on an epic journey- Bartholomew Hunt (Chris Farley) and Leslie Edwards (Matthew Perry)! (Actually that was Almost Heroes) It was, of course, Lewis and Clark. They were the first Americans to brave to GP's and reach the Pacific, which they did, and solidified their clame to fame. A lot of their success came from the stories they told about the animals, treasures, and fierce weather. They weren't above "treasure hunting" either. They heard rumor of a salt mountain, welsh indians, and 10ft tall bears. Again, rumors.
The close of the lecture talked about exploration in the southern US moving east to west. Again it was a hard journey, but most of these explorers were trading goods and doing business, so their minds were aimed at speed. Here is where the title, Great American Desert, comes into play. It's wasn't the landscape. It was the poplution density. Imagine being in NYC and being the only one around for miles. You might get the same feeling. Although the term 'desert' has certain connotations, it wasn't the Sahara. It was the beautiful landscape that we live in today.
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