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Lecture Three was titled "The Great American Desert" and focused on the explorers and their impressions of the Great Plains region. Dr. Isern looked at four different groups of explorers of the Great Plains and their reports to explain how these explorers viewed this new land. First, Spanish explorers came to the Plains looking for gold like they had found to the south in Mexico and South America. However their search was fruitless and inspite of the fact they thought the land was beautiful they decided it was entirely useless for settlement. Next, the French explorers from the north who came to the area in hopes of expanding their trading empire. The french although more successful in their mission showed less reguard for the land. Third, Dr. Isern described the American experience on the plains. Starting with the Corps of Discovery who were searching for a route to the Pacific Ocean in hopes of trading with the East and also looking at the likes of Zebulon Pike who was searching for the source of the Mississippi River among other things and Stephen Long who described the plains as totally worthless. Finally, Dr. Isern took a look at the Canadian side of things through the eyes of explorers Hind & Palliser. These men came to a slightly different view of the plains with Hind describing the "Fertile Belt" that would link Canada and Palliser finding his triangle of desert.
This lecture was interesting to me because even though I have heard of many of these explorers I was unfamiliar with their individual takes on the plains and how negative most of them were. Ive always heard the journey west as a triumphant trek to the sea where rugged mountain men battled the elements on a harrowing journey west. I thought it was interesting that even the American explorers who eventually settled the area found it useless and now it is described by the entire nation as the breadbasket of the world.