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Lecture #3 was titled "The Great American Desert". The lecture began by describing the impressions of the plains through the eyes of various historians such as William Gilpin and Ralph C. Morris, both of whom thought the Plains had a purpose, whether it be divine or man made. Next the lecture discussed the explorers of the Plains and pointed out the purposes of those explorers; whether it was to promote religion, like the Spanish, or mainly economic endeavors, like the French and English, or just to discover the country they had inherited, like the Americans. The lecture also listed specific expeditions and explorers such as Cortez, Coronado, the Verendryes, the Corps of Discovery, and Stephen Long among others.
One point of interest for me was the discussion of the Corps of Discovery’s expedition led by Lewis and Clark. Not being from North Dakota I have not heard a whole lot about this expedition and it was nice to hear some of the more intricate details such as Lewis’ state of mind on the return trip. Another point of interest for me was finding out how the explorers left pieces of mettle with inscriptions on them to show they had been to through that area. I had never thought of this previously and find it quite intelligent; however wonder how they carried all those pieces around with them on their quests.
One item that I wish the lecture had gone into more detail about was the exploration of the Canadian side of the Plains. Besides the mentioning of Alexander Mackenzie I did not feel like the lecture included much about the discovering process and views of the Canadians towards the Canadian Plains.