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Lecture 3, The Great American Desert, covered the ‘conquering’ and first adventures onto the Great Plains. The Spanish, The French, The Americans, and The Canadians all had their share of journeys and discoveries of the Great Plains. The reports that they brought back, however, didn’t do much justice for the Great Plains. The Spanish enjoyed the land that they saw, resembling slightly of their home, the French liked the profit they could make out of fur, Lewis and Clark declared the land basically worthless, and the great Canadian’s discovering the Plains extend more North than once thought. However, in the end, many declared in uninhabitable. Each group had their own experience, and each left their own mark on the land, like Verendrye leaving his plates for the curious to find.
I found the parts about Lewis and Clark to be interesting. Listening to the ways that they moved up stream, their lack of intelligence about bears, and that darn dog Seaman, I was interested at the adventure they made. Also the story about the Verendrye plate intrigued me very much, especially the story in the epilogue.
I was left confused on why the explorers declared the land basically unlivable most of the time. I know that from first sight there isn’t much to see, but when you look into the land I feel that there is so much to offer that living on the Plains could bring you more life than living anywhere else. I think that they missed all the great points about the Plains, it might be a harsh living environment, but in the end it is rich with life and animals. Oh well, at least we know how great it is now.