Webblog

I don't like the term "Great American Desert." It makes such a beautiful place sound ugly and completely baron. I guess I can understand why someone would say that, then again it's completely beautiful. I like when William Gilpin states that "god wouldn't make a useless country."It's true; all of this land we have goes to agriculture and livestock. I don’t think the explorers were very open minded.
The explorers were here to discover and conquer. Other countries were very interested in the new world and need to know more about it. Sure they helped get people to come here but at the same time they didn’t do a whole lot. Some died, went crazy, and others inflated their egos. What I thought was the most interesting are the stories we don't hear. Like that Lewis is believed to father a son in South Dakota. Then at the end of the trip he goes crazy. Then there was the thought that welsh exiles had fled to the Americas and set up a colony. How would they have gotten to the new world even? Even at this time it’s not like there were ships coming here every day. Just seems very farfetched. Lastly we learned of Salt Mountain, and in actuality it was not a mountain of salt. Salt accumulates there in the summer sun and attracts animals, and the natives. It evaporates to the surface and can be collected. This is just another farfetched story. I enjoyed the whole lecture and found it nice that the Dakota's can relate to history. It always seems like the historic stuff happens everywhere else but in fact, much of it happened right here.