American Agriculture History Minute: Midwest Migration

I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute.

By the 1850s, the migration to the Midwest had become a great wave. Families camped at the Mississippi River, waiting their turn for ferry boats to the other side, Iowa and beyond. In only a few years, these settlers would turn forests and prairies into plowed fields.

Iowa is located where the great eastern forests and the prairies of the western United States met. There’s not a straight line where trees stop and grass takes over, but it was in Iowa where trees finally gave way to the endless Great Prairie.

That’s today’s American Agriculture History Minute. I’m Mark Oppold. Thanks for reading. I’ll see you next time.