Chapter 8   Exploring the Midwest

A.   Geography of the Midwest

1.                A region of lakes, prairies, and farms

a)                Interior Plains

(1)             It is flat land covered by grasses called a prairie.

(2)             Glaciers formed the flat land as they pushed south.

(3)             Today crops such as corn and wheat cover the land.

b)               Great Lakes

(1)             Glaciers carved out 5 huge holes.

(2)             The melted ice filled the holes and formed the Great Lakes.

(a)             Lake Ontario

(b)            Lake Erie

(c)             Lake Huron

(d)            Lake Michigan

(e)             Lake Superior

2.                Climate

a)                Drier as you move from east to west

b)               The Midwest averages over 300 tornadoes each year.

(1)             They destroy everything in their paths.

(2)             Wind speeds can reach up to 300 miles per hour at the center.

c)                The Great Plains had the worst drought in history in the 1930s.

(1)             There was little or no rain for 10 years.

(2)             The soil dried up and blew away.

(3)             The area became known as the Dust Bowl.

3.                Natural Resources

a)                The Central Plains is known as the Corn Belt.

b)               The Great Plains is known as the breadbasket of the US, because wheat is grown to make flour.

c)                The Midwest is the top producer of iron ore.

B.   Early History

1.                Native Americans

a)                 The Sioux were one of the first Native American groups to live in the Central Plains.

b)               When the Europeans settlers came the Sioux tribes had to move west to the Great Plains.

(1)             They adapted to the dry Great Plains by moving from place to place to follow the buffalo herds.

(2)             The Sioux used buffalo for most of their needs.

(a)             They ate buffalo meat.

(b)            They used the skins to make tepees and clothing.

(c)             They made tools, needles, and arrowheads from the bones and horns.

2.                The Old Northwest

a)                In 1783, the Central Plains became part of the US known as the Northwest Territory.

b)               The Ohio River, the Mississippi River, and the Great Lakes formed its boundaries.

c)                Thousands of settlers rushed to settle on this fertile land.

3.                Pioneer Spirit

a)                In 1803, the US bought the Great Plains area from France.

(1)             This was called the Louisiana Purchase.

(2)             At first, settlers did not want to go to this dry land.

(3)             The government passed The Homestead Act that gave pioneers free land if they would live on the land for at least 5 years.

(4)             Thousands of pioneers came to live on the Great Plains.

(a)             They used sod to build their homes.

(b)            They dug wells to get water to grow crops.

b)               The size of the US had doubled with the Louisiana Purchase.

C.   Transportation

1.                In the 1700s people began migrating, or moving west by wagons on land and flatboats on rivers.

a)                Robert Fulton made river travel faster by inventing the steamboat.

b)               Steamboats could travel upstream.

2.                Railroads built in the 1800s helped make travel west easier.

a)                Towns grew up along the tracks.

b)               Chicago, Illinois connected 10 major railroad lines in 1856.

c)                The railroad towns attracted entrepreneurs who started new businesses in the Midwest.

D.   Transportation helped industries grow.

1.                The regions largest cities grew near river and lake ports.

a)                St. Louis, Missouri

b)               Cincinnati, Ohio

c)                Minneapolis, Minnesota

d)               Cleveland, Ohio

e)                Detroit, Michigan

2.                In the 1900s Detroit became the center of the nation’s automobile industry.

a)                Its location on the Great Lakes made shipping raw materials and finished automobiles easier.

b)               It had steel mills nearby.

c)                Auto manufacturers started using assembly lines to produce cars quickly and cheaper.

(1)             Henry Ford set up the assembly line in a Detroit factory which changed the automobile industry.

(2)             This is a form of mass production in which a product is made more quickly and cheaply by machines.

E.   The Midwest changed from a region of 2 territories to a region of 12 states from the 1800s to the 1900s.