AMERICAN WASTELAND

Even by the first decades of the 20th century, the United States was, by global standards, still a relatively young country; but it had come a long way. Following fairly slow and steady growth through the 18th and early 19th centuries, with the expansion west from the well-established coastal cities and States that were the foundation of the nation, the pioneering spirit and the desire to exploit the country’s vast natural resources drove a rush of interest in opportunity and ownership, especially land.

Fuelled by Government support – the Homestead Act of 1862 gave 162 acres of public land to each new settler for their own use – and the ideals of the founding fathers, vast amounts of natural wilderness in the heart of the growing nation were to be claimed and owned in the name of progress. Following the Civil War there was a marked increase in this expansion westward and people came in ever-increasing numbers, many of them, most importantly, with little or no idea of farming. As new states were born (Oklahoma was not an official state until 1907), long trains of covered wagons gave way to the modern technology of the railways, and towns and even cities rose out of the plains and the prairies. Those who