The depopulation of the Great Plains refers to the large-scale migration of people from rural areas of the Great Plains of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

to more urban areas and to the

east East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

and

west West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

coasts during the 20th century. This phenomenon of rural-to-urban migration has occurred to some degree in most areas of the United States, but has been especially pronounced in the Great Plains states, including

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, Oklahoma,

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large porti ...

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, So ...

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

, and

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...

. Many Great Plains counties have lost more than 60 percent of their former populations. Depopulation began in the early 1900s, accelerated in the

Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by a combination of both natural factors (severe drought) a ...

years of the 1930s, and has generally continued through the national census in 2010. The population decline has been broadly attributed to numerous factors, especially changes in agricultural practices, rapid improvements in urban transit and regional connectivity, and a declining rural job market.

Geography

Definitions vary as to what land comprises the Great Plains, but the Plains are generally agreed to overlap with the territory of ten states: Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming. The eastern boundary is about 97 degrees W longitude and the Plains extend westward to the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...

and southward from the border with

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

to the approximate latitude of

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

. A somewhat more restrictive definition by the U.S. Census Bureau gives a total area of the Great Plains in the United States as , 18 percent of the area of the entire United States. The Great Plains are distinguished by generally flat land and a natural vegetation cover consisting mostly of expansive grasslands. The eastern part of the Great Plains is dominated by agriculture, with

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

being the most common and important crop. The western part is more arid and is primarily used for grazing cattle and irrigated agriculture.

Population history

Large-scale settlement of the Great Plains by farmers and ranchers began with the end of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

in 1865. By the late 1870s the Plains Indians had been defeated militarily and were largely confined to reservations. Drawn by the free land made available by the

Homestead Act The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than of public land, or nearly 10 percent of t ...

, pioneer families quickly settled the region such that nearly all of the arable land was privately owned or on Indian reservations by 1900. County population 2000 - 2010

The initial rush to settle the Great Plains by hundreds of thousands of farmers and ranchers has been reversed because of several factors. Perhaps the most significant reasons have been economic. Over the course of the 20th century, farm economies saw dramatic shifts from small-scale family

subsistence farming Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no su ...

to larger commercial farms utilizing more equipment and less labor. Many family farms proved to be too small to survive. Farmers also used farming techniques which were unsuited to the dry, windy climate and the frequent droughts of the Great Plains. This became manifest during the

years of the 1930s, in which rural flight from the Great Plains accelerated, although the decline in population of some counties had begun as early as 1900. Better roads and the automobile permitted many farmers to live in larger towns and cities rather than on the farm itself. While urban areas on the Great Plains more than doubled in population, thousands of small towns and communities disappeared. Two-thirds of counties lost some part of their population between the early 1900s and the 2010 census, and, as the table below demonstrates, many rural counties lost more than 60 percent of their population. A few counties lost more than 80 percent of their population. Population density of some Great Plains counties dipped below two persons per square mile. Governments have tried a variety of methods to stem the outflow of population from rural areas in the Great Plains. Some towns have offered free building lots to prospective residents, but the program has met with only limited success. The fundamental problem appears to be the few employment opportunities available in these small and isolated communities. The population decline has led to proposals to return the land to its natural state and under public ownership. The

Buffalo Commons The Buffalo Commons is a conceptual proposal to create a vast nature preserve by returning of the drier portion of the Great Plains to native prairie, and by reintroducing the American bison ("buffalo"), that once grazed the shortgrass prairie. ...

proposal calls for large portions of the drier regions of the Great Plains to be returned to their original condition as pasture land for

American bison The American bison (''Bison bison'') is a species of bison native to North America. Sometimes colloquially referred to as American buffalo or simply Bubalina, buffalo (a different clade of bovine), it is one of two extant species of bison, alongs ...

and other plains animals.Deborah Epstein Popper and Frank J. Popper,
"Great Plains: From Dust to Dust"
, ''Planning'', December 1987

Counties with large population losses

The following Great Plains counties lost more than 60 percent of their population from their census when they attained their highest population until 2010. , , 6,015 (1910) , , 2,071 , , -65.6 , , 1.6 , - , Dunn , , , , 9,566 (1930) , , 3,536 , , -63.0 , , 1.7 , - ,

Eddy Eddie or Eddy may refer to: Science and technology *Eddy (fluid dynamics), the swirling of a fluid and the reverse current created when the fluid flows past an obstacle * Eddie (text editor), a text editor originally for BeOS and now ported to Lin ...

, , , , 6,493 (1920) , , 2,395 , , -63.1 , , 3.4 , - , Emmons , , , , 12,467 (1930) , , 3,550 , , -71.5 , , 2.3 , - , Golden Valley , , , , 4,832 (1920) , , 1,680 , , -65.2 , , 1.7 , - ,

Grant Grant or Grants may refer to: Places *Grant County (disambiguation) Australia * Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia United Kingdom * Castle Grant United States * Grant, Alabama * Grant, Inyo County, ...

, , , , 10,134 (1930) , , 2,394 , , -76.4 , , 1.4 , - , Griggs , , , , 7,402 (1920) , , 2,420 , , -67.3 , , 3.4 , - , Hettinger , , , , 8,796 (1930) , , 2,477 , , -71.8 , , 2.2 , - , Kidder , , , , 8,031 (1930) , , 2,455 , , -69.4 , , 1.7 , - , LaMoure , , , , 11,517 (1930) , , 4,139 , , -64.1 , , 3.6 , - , Logan , , , , 8,089 (1930) , , 1,990 , , -75.4 , , 2.0 , - , McHenry , , , , 17,627 (1910) , , 5,395 , , -69.4 , , 2.8 , - ,

McIntosh McIntosh, Macintosh, or Mackintosh (Gaelic: ') may refer to: Products and brands * Mackintosh, a form of waterproof raincoat * Mackintosh's or John Mackintosh and Co., later Rowntree Mackintosh, former UK confectionery company now part of Nestl� ...

, , , , 9,621 (1930) , , 2,809 , , -70.8 , , 2.8 , - ,

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

, , , , 10,312 (1920) , , 3,126 , , -69.7 , , 3.1 , - , Renville , , , , 7,840 (1910) , , 2,450 , , -68.7 , , 2.8 , - , Sargent , , , , 9,655 (1920) , , 3,829 , , -60.3 , , 4.4 , - , Sheridan , , , , 8,103 (1910) , , 1,321 , , -83.7 , , 1.3 , - ,

Slope In mathematics, the slope or gradient of a line is a number that describes both the ''direction'' and the ''steepness'' of the line. Slope is often denoted by the letter ''m''; there is no clear answer to the question why the letter ''m'' is use ...

, , , , 4,940 (1920) , , 727 , , -85.3 , , 0.6 , - ,

Steele Steele may refer to: Places America * Steele, Alabama, a town * Steele, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Steele, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * Steele, Missouri, a city * Lonetree, Montana, a ghost town originally called Steele ...

, , , , 7,616 (1910) , , 1975 , , -74.1 , , 2.8 , - , Towner , , , , 8,963 (1910) , , 2,246 , , -74.9 , , 2.2 , - , Wells , , , , 13,285 (1930) , , 4,207 , , -68.3 , , 3.3 , - ! Oklahoma , - , Alfalfa , , , , 18,138 (1910) , , 5,642 , , -68.9 , , 6.4 , - ,

Cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...

, , , , 16,679 (1920) , , 6,193 , , -62.9 , , 9.6 , - , Dewey , , , , 14,132 (1910) , , 4,810 , , -66.0 , , 4.8 , - ,

Ellis Ellis is a surname of Welsh and English origin. Retrieved 21 January 2014 An independent French origin of the surname is said to derive from the phrase fleur-de-lis. Surname A * Abe Ellis (Stargate), a fictional character in the TV series ' ...

, , , , 15,375 (1910) , , 4,151 , , -73.0 , , 3.4 , - ,

, , , , 18,760 (1910) , , 4,527 , , -75.9 , , 4.5 , - , Greer , , , , 17,922 (1900) , , 6,239 , , -65.2 , , 9.7 , - , Harmon , , , , 13,834 (1930) , , 2,922 , , -78.8 , , 5.4 , - , Jefferson , , , , 17,764 (1920) , , 6,472 , , -63.6 , , 8.4 , - ,

Kiowa Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and e ...

, , , , 29,630 (1930) , , 9,446 , , -68.1 , , 9.2 , - , Roger Mills , , , , 14,164 (1930) , , 3,647 , , -74.3 , , 3.2 , - ,

Tillman Tillman is a surname and given name of English origin and an Americanized spelling of Tillmann. Other variants of the name include Tilman and Dillman. Notable people with the name Tillmann include: Surname * Albert Tillman (1928–2004), Amer ...

, , , , 24,390 (1930) , , 7,992 , , -67.2 , , 9.1 , - , Washita , , , , 29,435 (1930) , , 11,629 , , -60.5 , , 11.5 , - ! South Dakota , - ,

Aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

, , , , 7,246 (1920) , , 2,710 , , -62.6 , , 3.8 , - ,

Campbell Campbell may refer to: People Surname * Campbell (surname), includes a list of people with surname Campbell Given name * Campbell Brown (footballer), an Australian rules footballer * Campbell Brown (journalist) (born 1968), American television ne ...

, , , , 5,629 (1930) , , 1,466 , , -74.0 , , 2.0 , - ,

Clark Clark is an English language surname, ultimately derived from the Latin with historical links to England, Scotland, and Ireland ''clericus'' meaning "scribe", "secretary" or a scholar within a religious order, referring to someone who was educate ...

, , , , 11,136 (1920) , , 3,691 , , -66.9 , , 3.9 , - , Day , , , , 15,194 (1920) , , 5,710 , , -62.4 , , 5.8 , - , Faulk , , , , 6,895 (1930) , , 2,364 , , -65.7 , , 2.4 , - , Gregory , , , , 13,061 (1910) , , 4,271 , , -67.3 , , 4.2 , - , Hand , , , , 9,485 (1930) , , 3,431 , , -63.8 , , 2.4 , - , Harding , , , , 4,228 (1910) , , 1,255 , , -69.3 , , 0.5 , - , Hyde , , , , 3,690 Sources

Population of Counties by Dicennial Census, 1900-1990, accessed 12 August 2021

accessed 24 May 2022

References

{{reflist Great Plains Dust Bowl Demographics of the United States Demographics of Colorado Demographics of New Mexico Demographics of Oklahoma Demographics of South Dakota Demographics of Texas American diaspora in North America Demographic history of the United States Internal migrations in the United States

Geography

Population history

Counties with large population losses

See also

References