Great Plains

Introduction & Top Questions
Physical features
- Relief and drainage
- Soils and climate
- Plant and animal life
The people and economy
Study and exploration

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

Map showing the Mississippi River basin and its extensive drainage network across the central United States, with major tributaries labeled, physical features such as mountain ranges and plains indicated by color-coded elevation, and state boundaries outlined. The map includes a locator inset highlighting the region within North America.

Map showing the traditional territories of Indigenous peoples of the North American Plains, outlined in red and spanning parts of present-day Canada and the central United States. Tribal names such as Blackfoot, Crow, Cheyenne, Pawnee, Osage, Comanche, and Wichita are labeled within their respective regions. Major rivers like the Missouri, Mississippi, and Rio Grande are also shown for geographic context.

At a Glance

Great Plains summary

Related Questions

How are tallgrass prairies different from shortgrass prairies?
How did Francisco Vázquez de Coronado contribute to European knowledge of the Great Plains?
How did New Deal programs help reduce soil erosion in the Great Plains?
How did Plains Village cultures change after about 1000 CE?
How did deep plowing and the removal of native grasses worsen the Dust Bowl?
How did guns and horses change the balance of power among Plains peoples?
How did horses reach the Great Plains?
How did increasing aridity after about 1275 affect Plains Village cultures?
How did shelterbelts help protect Great Plains farms from wind erosion?
How did the Dust Bowl affect migration from the Plains states?
How did the Homestead Act of 1862 affect settlement on the Great Plains?
How did the Oregon Trail affect Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains?
How did the fur trade change material culture and social life on the Great Plains?
How do Great Plains soils vary with rainfall and grass cover?
How do chinook winds affect weather on the western Great Plains?
How do the Rocky Mountains form the western boundary of the Great Plains?
How does elevation change from the Rocky Mountains to the eastern Great Plains?
How does rainfall change from east to west across the Great Plains?
How far do the Great Plains extend from north to south?
How long is the growing season in Texas compared with the U.S.-Canada border?
What agreements were made at the Fort Laramie conference of 1851?
What are the Llano Estacado plains like?
What caused the Dust Bowl on the Great Plains in the 1930s?
What crops did Plains village communities grow?
What is the main drainage system of the Canadian Great Plains?
What kind of climate does the Great Plains have?
What role did the Sun Dance play in Plains cultures?
What roles did tepees and buffalo hides have in Plains Indian life?
What was the purpose of military societies among Plains Indians?
Where are the Black Hills located within the Great Plains?
Which Canadian provinces include parts of the Great Plains?
Which Indigenous language families were spoken across the Plains?
Which U.S. states include parts of the Great Plains?
Which cities are among the largest urban centers of the Great Plains?
Which plants grow naturally in the driest parts of the Great Plains?
Which states made up the Dust Bowl's most severely affected area?
Why are the Great Plains not completely flat?
Why are trees mostly found along rivers in the Great Plains?
Why did brass kettles replace clay pottery in some Plains communities?
Why did mounted Plains hunters initially prefer bows and arrows to early firearms?
Why did open-range cattle ranching decline after the 1880s?
Why did some Indigenous farming communities adopt a nomadic way of life?
Why do Great Plains soils contain carbonates in their lower layers?
Why is wheat production important to the Great Plains economy?
Why were dogs still used for hauling in Plains communities after horses arrived?
What are the Great Plains?
How big are the Great Plains?
Where are the Great Plains located?
What is the climate of the Great Plains?
Where is Lake Ontario located?
What is the geology of the Canadian Shield?
How did glaciers impact the Canadian Shield during the Pleistocene Epoch?
Why is human population density low in the Canadian Shield?
What is Route 66 most famous for?
Is Route 66 still open?

Geography & Travel Physical Geography of Land Plains & Plateaus

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External Websites

US Forest Service - Great Plains (PDF)
The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Great Plains
National Center for Biotechnology Information - Population and Environment in the U.S. Great Plains
World Wide Fund - Northern Great Plains

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Great Plains - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Great Plains

region, North America

Also known as: Great American Desert, West North Central States(Show More)

Written by

Elwyn B. Robinson

University Professor of History, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, 1951–70. Author of History of North Dakota.

Elwyn B. RobinsonAll

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

History

Great Plains, major physiographic province of North America. The Great Plains lie between the Rio Grande in the south and the delta of the Mackenzie River at the Arctic Ocean in the north and between the Interior Lowland and the Canadian Shield on the east and the Rocky Mountains on the west. Their length is some 3,000 miles (4,800 km), their width from 300 to 700 miles, and their area approximately 1,125,000 square miles (2,900,000...

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