Occupying the Wet Prairie

The Role of Artificial Drainage in Story County, Iowa

Datos Bibliográficos

ID18933488
AutoresLeslie Hewes (University of Nebraska System, autor de correspondencia), Phillip E Frandson (University of Nebraska System)
Año1952
Volumen42
Número1
Páginas24-50
Fecha de publicación1952-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAnnals of the Association of American Geographers (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0004-5608 • E-ISSN: 1467-8306
EditorialAmerican Association of Geographers (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1080/00045605209352084
OpenAlexW1963641347
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8

0OME attention by geographers to the statistics from three United States censuses of drainage and to the chapter on reclamation of wet and overflow lands in a textbook on conservation' has led to the realization by a part of the geographical profession that there is considerably more drained land than irrigated land in the United States and that the major portion of the drained land forms a relatively continuous arc from southeastern Michigan and northwestern Ohio, through Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa to the northwestern corner of Minnesota. This great arc of drained land for over two-thirds of its length runs through the prairie. The great extent of naturally wet land in the Midwestern prairie, the fact of the reclamation of the wet land, and the results of the reclamation are all comparatively unknown. The common unawareness of the drainage of formerly wet land on the part of the American public and geographers alike is in contrast to the interest in the irrigation of dry land. The unequal attention given irrigation and drainage may be explained in two main ways. 1) Irrigation produces marked local areal differentiation; whereas, drainage reduces local differences in landscape appearance and use. 2) The fact of irrigation is usually evident in the presence of ditches and men at work directing the flow of water whereas most artificial drainage takes place automatically through tile buried in the ground. It is the purpose of this paper to examine in some detail the character of the occupation and utilization of a small portion of the poorly drained prairie in the north central portion of the United States, on the assumption that some generalizations may be discovered that can be tested later in a larger setting. The area selected, Story County, Iowa, is representative of the Iowa wet prairie. It lies within the Mankato Lobe of late Wisconsin glaciation, the major region of poor drainage in the state (Fig. 1). Like the larger region, it contains both till plain flats of extensive poor drainage and undulating to gently rolling land marked by numerous small poorly drained depressions. The amount and arrangement of naturally wet prairie land varies greatly within the county, facilitating the comparison of wetter and less wet areas. Because Story County lies at the southeastern edge of the major area of wet prairie in the state, it was among the first of the fairly wet counties of the state to be settled. Accordingly, the record of drainage may be the more meaningful because of the length of time involved

Archaeology · Drainage · Geography · Hydrology (agriculture) · Archaeology and Natural History · Botany, Ecology, and Taxonomy Studies · Ecology · Engineering · Forestry · Rangeland and Wildlife Management