The Desert States
The great American desert may be roughly described as lying between the western boundary of the Mississippi Valley and the Pacific Ocean, and as embracing about two-fifths of the total area of continental United States, exclusive of Alaska. The superficial area of the several states that comprise this desert is almost equal to the combined areas of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, the British Isles, Austro-Hungary, Spain, Portugal, the Balkan States, Turkey in Europe, and Japan. The population of the so-called desert states[A] is 16,423,625, while that of the countries above-mentioned is over twelve times as great. Within the confines of the desert is every gradation of climate from north temperate to semi-tropic found in these European countries. Its physical geography includes a wide variety of features from the Great Plains to the highest and lowest elevations in our country. Herein are found the most notable scenic attractions, including the great national playgrounds of Yellowstone, Glacier, Rocky Mountain, Mount Rainier, Crater Lake and Yosemite National Parks, the Grand Canyon of Arizona, and the principal national forests.
[A] Arizona, New Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Oklahoma.
THE FIRST FLOW OF WATER
In Grand Valley Project, Colorado
As to water supply, the desert belongs in two regions, arid and semi-arid. West of the Missouri and extending to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, is a vast area of foothills and gently sloping, grassy prairies, which constitute a large part of the semi-arid or sub-humid region of the United States. This broad belt, stretching from Mexico northward into Canada, has no clear-cut boundary separating it from the humid region on the east or the arid region on the west, owing to the variance of the mean annual precipitation in many localities. A convenient and easily marked line for the eastern boundary of the arid region is one closely following the hundred and third meridian. On the north it bends away from the meridian toward the west, and on the south tends eastward north of the Rio Grande. On the west the arid region extends to the Pacific Coast in extreme southern California, but from Monterey north there is a narrow belt of semi-arid and humid country bordering the Pacific Ocean. The Coast Range is humid, especially in Oregon and Washington, where the rainfall is as heavy as in any other part of the United States.
FORTY BUSHELS OF WHEAT PER ACRE
Shoshone Project, Wyoming. This was desert land in 1915