(all rights to this material retained by author)
A Review of the Historic Oil Wells
of the Little Spokane River Valley
&
Regions Around
(part 8)
by
Wally Lee Parker
… the Great
American Desert …
Though
the high plains of the American west aren’t considered desert by modern
standards, after 1803’s Louisiana Purchase the America expeditions sent into
the territory often described these semi-arid grasslands as such. From colonial times through the middle years
of the 19th century, the American public saw no inconsistency in
applying the word ‘desert’ to most any stretch of treeless land not considered
fit for farming. As the 1912 edition of Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History
explained, “The Great American Desert …
was the term used by the people east of the Mississippi River to express their
idea of the country west of that river when it was an unknown land. Carey and Lee’s Atlas of 1827 located the
Great American Desert as an indefinite territory in what is now Colorado,
Kansas, Nebraska, Indian territory, and Texas.
Bradford’s Atlas of 1838 indicates the great desert as extending from
the Arkansas, through into Colorado and Wyoming, including South Dakota, part
of Nebraska and Kansas. Others thought
the desert included an area 500 miles wide lying directly east of the Rocky
Mountains and extending from the northern boundary of the United States to the
Reo Grande River. Its boundaries changed
from period to period for Mitchell’s Atlas of 1840 placed the Great American Desert
west of the Rocky Mountains. The section
shown by the various geographies grew smaller every year until only sandy
plains in Utah and Nevada bore the name desert.”
During
his 1806 expedition into the far western reaches of the Louisiana Purchase, Lieutenant
Zebulon Pike thought so little of the area’s potential that he wrote, “… our citizens … will through necessity be
constrained to limit their extent to the west to the borders of the Missouri
and Mississippi while they leave the prairies incapable of cultivation to the
wandering and uncivilized aborigines ...”
On
a map published in 1822’s Historical,
Chronological, and Geographical American Atlas, a notation from Major
Stephen H. Long’s 1820 expedition into the then far western territory was
printed over the area that would eventually become the State of Nebraska. This notation is often cited as the original application of the phrase “the Great Desert” to the region. The map’s overprint goes on to describe the
area as “frequented by roaming bands of Indians who have no fixed place of
residence but roam from place to place in quest of game.” Long’s meaning can better be understood when
observing that in other writings he characterized the western grasslands of the
Great Plains as having “a manifest
resemblance to the deserts of Siberia.”
In
1836, American novelist, essayist, and historian Washington Irving further
embedded the term ‘desert’ into America’s visualization of these western
territories when he wrote, “This region
which resembles one of the ancient steppes of Asia has not inaptly been termed
‘The Great American Desert.’ It spreads
forth into undulating and treeless plains and desolate sandy wastes, wearisome
to the eye from their extent and monotony.
It is a land where no man permanently abides, for at certain seasons of
the year there is not food for the hunter or his steed.”
This
then was the impression Professor Samuel Aughey and his associates had to
overcome in order to sell the western Great Plains to potential settlers as an
agricultural paradise just waiting for the plow. After all, for the most part there were no
forests to clear away as farmers east of the Mississippi often had to do. No stumps needing to be ripped from the
ground. No vast reaches of hefty stones
needing to be gathered and stacked into windrows. It should have just been a matter of turning
the wild grasses under, dropping in the seeds, and waiting for rain.
In
other words, the only thing of residual concern for settlers intent on putting
a plow to the prairie was the weather.
Among
the first in America to seriously investigate weather as a natural phenomenon
was founding father Benjamin Franklin.
Franklin advanced a number of weather related hypothesis based on his
observations. He also carried out
scientific experiments — perhaps the most spectacular being his investigations
into the nature of lightning.
Regarding
Franklin, an article by John Coleman Adams in the October, 1892, issue of
Popular Science Monthly states that a set of observations Franklin recorded in
the late 1740’s were “... probably the
earliest literature on the subject of North American Storms … the first
documents of scientific value in the long series of observations and of studies
which have brought us to our present … knowledge.” Adams also noted that “Undoubtedly” (the usual
direction of storms over the colonies) “had been observed before by fishermen, by
mariners, and others accustom to the practical observation of the weather. But this is the initial point of its
treatment as a scientific phenomenon.”
The
movement toward compiling a nationwide meteorological database began in April
of 1814 when then “Physician and Surgeon-General
of the Army,” James Tilton, directed army surgeons to record the local
weather at their hospitals. As for the rationale
behind having doctors keep data on the weather; soon after his appointment to
the office of Surgeon-General of the Army in 1818, Joseph Lovell submitted for
approval this directive to the then Secretary of War, J. C. Calhoun. “Every
physician who makes a science of his profession or arrives at eminence in it
will keep a journal of this nature, as the influence of weather and climate
upon diseases, especially epidemic, is perfectly well known. From the circumstances of the soldier, their
effects upon diseases of the Army are peculiarly interesting, as by proper
management they may in a great measure be obviated. To this end every surgeon should be furnished
with a good thermometer, and in addition to a diary of the weather, should note
everything relative to the topography of his station, the climate, complaints
prevalent in the vicinity, etc., that may tend to discover the causes of
diseases, to the promotion of health, and the improvement of medical science.”
A
paper read to Chicago’s International Meteorological Congress of 1893 clearly
stated, “Meteorological science in the
United States was conceived and brought forth by the Army Medical
Department. It was nurtured carefully as
well in the then unknown West as in the East, and it gained strength year by
year. … The Weather Service of the United States may well be said to be the
child of the Army Medical Department.”
That
paper’s presenter, Major Charles Smart, noted that the first results of the
Army’s record keeping was published in 1826 in a volume titled, “Meteorological Register for the years
1822-’25.” This volume was only the
first. Still, even by that early date
the rationale for collection the data had already expanded far beyond
epidemiology. And the tools the doctors
used had expanded to include a barometer, wet-bulb hygrometer, rain gauge, and
a set of detailed, standardized instructions for obtaining readings. As Smart’s 1893 paper went on to explain, “The meteorological tables in this (1826)
volume were intended as a contribution and stimulus to the solution of the
question whether, in a series of years, there is any material change in the climate
of a country and, if so, how far it depends upon the cultivation of the soil,
density of population, etc.; for at the time of publication contradictory
opinions were held, some contending that as population increased and civilization
extended the climate became warmer, others that it became colder, and others
again that here was no change.”
For
much of human history, all weather had been local. Observed changes in weather patterns from
year to year was only a matter of personal recollection for the most part. As for the cause of those yearly changes, the
tendency was to look locally as well. As
large tracks of woodland in the eastern United States were being cleared for
farming, yearly weather variations were often related to readily observable
occurrences such as the smoke rising from burning slash or the increasing
number of fireplaces. If the weather became
warmer or colder, wetter or dryer, the actual reason for the change made little difference since some local event or chain of events was
assumed to be the cause. Associating
local temperatures, wind intensity and direction, or rainfall with the surface
temperature of ocean water thousands of miles away was inconceivable to the
average citizen — still, by the second quarter of the 19th century the
thought that weather was global in causality had become a seedling hypothesis
shared a small but growing cadre of the world's scientists.
But
then, with the establishment of the first commercial telegraph in 1845, the
idea held by the general public that all weather was local began to peel away. Professor Joseph Henry, secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution, noted in his 1847 proposal that the Smithsonian devote
increased resources to meteorological research — “Of late years, in our country, more additions have been made to
meteorology than to any other branch of physical science. Several important generalizations have been
arrived at and definite theories proposed which now enable us to direct our
attention with scientific precision to such points of observation as cannot
fail to reward us with new and interesting results.” Professor Henry proposed the Smithsonian “… organize a system of …” observation
stations “… which shall extend as far as
possible over the North American continent.
The present time appears to be peculiarly auspicious for commencing an
enterprise of the proposed kind. The
citizens of the United States are now scattered over every part of the southern
and western portions of North America, and the extended lines of the telegraph
will furnish a ready means of warning the more northern and eastern observers
to be on the watch for the first appearance of advancing storm.”
The
impact of adding electromagnetic communication technology to the
meteorologist’s bag of tools was noted by Cleveland Abbe in an 1871 Journal of Science and Arts article on
weather telegraphy, “It was … possible to
study with advantage the progress of atmospheric changes only when the
telegraph lines had become widely extended over the earth’s surface. It was through the public press — the daily
newspapers — that it first became possible to watch the hourly progress of
storms under one’s own eye, and to confirm the general laws independently
deduced from the closet (— not generally seen —) studies of the professional meteorologist.”
By the mid 1870’s, when Professor Samuel Aughey began aggressively advancing his theories regarding the ability of local agriculture to impact
local weather, enough progress had been made in the study of weather to make
any theory postulating that increasing the local acreage under tillage could
substantial increase the amount of rain falling over that local acreage highly
suspect. Professor Aughey, apparently
well connected to the Smithsonian and a number of other highly respected scientific
institutions, should have been well aware of thinking within the meteorological
community on such matters — mainstream thinking that had already by-in-large
discarded the type of hypothesis Aughey was putting forth.
… to be
continued …
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