A Sea of Grass

A Sea of Grass. . When the wind blew it looked like waves upon the sea. This was the sight that greeted the explorers and then later settlers to southwestern Minnesota. Home for centuries to American Indians, this was a unique sight to people from the forested eastern United States. Stretching from Illinois to the Rocky Mountains was grass growing up to six feet high, broken with scattered trees near lakes and streams, this land lay waiting to be tilled., Called the prairie, which is a French word for meadow, this expanse is duplicated in few other parts of the world; including the pampas of Argentina, and the Black Earth Belt of Russia. There are three types of prairie, the short grass, the mix grass and the tall grass prairie. It was the tall grass prairie that covered southwestern Minnesota where three grasses grasses dominated. They were the Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardi), Indian Grass (Sorghastrum nutans) and Switch Grass (Panicum virgatum)., Pollen records appear to indicate that prairies were established following the retreat of the Wisconsin Glacier some 18,000 years ago. The pattern of grass was maintained over the following years by moisture or lack thereof, fires, and the fact that once a prairie sod is established it is hard for other seedlings to compete. Today the prairie remains only in small patches in reserves or untillable areas. Most of the trees you see were planted as shelter belts by the homesteaders and later farmers. Although the prairie disappeared after nourishing the buffalo (bison) for years, it still continues to nourish. The rich farmlands of the corn belt, that help feed the nation, are the direct result of thousands of years of rotted grass roots.