Chapter 8

The Great Lakes States

  • The flat Central Plains, which cover all twelve Midwestern states, lack the spectacular peaks of the other regions.
  • Universal manhood suffrage—the right of every adult man to vote, regardless of his wealth, education, or beliefs.
  • The five Great Lakes make up the largest body of fresh water in the world.
  • The Great Lakes states have rich farmland and major port cities on the Great Lakes Plain.
  • Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois earned the title of the Corn Belt.
  • Good farmland covers the west of Ohio on the till plains.
  • Ancient Indian civilizations built magnificent Indian mounds.
  • The Land of Lincoln has become the central state of the Midwest, with the largest population, the largest city, and the largest railroad center and airport.
  • Chicago’s most renowned religious figure is Dwight L. Moody, who moved there from Boston in 1856 hoping to strike it rich.

The Great Lakes States (con.)

  • The Dairy Belt land is not as good for farms, partly because of the cold and partly because of the soils. Unable to produce more valuable crops, farmers grow hay and raise herds of dairy cattle on pastureland.
  • The Dairy Belt stretches all the way across the northern Great Lakes region, from Vermont and New York in the east to Minnesota in the west.
  • Michigan is the only state with shoreline on four Great Lakes.
  • Detroit is the Automotive Capital of the World.
  • The western half of the Upper Peninsula rises into the Superior Uplands, a plateau that continues west into Minnesota.
  • The coniferous trees of the North Woods cover the uplands.
  • Wisconsin accounts for about one-quarter of all the cheese produced nationally and leads the nation in beer production.

The Heartland

  • The Gateway Arch at St. Louis, Missouri, the largest monument in the nation, marks the spot where thousands of pioneers launched into the western frontier.
  • The Missouri-born novelist Samuel Clemens, better known by his pen name, Mark Twain, celebrated famous scenes from frontier life on the Mississippi River.
  • The sparsely populated Ozark Plateau covers the southern half of Missouri.
  • Missouri is proud of President Harry S. Truman, born in a tiny southern town near Springfield.
  • Iowa produces more corn than any other state and raises about one-quarter of the nation’s hogs.
  • Drift—deep soil possibly deposited by glaciers
  • Bluffs—steep riverbanks
  • With the rise of modern industry, Minnesota became the distribution center for the iron mines in Mesabi Range southwest of Duluth.

The Heartland (con.)

  • Farmers of the Great Plains found that they could grow wheat-a grass that requires much less rain than corn-converting this region into the nation’s Wheat Belt.
  • Kansas leads the nation in winter wheat, which is planted in the fall, grows for a short time before it is blanketed by snow, and then finishes growing in the spring or summer.
  • Nebraska is the only state with a unicameral (one house) legislature.
  • One of America’s great heroes came from Nebraska. William Jennings Bryan, a strong Christian and eloquent speaker, almost won the presidency in 1896.
  • The initiative allows the people to propose new laws by gathering signatures from voters.
  • The referendum allows the people to vote directly on new laws, without going through legislators.
  • The Great Plains extend across the west of South Dakota.
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