Women On the Trail and On the Farm
Man Directing a Two-horse Plow
On the Move in a Wagon
Covered Wagons
Immigrants Flock to Iowa
Why Move to Iowa?
Come to Iowa
Immigrant Transportation
Pioneers Travel in Groups
Early Travelers Face Danger
Pioneers Leave Civilization
Fence Making on the Frontier
Prairie Fires on the Frontier
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Prairie Fires on the Frontier
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Time Frame: 1800's
In the 1800s prairie fires were common occurrences. They swept across the land wiping out everything in their paths.
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Transcript
There was no fence that could stay the prairie fires that raged across the open land. They were a nature part of the prairie life cycle, but they could easily wipe out everything a settler had worked for. They burned so fast that neither man nor horse could outrun them. The open landscape offered little protect against the high winds that fanned the flames. All the settler could do was to plow a firebreak of three or four parallel furrows around the farm and burn off the grass in between.
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