Wearysome to the Eyes: The Great American Desert

It was a part of Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase, that area west of the 100th Meridian we now call the Great Plain. Early explorers reported the area could not be farmed and it’s best use was a handy barrier between the U.S. and the Spanish holdings to the south. American writer Washington Irving deemed it “wearysome to the eyes,” for it’s flat, treeless nature. It was labeled the Great American Desert, although you won’t find it listed that way on current maps.