The Last Days of the Rainbelt by David J. Wishart (review)

In The Last Days of the Rainbelt, David Wishart analyzes the rapid settlement and depopulation of the Great Plains. He focuses on the Rainbelt, a region encompassing western Kansas, eastern Colorado, and southwestern Nebraska, in the 1880s and 1890s. Using interviews gathered by the Civil Works Administration in the 1930s, census data, land office records, and climate reports, Wishart creates an intimate historical portrait of a people struggling with the environmental limitations of a harsh region. Abundant maps, charts, and historical photos supplement the text.

After a brief introduction, Wishart provides an extended overview of the settlement geography of the eastern Great Plains from the 1850s through the 1880s. This latitudinal migration from the Midwest populated river valleys in the tallgrass prairie region and was assisted by aggressive railroad expansion. As land seekers continued westward, they encountered the High Plains, a drier land of more frequent and severe droughts.

Chapters 2 through 4 serve as the core of the book as they assess the swift settlement and hurried decline of the Rainbelt. Initially, railroad companies, state officials, and other boosters lobbied potential settlers with the be-lief that settlement would increase rainfall as the prairie was plowed and trees were planted. Public perception that the Rainbelt was real attracted thousands of land seekers to the region’s public and railroad lands in the late 1880s. Precipitation at or above average levels in the mid-1880s furthered the exaggerated claims that increased rainfall was following settlement of the region. This hope was fleeting. A harsh three-year drought in the mid-1890s crushed the myth of the Rainbelt and led to rapid outmigration from the region. Many counties lost between one-third and two-thirds of their population, shattering the social and economic geographies of the region.

The epilogue continues the story of the Rainbelt to the present day. Irrigation from the Ogallala Aquifer and federal payments to keep land out of agricultural production have cushioned the cyclical busts in the region. Wishart, to conclude, notes ominous climate trends in the central Great Plains. Increasing temperatures and decreasing precipitation present additional challenges for the contemporary occupants of the region.

The Last Days of the Rainbelt provides an excellent historical overview of the rapid settlement and abandonment of the High Plains. Wishart’s liberal use of oral histories is a highlight of the book. With its clear narrative and accessible conceptual presentation, the book is suitable for graduate students, upper-division undergraduates, and lay people interested in the region. Wishart’s adept reconstruction of the historical geography of the Rainbelt refocuses public attention on this slighted region and overlooked historical era.