The near extinction of 50 million bison from the American prairie in the 1800's was only a prelude of the changes to come to that vast ecosystem. Man's proliferation and greed extract a heavy price of nature, yet ultimately we pay that price too.

The Great Plains were avoided by settlers until relatively recent times because prairie sod was too dense to plow. But the great modifier would eventually have his way. The steel plow was invented and sodbusters swarmed the prairie like locusts, on foot, horse, and conestoga wagon. They converted the sea of native grasses to amber waves of wheat. The plow was pulled first by oxen, then the internal combustion engine. Meanwhile the deer and the antelope prayed, and payed the price, their numbers reduced to nearly none.

Changes wrought by the plow helped fuel one of history's great ecological disasters, acted out on the stage of America's heartland. Repeated plowing converted the root bound sod of the prairie into fields of unbound dirt, dried by drought and baked by the sun. Everything you need for a Dust Bowl. Fresh from victory in WW 1 and riding the crest of the Roaring 20's, the world's most confident nation abruptly collapsed, beneath a cloud of dust and the pall of depression. A decade later, just when recovery seemed around the corner, Hitler invaded Poland. Enough already!