Early pioneers found the vast Great Plains a daunting sight. Accustomed to the forests and the cultivated lands of the east, the prairie stretched before them with nothing but tall grasses as far as the eye could see. Only an occasional river or small hill broke the sameness. Charles Dickens called it “the great blank” and said it was “oppressive in its monotony.” Rudyard Kipling wrote, “I see the grass shake in the sun for leagues on either hand. I see a river loop and run about a treeless land.” Prairie grass and bluestem grew taller than a person on horseback and seemed to stretch endlessly. Even after pioneers began to move into the west, the Great Plains remained an intimidating place with widely separated farms connected only by primitive dirt trails.
It was easy for people on the prairie to lose their way. Being lost on the prairie held a certain sense of romance for those who had never experienced it. A.J. Miller’s 1851 painting “The Lost Greenhorn” depicts a man on horseback surveying the plains as he tries to find his way home. A William McGonagall poem tells of workmen lost in the snow. Max Plowman penned a poem about a horse leading men safely home in a snowstorm.
But there was nothing romantic about the experience for anyone actually lost on the prairie. On this date in 1912 the Wahpeton Times told a tragic story of a nine-year-old girl and a twelve-year-old boy who had stayed out late stacking wood. It had gotten dark as they made their way home. They wandered for hours, and the girl became exhausted. She couldn’t go any farther and lay down. Her brother covered her with his coat and continued on his way, trying reach home.
It is easy to imagine how frantic their mother was. At first light she went outside and fired her gun in the air. The boy heard the shots and hurried to the house. It had rained all night and he was soaked. He was severely chilled, and his feet were frostbitten, but he immediately led his mother to his sister. They found her where she died, huddled under her brother’s coat.
Dakota Datebook written by Carole Butcher
Sources:
Wahpeton Times. “Girl Died While Lost on the Prairie.” 21 November 1912. Wahpeton ND. Page 1.
PBS. “Homes on the Prairie.” http://www.pbs.org/ktca/farmhouses/homesprairie.html Accessed 26 October 2018.
McGonagall Online. “Lost on the Prairie.” http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk/gems/lost-on-the-prairie Accessed 26 October 2018.
