Editing Oregon Trail (section)

===Great American Desert===
[[File:Trail ruts State Hist site Wyoming.jpg|thumb|[[Oregon Trail Ruts|Trail ruts]] near Guernsey, Wyoming]]

Reports from expeditions in 1806 by Lieutenant [[Zebulon Pike]] and in 1819 by Major [[Stephen Harriman Long|Stephen Long]] described the [[Great Plains]] as "unfit for human habitation" and as "The [[Great American Desert]]". These descriptions were mainly based on the relative lack of timber and surface water. The images of sandy wastelands conjured up by terms like "desert" were tempered by the many reports of vast herds of millions of [[Plains Bison]] that somehow managed to live in this "desert".<ref>It was not until later that the [[Ogallala Aquifer]] was discovered and used for irrigation, dry farming techniques developed and rail tracks laid.</ref> In the 1840s, the Great Plains appeared to be unattractive for settlement and were illegal for homesteading until well after 1846—initially, it was set aside by the U.S. government for Native American settlements. The next available land for general settlement, Oregon, appeared to be free for the taking and had fertile lands, disease-free climate ([[yellow fever]] and [[malaria]] were then prevalent in much of the Missouri and [[Mississippi River]] drainage), extensive forests, big rivers, potential seaports, and only a few nominally British settlers.