%0 Journal Article
%T WITH AN EYE TO BETTER OUTCOMES: THE OPENING OF THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI GRAIN BELT MIGHT HAVE BEEN TEMPERED AND MORE GRADUAL
%A Thomas R. Winpenny
%J Essays in Economic & Business History
%D 2003
%I The Economic & Business History Society
%X Though historians and the general public applaud our rugged frontier ancestors who conquered the plains, a rational examination of the data makes it clear that the opening of the Trans-Mississippi grain belt at mid 19th centurywas a mixed blessing at best. More carefully understood, it set the stage for overproduction and diverted capital and labor from industrialization. Today the same land is being abandonned.
%U http://www.ebhsoc.org/journal/index.php/journal/article/view/106