Pioneers of the Plains (1941)

it is the year 1870 and the great American planes offer a vast open region for a new tide of settlement with few streams and little water the planes are nonetheless rich in deep fertile soil and there is room here room for a man to farm room to carve out a new life room to breathe at least that's how the Carter Family see it theirs is a pioneer heritage for their forebears it was on to Ohio then Indiana and Illinois and now it is the western plains that beckon once it was the packhorse later the flatboat now it is oxen and wagons that carry the pioneers west the father for her Tippecanoe the son was with me at Gettysburg the mother confronted forest trails the daughter faces the lonely plains and for the Carter children there are frontiers yet unknown the American faith travels West buried in the Prairie schooner there are pauses in the journey each night pioneers and oxen must have rest and food and water thus while mother and children prepare a supper of long familiar cornmeal mush father leaves the weary oxen to the banks of a nearby stream and now with supper nearly ready mr. Carter ties the animals to a tethering stake for the night and joins in the simple meal long days on the trail make the hardiest food most welcome but from a distant Ridge settler mr. Crawford notices the Carter camp that means a visit ma see them campers over there I think we ought to take something to them it is lonely on the plains in 1870 very lonely news from back east is always welcome to settle is like the Crawfords a visit to a newcomer is to relive their own journey west and 24 seeing needs and emergencies that will confront on coming pioneers strangers in all but they're sharing of a common heritage and the common destiny established settlers and new arrivals greet each other with warmth and genuine friendship we saw your camp from the house and kind of wanted to come over and talk gets awful lonesome out here I'd you came come over sit down yes it is good to be with one's own kind again where are you from Illinois how long you been on the way about eight weeks now yes my husband filed a claim last spring and came back for the children and me and you I you'll find things very different out here yes I imagine we will so friendly top goes on around the Carter campfire until with the setting of the Sun over the darkening Prairie vastness there comes a request for music music that he races the solitude of the plains the days pass and steadily the Carters press on westward only a little distance now to the claim already coming into view but new trials lie ahead cattlemen have long considered the plains their land for grazing their vast herds of cattle aimin to settle around here mr. see that cornfield right over there that's mine this year's cattle and it's no good for farming have you seen my crop of corn no but this is all X borrow grazing land that's not what my claim stakes say well partner is the saying goes I guess you just have to live and learn not very pleasant words to hear but those who have faced repeated dangers and privations for their staunch pioneer faith are not easily shaken in their resolve and now finally the long journey in after nearly three months the Carters our own soil bounded by claim stakes driven last spring past are the hazards of the trail unknown streams that very monotony of day after day under the Blazing Sun they have come through all in safety the soil is there ahead of them lies the life of pioneers they will build their future here on the prairies by hard work by unwavering courage and the mutual helpfulness necessary to carve a living out of the virgin prairie for their present home they will use the small dugout built last spring by Carter during the planting and cultivation of the first crop of corn that corn is now ripened and almost ready for the harvest it is corn heavy with mature ears a good first crop brings the reassurance that success may attend their new venture that they may depend on a rich friendly soil to sustain life for the new home the plowed sod of the fertile soil furnishes most of the material tough Prairie sod plowed and cut into lengths will supply materials for walls and roof materials that will make a substantial house with sod laid carefully a thick wall Rose layer by layer each section smooth before another is placed upon it the pioneer spirit of helpfulness prevails mr. Lewis and his son are neighbors experienced in sod house construction and the walls grow upward to the ridgepole of cedar brought from a nearby canyon sod walls smoothly trimmed will shed rain well will be less easily eroded by the win on the plains lumber is precious a few slabs brought from a distance sawmill form frames for windows and doors and the luxury of more lumber is a roof foundation assures a minimum of leakage there at once the new home is circled by a fire guard to ploughed rings of several furrows each between these two cloud paths Carter burns the grass and thus protects the house from the dreaded prairie fire but a gap formed by the blackened barren area within the completed sod house mrs. Carter has set up housekeeping walls are plastered shelves are decorated the little round stove is the center of the household for cooking and when winter comes it will afford protection against howling blizzards fuel of any kind to the premium only prairie grass occasional twigs aside from the ever-present Buffalo chips the collecting of these forms a considerable part of each day's routine for Irene and names again at corn harvest the Lewises offer that helpfulness and exchange of labor which on the frontier soon became accustomed cooperation here is a necessity today on his return from the purchase of a horse Paul Carter has gained another acquaintance a venerable circuit riding Minister the Reverend mr. Henson whose parish is broad and vaguely limited here on the windswept plains the outposts of Western civilization are already rapidly being organized into a society as new settlers continue to arrive in the Prairie loneliness The ministers visits will always be timely I'll have dinner ready soon and you will be more than welcome they tell me you're gonna have a new school around here yes putting up a building down there about two miles children be starting in soon you know they love to see a lot of changes in this section yes I guess they will but i don't think the land will ever change much not the prairies Paul maybe brother Hanson here would like to hear some music yes ma'am we need music out here music to talk loneliness music to sustain the high courage needed by dauntless pioneers in their conquest of the plane