soil and there is room here room for amanda farm room to carve out a new live room to breathe at least that's how the carter family see it there pioneer heritage for their forebears it was onto a while then indiana and illinois and now it is the western plains that back and once it was the pack horse later the flatboat now it nearly ready mr carter ties the animals to whatever ngs take for the night and joins in the simple meal long days on the trail make the hardiest food most welcome but from a distan settler mr crawford notices the carter camp that means a visit see them campers over there i think we ought to take something to them it is lonely on the plains in eighteen seventy very lonely news from back east is always welcome disappears like the crawfords a visit to a newcomer i you're from illinois how long you've been on the way about eight weeks now yes my husband found his claim last spring and came back for the children in july you'll find things very different out here yeah i imagine you've now so friendly talk goes on around the carter camp fire until with the setting of the sun over the darkening prairie vastness there comes a request for music music that erases the solitude of the plane 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 the naral but this is all export grazing land that's not my claim so excited well partner is a say in gold i guess you just have to live and learn not very pleasant words to he the soil bounded by claim stakes driven last spring past are the hazards of the trail unknown streams the very monotonous of day after day under the blazing sun they have come through all ss 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 substantial house with sod laid carefully a thick grove rose layer by layer each section smooth before another is placed upon the pioneer spirit of helpfulness prevail mr lewis and his son are neighbors experienced in saw the house construction and the woes grow up word to the ridgepole of cedar brought from a nearby canyon sodden walls smoothly printed will shed rain well will be less easily eroded by the stove is the center of the household for cooking and when winter comes it will afford protection against howling blizzards here well of any kind is at a premium only prairie grass occasional twigs aside from the ever present soon became a custom glop aeration here is a necessity today on his return from the purchase of a horse carter has again another acquaintance a venerable circuit riding minister the reverend mr hanson 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 minister's visits will always be timely i'm having dinner ready soon and you'll be more than welcome enough 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 prairie