Germans who had farmed the Russian steppe brought their hard winter wheat and their steppe-tested skills to the plains, settling the central counties in enduring numbers.
One of the plains' most distinctive settler groups had already made one great migration before it made another. The Germans from Russia were the descendants of German farmers who had settled the Russian steppe generations earlier; when conditions there soured, they crossed the ocean and took up homesteads on the northern plains, which reminded them powerfully of the steppe they had left.
A People Twice Immigrant
They came superbly prepared for the country. They knew dryland farming, they knew hard winters, and they brought with them the hardy winter wheats and steppe-tested methods that suited the plains far better than the practices of settlers from wetter lands. They settled the central counties thickly and farmed them well.
From the almanac's reckoning:
- The Germans from Russia had earlier farmed the Russian steppe.
- They brought hardy winter wheat and dryland farming know-how.
- Distinctive iron grave crosses mark many of their cemeteries.
Their culture — the food, the music, the Catholic and Protestant congregations, the distinctive iron grave crosses of their cemeteries — remains a strong thread in the plains fabric. The almanac counts the Germans from Russia among the settlers best fitted to the land they chose.
Elsewhere in the Almanac
Statehood at Last: North Dakota Joins the Union in 1889
After decades as a territory, the northern half of Dakota entered the Union as a state in 1889, its admission so entwined with its southern twin that the order was deliberately obscured.
The Métis and the Red River Carts of Pembina
At Pembina in the north, the Métis people forged a distinct culture of the buffalo hunt and the trade trail, their squealing wooden carts once a familiar sight across the plains.
The Powwow and the Living Culture of the Plains Nations
Far from a relic, the powwow endures as a vibrant celebration of song, dance and community among the plains nations, drawing dancers and drums from across the continent.