The Imagined Landscape | Illumination

The Imagined Landscape. Story by Bob Thomas.

Many physical geographers would not think of examining agricultural streams or ditches because they do not see them as natural, Urban says. This is a mistake because, as he puts it, man-made streams and ditches still function according to the laws of physics. The only difference is that they are intensively modified by people through either individual behavior or institutional behavior.

"It is disingenuous for environmental scientists to only examine natural systems or pristine systems or systems untouched by people. The systems that are most relevant to society are those impacted by people," Urban says. "If society values the exploitation of resources and landscapes, then there must be some sort of societal recognition that the consequences are long lasting."

Urban weaves his historical story in rich detail. In the early 19th century, the Grand Prairie, with its three-foot-tall grass and deep swamps, was seen as an uninviting, dangerous locale. Europeans had feared such places for centuries. "In medieval vision literature, hell is often portrayed as a frozen swamp," Urban writes. "English settlers in New England saw these landscapes as 'clearly sinister.' Settlers arriving in east central Illinois for the first time invoked many of these popular images to explain the awe-inspiring sight of the unbroken prairie."

In addition, Native Americans, mostly the Kickapoo tribe, hunted game and foraged for food across the Illinois prairie. Since Native Americans were often thought ungodly, white settlers considered native familiarity with the land as a sign that the prairie was evil as well.

Indeed, travel through the area was not for the "faint of heart." One early visitor, Samuel Burton, recounted how green-headed flies covered his horse's coat so completely that the unfortunate creature had to be "skinned with a knife" to remove the bloodthristy insects.

Over time, however, the lure of cheap land and the dawning realization that prairie soil was fertile changed earlier perceptions. This new point of view, in turn, opened the door to implementation of new drainage technologies. These physically altered landscape, reworking it to fit farmers' ideas about how productive farmland should look.

Now that the "giant emporium of malaria" has become "the breadbasket of the nation," residents have moved to permanently secure this new understanding of what the prairie should be by passing rules and laws, establishing drainage commissions and empowering environmental enforcement agencies. Nearly 90 percent of Illinois prairie wetlands have been drained. Nearly all the tall-grass prairies have been plowed under.

Published by the Office of Research.