The Great Plains region is considered to be a largely homogeneous area physically and culturally. However, it is very diverse in several respects. Many of these misconceptions derive from literature that takes place in this region. Much description of this region often depicts this area as being boring, uniform, very plain, and with very little diversity.
Precipitation is also different in this area. The textbook notes, "In Kansas, for example, average annual precipitation varies from a moist 105 centimeters (42 inches) in the southeast to a semiarid 40 centimeters (16 inches) in the southwest" (236).
According to the text, "The Great Plains as a broader region is substantially an academic invention of the twentieth century. It is an idea used to frame responses to the widespread economic and environmental problems that developed in this part of the United States during the Depression of the 1930s. Built on the powerful image of "the Great American Desert" and reinforced by literature and film, the Great Plains entered Americans' conceptual framework of regions" (232).
Most people picture uniform and flat land when they think of the Great Plains. Nevertheless, "...[T]he Great Plains and prairies is that all its residents share the same ethnic background. This, too, like images of a homogeneous physical environment, is not the case" (233).
There are several areas of Washington where there is not as much rain or precipitation as is commonly thought. There are also various differences in its topography, although Seattle overlooks Mt. Rainier.
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