Britannica Web Sites
Articles from Britannica encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
- Great Plains - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
At the heart of the North American continent lies a vast expanse of land that was once known as the Great American Desert. Today it is called the Great Plains, a high plateau of grassland stretching from the Rio Grande in the south to the delta where the MacKenzie River enters the Arctic Ocean in the north. The western boundary is the Rocky Mountains. The eastern boundary is harder to define because it is not as visible. But a line drawn on a map from Brownsville, Tex., in the south through Winnipeg, Man., in the north, serves as an approximate boundary.