The Great Plains region was a vast region of vacant land ready for westward expansion. The lure of open spaces and inexpensive land was so great that many pioneers risked dangerous conditions to make it to the area. The Great Plains is the section of land extending horizontally from around Illinois towards the Rocky Mountains, including everything from Canada down to Texas. These boundaries set a large amount of land available in this area which helped to attract mass amounts of people to travel and settle on the Great Plains. There were many economic factors that influenced this settlement, including natural resources, farming lands, and transportation.
             With the Great Plains being such a large and unsettled region by Americans, there was an immense amount of potentially profitable land and natural resources available to the population which advanced settlement in the West. Discovery of gold and silver first drew attention to mining in the Plains, but later mining of other resources such as copper, iron, coal, and oil advanced rapidly as well. Many of the people that moved West were driven by the possibility of quick profits that came from resources, so miners flocked to this region. Along with mining, lumber production was another large scale industry dealing with natural resources. The exploitation of the Timber and Stone Act in 1878 attracted lumber companies to the northwestern region of the Plains because it allowed for private citizens to cheaply by 160-acre plots of forest. In addition to minerals and timber, the discovery of rich oil reserves in the Southwest added to the nations sources of fuel already being obtained from the Midwest. These new discoveries of oil later became a vital new source of fuel, although kerosene and oil were mostly only used for lighting and lubrication.
             The arrival of railroads started a large improvement in transportation for the US. Between 1865 and 1890
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