Prairie madness

were at least half a mile apart, but usually much more.[1]

There was little settlement and community on the Plains
and settlers had to be almost completely self-sucient.

For the 1970s band, see Prairie Madness

(band).

The lack of quick and easily available transportation was

also a cause of prairie madness; settlers were far apart
from one another and they could not see their neighbors or
get to town easily. Those who had family back on the East
coast could not visit their families without embarking on
a long journey. Settlers were very alone. This isolation
also caused problems with medical care; it took such a
long time to get to the farms that when children fell sick
they frequently died.[3] This caused a lot of trauma for the
parents, and contributed to prairie madness.
Another major cause of prairie madness was the harsh
weather and environment of the Plains, including long,
cold winters lled with blizzards followed by short, hot
summers. Once winter came, it seemed that all signs of
life such as plants, and animals had disappeared. Farmers would be stuck in their houses under several feet of
snow when the blizzards struck, and the family would be
cramped inside for days at a time.[4] There were few trees,
and the at land stretched out for miles and miles. Some
settlers specically spoke of the wind that rushed through
the prairie, which was loud, forceful, and alien compared
to what settlers had experienced in their former lives.[1]

A store in Grand Forks, ND in 1880

Prairie madness or prairie fever was an aiction that

aected western European settlers in the Great Plains
during the migration to, and settlement of, the Canadian
Prairies & the Western United States in the nineteenth
century. Settlers moving from urbanized or relatively settled areas in the East faced the risk of mental breakdown
caused by the harsh living conditions and the extreme levels of isolation on the prairie. Symptoms of prairie madness included depression, withdrawal, changes in character and habit, and violence. Prairie madness sometimes
resulted in the aicted person moving back East or, in
extreme cases, suicide.

Many stayed very attached to their way of life back East,

and their attempts to make their new homes in the West
adhere to the old ways, sometimes triggered prairie madness. Others tried to adapt to the entirely new way of life,
and abandoned the old ways, but still fell victim to madPrairie madness is not a clinical condition; rather, it ness. Some coping mechanisms to escape the emotional
is a pervasive subject in writings of ction and non- trauma of moving to the prairie was to continually move
ction from the period to describe a fairly common phe- around to new locations, or to move back East.[4]
nomenon. It was described by E.V. Smalley in 1893: an
alarming amount of insanity occurs in the new Prairie Immigrants were particularly at risk for prairie madness.
Immigrant families not only had to suer from isolation,
States among farmers and their wives.[1][2]
but the settlers who lived in their area often had dierent
languages and customs. As such, this was an even further separation from society. Immigrant families were
1 Causes and risk factors
also hard-hit by prairie madness because they came from
communities in Europe that were very close-knit small
Prairie madness was caused by the isolation and tough villages and life on the prairie was a terrible shock for
living conditions on the Prairie. The level of isolation de- them.[1]
pended on the topography and geography of the region.
There is a debate between scholars as to whether the conMost examples of prairie madness come from the Great
dition aected women more than men, although there
Plains region. One explanation for these high levels of
is documentation of both cases in both ction and nonisolation was the Homestead Act of 1862. This act stipction from the nineteenth century. Women and men
ulated that a person would be given a tract of 160 acres
each had dierent manifestations of the disease, women
if they were able to live on it and make something out of
turning towards social withdrawal and men to violence.[4]
it in a ve-year period. The farms of the Homestead Act
1

5 THE DECLINE OF PRAIRIE MADNESS

Symptoms

Since prairie madness does not refer to a clinical term,

there is no specic set of symptoms of the aiction.
However, the descriptions of prairie madness in historical
writing, personal accounts, and Western literature elucidate what some of the eects of the disease were.
The symptoms of prairie madness were similar to those of
depression. The women aected by prairie madness were
said to show symptoms such as crying, slovenly dress, and
withdrawal from social interactions. Men also showed
signs of depression, which sometimes manifested in violence. Prairie madness was not unique from other types Great Plains of Nebraska
of depression, but the harsh conditions on the prairie triggered this depression, and it was dicult to overcome
illness culminates when he murders his wife and her lover,
without getting o of the prairie.[4]
and has a complete breakdown.[4]
In extreme cases, the depression would lead to mental
breakdown. This could lead to suicide. There are theories In Cathers My Antonia, the pressures of the new life are
that the suicides caused by prairie madness were typically too much for Mr. Shimerda, who kills himself before the
committed by women, and performed in an exhibitionist winter is nished. The nearest Catholic priest is too far
fashion.[3] Prairie madness did not typically lead to sui- away for last rites. He is buried without formal rites at
cide, and this is depicted more in ctional stories than it the corner marker of their homestead, a place that is left
alone when the territory is later marked out with section
is seen in the historical record.[4]
lines and roads.
Scarboroughs 1925 novel The Wind depicts a woman affected by prairie madness triggered by incessant wind,
3 In ction
blinding blizzards, and social isolation of a new wife uncommitted to her marriage in a brutally masculine social
Prairie madness is used in literature of the period as a
milieu.
dramatic device, or to move the plot along. The madness
is depicted in many dierent novels, some of the most notable include Willa Cathers O Pioneers! and My Antonia,
Amelia Meullers There Have to be Six, Sonora Babbs An 4 In non-ction
Owl on Every Post, O. E. Rolvaags Giants in the Earth,
Dorothy Sarboroughs The Wind.,[4] and most recently, The prairie madness of non-ction, seen in diaries and
"The Homesman" by Glendon Swarthout.
historical accounts, is not the same as is depicted in cEach of these novels contains characters that are aected tion. Rather than a long brewing madness it is a short,
and more comby prairie madness. Rolvaags 1927 Giants in the Earth eeting depression. It is more prevalent[4]
plex
in
non-ction,
though
rarely
fatal.
Examples of
chronicles the story of Norwegian immigrants settling in
prairie
madness
in
non-ction
include
Adela
Orpens acthe Dakotas in the 1870s. One of the characters, Beret,
count
Memories
of
the
Old
Emigrant
Days
in Kansas,
is a young girl who has a typical case of prairie madness.
1862-1865,
and
Mollie:
The
Journal
of
Mollie
Dorsey
She feels guilty for leaving her parents in Norway, and
Sanford
in
Nebraska
and
Colorado
Territories.
Descripis frightened by life on the Plains. She believes that she
has sinned by leaving her home to start this new life and tions of prairie madness in accounts by historians are
that God is using the Plains to punish her. Beret becomes found in Daniel J. Boorstin's The Americans: The Demoand Walter Prescott Webbs The Great
depressed and withdraws from social life. Her husband cratic Experience
[4]
Plains.
Per Hansa specically mentions the terrible eect the
weather of the Plains, especially blizzards, had on Berets
mental health.[4]
Cathers 1913 work, O Pioneers!, tells a story of the effect of prairie madness on men, in this case a Swedish
immigrant family living on the Plains. The book depicts
the life of Frank Shabata, a settler. Shabatas downfall
begins when he moves from his city life onto a farm, and
he is frustrated by the life he is forced to live. Over time,
he becomes angered by minor issues and gets to the point
where everyone is frightened by his instability. Shabatas

5 The decline of prairie madness

Prairie madness virtually disappears from the historical
and literary record during the 20th century. This was
likely the result of new modes of communication and
transportation that arose during the late 19th and early
20th century. These included the increase in railroad
lines, the invention and increasing usage of both the tele-

Great Plains, west of Kearney, Nebraska

phone and automobile, and further settlement leading to

the closing of the frontier, as described by renowned
American Western historian Frederick Jackson Turner.[1]

Prairie madness in popular culture

Despite the ambiguity of the history of prairie madness,

it has appeared in popular culture recently, in the 2008
made-for-TV movie Prairie Fever,[5] and in the 2014 feature The Homesman.[6]

See also
Agoraphobia
Cabin fever

References

[1] Boorstin, Daniel (1973). The Americans: The Democratic

Experience. New York: Random House. pp. 120125.
[2] Rich, Nathaniel. Insane in the Plains. The Daily Beast.
Retrieved 27 February 2013.
[3] Majors, John (May 1968). It Was Hell on Horses and
Women. Real West Magazine: 810.
[4] Meldrum, Barbara Howard (1985). Men, Women, and
Madness: Pioneer Plains Literature. In Underwood,
June. Under the Sun: Myth and Realism in Western American Literature. Troy, NY: The Whitson Publishing Company. pp. 5161.
[5] Prairie Fever. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 9
April 2013.
[6] The Homesman. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved
25 September 2016.

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