Great Plains

Great Plains
The Great Plains States
Region
View of the Great Plains near Lincoln, Nebraska
Countries	United States, Canada
Coordinates	37°N 97°W / 37°N 97°W / 37; -97Coordinates: 37°N 97°W / 37°N 97°W / 37; -97
Length	3,200 km (1,988 mi)
Width	800 km (497 mi)
Area	1,300,000 km2 (501,933 sq mi)
Approximate extent of the Great Plains

The Great Plains is the broad expanse of flat land (a plain), much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, that lies west of the Mississippi River tallgrass prairie states and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts, but not all, of the states of Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming, Minnesota, Iowa and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The region is known for supporting extensive cattle ranching and dry farming.

The Canadian portion of the Plains is known as the Prairies. Some geographers include some territory of northern Mexico in the Plains, but many stop at the Rio Grande.

The term "Great Plains" is used in the United States to describe a sub-section of the even more vast Interior Plains physiographic division, which covers much of the interior of North America. It also has currency as a region of human geography, referring to the Plains Indians or the Plains States.