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This vintage Catapiller sits on display at the Guy Goodwin Education Center in Carrizo Plain national Monument, San Luis Obispo County, California. Cattle were brought to the grasslands of the Carrizo Plain by the early 1850s. The next big change came when dryland grain farmers started homesteading in the valley. Eventually vast amounts of the grassland was put to the plow. The farm work was orignally all done with horse drawn euipment but eventually tractors like this one did the heavy work. The Carrizo Plain gets only 8 to 10 inches of rainfall a year on average but the amount during any given year can be highly unpredictable. The risk of crop failure due to insufficient moisture became to great and most of the farming efforts were abandoned. In the last few decades many of the homesteads were bought and became part of the National Monument which is administered by the BLM.

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Uploaded on December 23, 2020
Taken on November 9, 2020