National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: Wilderness and American Identity: Challenge of the Arid West
This site from the National Humanities Center provides the story of the struggle to inhabit the West in spite of the dry climate. With questions for student discussion, online resources, scholars debate and bibliography.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: North American Monsoon
NASA tracked rainfall and soil moisture for a three-month period in 1993 to confirm that these rain patterns were indeed a monsoon. Watch this animation to see the relationship between soil moisture and rainfall in the Southwest U.S. By...
Other
University of Vermont: Rocky Mountain Forests
Contains brief descriptions of tree species which can be found at various elevational gradients: Subalpine, Montane, Woodland Zone, and Black Hills. These same types of forests would have greeted early settlers to the area.