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To: UNGN

Some had the wheel... for used it mainly for toys. But lacking animals large enough to be suitable for pulling carts across rough ground [which would require large all-terrain wheels], while having waterways in abundance [the Mississippi/Ohio/Missouri’s drainage basin is huge compared to the smaller waterways of Europe] upon which to paddle canoes of all sizes and transport everything in trade, there wasn’t much call for the wheel, though there were also overland trails, some of which our highway system still follows. If they had horses or domesticated cattle the wheel would have been practical and would have been used beyond just a toy, but about the only animal in the temperate parts of North America that could be used to pull a load was the dog, thanks to the loss of megafauna. On rough ground and fording shallow streams there are fewer hassles with a dog pulling a travois than if there had been little red wagons....and good luck trying to contain, breed and domesticate bison for use when it was easier and more profitable to make a dugout.

[In South America there were alpaca and llamas but again the wheel was impractical on narrow mountain trails so they were used as pack animals rather than draft animals.]


91 posted on 07/04/2020 10:03:05 AM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge.)
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To: piasa
and good luck trying to contain, breed and domesticate bison for use

Every week or two there's a story about tourists making friends with the cute, fuzzy cows of the plains. Three quarters of a ton of bad attitude.

96 posted on 07/04/2020 11:18:12 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (In 2016 Obama ended America's 220 year tradition of peaceful transfer of power after an election.)
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