I was just chatting with a friend of mine today about my own family who came into this area up here in the 1880's. There was a neighbor who had pioneered the area (it was one of the "Bleeding Kansas" counties during the mid 1850's as a lot of Kansas was still Indian Territory at that time). This old boy had came in via covered wagon. He told that at the time the rolling prairies around here were treeless except for a bit of brush along the cricks and Oak timber along the Osage river and that the cricks were clear and deep. Now we have a lot of trees and many of the cricks are not much and certainly aren't very clear.
Point-being, I'm guessing that Plum Creek used to be a lot bigger deal than it appears now and there probably was a lot less brush on those prairies you show.
It's been my experience that there is little difference in the terrain from here to there. Probably little difference even up in the Dakotas, but I've never been there and have even only been in Nebraska a couple of times.
