thumb|[[Level crossing|Railroad crossing with cattle guards in rural South Dakota ]]
thumb|upright=1.4|[[Great Plains of Nebraska]]
Prairie madness or prairie fever was an affliction that affected European settlers in the Great Plains during their migration to, and settlement of, the Canadian Prairies and the Western United States in the 19th century. Settlers moving from urbanized or relatively settled areas in the East faced the risk of mental breakdown caused by the harsh living conditions and the extreme levels of isolation on the prairie. Symptoms of prairie madness included depression, withdrawal, changes in character and habit, and violence. Prairie madness sometimes resulted in the afflicted person moving back East or, in extreme cases, suicide.
Prairie madness is not a clinical condition; rather, it is a pervasive subject in writings of fiction and non-fiction from the period to describe a fairly common phenomenon. It was described by Eugene Virgil Smalley in 1893: "an alarming amount of insanity occurs in the new Prairie States among farmers and their wives."
Causes
Prairie madness was caused by the isolation and tough living conditions on the prairie. The level of isolation depended on the topography and geography of the region. Most examples of prairie madness come from the Great Plains region. One explanation for these high levels of isolation was the Homestead Act of 1862. This act stipulated that a person would be given a tract of 160 acres if they were able to live on it and make something out of it in a five-year period. The farms of the Homestead Act were at least half a mile apart, but usually much more. There were few trees, and the flat land stretched out for miles and miles. Some settlers specifically spoke of the wind that rushed through the prairie, which was loud, forceful, and alien compared to what settlers had experienced in their former lives.
- Stephen Bridgewater directed a 2008 American Western film, Prairie Fever, starring Kevin Sorbo, Lance Henriksen and Dominique Swain.
- The Homesman is a 2014 Western historical drama film set in the 1850s Midwest, based the screenplay on the 1988 novel of the same name by Glendon Swarthout. The fictional story depicts one woman taking on the daunting task of transporting back to city life three other women suffering from prairie madness.
- Michael Parker wrote a novel called Prairie Fever in 2019.