Transforming The West

1. Transforming The West

2. Mining Towns • Sprang up because of the discovery of gold and silver. • Thousands of people came to the areas to try to strike it rich but the land was not prepared for them. • Mining towns = places for miners to stay. • Those who weren’t looking for gold or silver went to mining towns to supply the needs for the miners. (Food, Clothing, Supplies)

3. Mining Towns • Order depended on rules of conduct and procedures because there were no judges or jails. • Vigilantes = Self appointed law enforcers. • Sheriffs and marshals appeared as towns began to develop. (Wyatt Earp) • Churches were also established to address social issues. • Boomtowns = towns that only hold out for as long as the gold or silver. • Denver, Colorado; Boise, Idaho; and Helena, Montana diversified and grew.

4. Mining Centers Virginia CityComstock Lode

8. Prospecting

9. Large Companies and Mining • First mining was by individuals who extracted minerals from the surface. • By 1870s, big companies who could afford mining equipment took over the industry because the remaining minerals were deep in the ground. • Miles of underground tracks and crews were recruited from Mexico and China. • Water was a major concern. Mining required lots of water and in turn the silt that was washed downstream, it contaminated water farmers used for their livestock. • Federal government continued to support mining companies by providing land and approving patents for new inventions.

10. 1st TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD • May 10, 1869 at Promontory, Utah • “The Wedding of the Rails” • Central Pacific and Union Pacific

11. Promontory, Utah

12. “The Big Four” Railroad Magnates • Financed the Central Pacific • Hired Chinese men to do the labor • They had to cut through the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Charles Crocker Collis Huntington Mark Hopkins Leland Stanford

13. Transcontinental Railroad • Land Grant = Giving a company or individual land to use for a certain use. • Workers had very harsh contracts. • Two tracks Union Pacific and Central Pacific met in 1869 at Promontory Utah.

14. Railroads Intensify Settlement • Effects of Railroads: • Tied nation together. • Moved products and people. • Stimulated the growth of towns. • Intensified the demand for Indian’s land. • Between 1864 – 1896 ten territories became states.

15. Vaqueros and Texas Longhorns • Open Range System = branding cattle so they could be identified and allowing them to roam freely. • When spring came ranchers would hire cowboys to round up the cattle. • Mexican Vaqueros = trained horses to work with cattle and developed the roping skills, saddle, and chaps needed to do the job.

21. Cow Towns • Cow Town = Places where cattle were sold and the cowboys were paid. • Cow towns gave birth to the stories of Wild Bill Hickok, Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, and Jesse James. • Site of rodeos: riding, roping and wrestling cattle. • Bulldogging was invented in cow towns. (Cowboy jumps from horse onto a steer’s horns and wrestles it to the ground)

22. End of Open Range Ranching • Factors that led to the end: • Invention of barbed wire. • Supply of beef exceeded the demand. • Price of beef dropped. • Extreme weather in 1880s. (freezing winters and summer droughts) • Farmers and sheepherders settled on what had been open range.

23. Farmers Move to the Plains • Homestead Act • “Exodusters” moved from South to the West • Mostly men were farmers and miners • Women came West to tend to family or farm, work running a boardinghouse, laundry, or bakery.

24. HOMESTEAD ACT • Homestead Actwas a law developed in 1862 by Congress to promote settlement of the Great Plains. • Age 21 and the head of the family could have 160 acres of landif they improved it in five years • Could buy it for a small amount of $$$ • The US Government encouraged westward expansion and the Homestead Act allowed thousands of settlers to move west and start new lives.

25. Black Cowboys“Exodusters” 100,000 Exodusters leave the South and get involved with the ranching industry in Texas and Oklahoma.

26. Challenges and Solutions • Lumber was expensive so sod homes were built. • Windmill, steel plow, barbed wire, and dry farming were new inventions. • Extreme weather such as blizzards and droughts sent many back East.

27. Allowed farmers to cut through dense, root-choked sod. Steel Plow

29. Reduced labor force needed for harvest. Allows farmers to maintain larger farms. Mechanized Reaper

30. Powers irrigation systems and pumps up ground water. Steel Windmill

31. Barbed Wire Joseph Glidden

32. LIFE ON THE GREAT PLAINS • Barbed wire fencewas alifesaver because of the lack of wood in the dry plains of America. • Barbed wirealso solved the problems between farmers and ranchers.

33. Economic Rivalries • Conflicts between miners, ranchers, sheepherders, and farmers led to violence and sabotage. • Grazing cattle ruined farmers’ crops, sheep gnawed grass so low to land that cattle could not eat, mining runoff polluted land and water. • Native Americans were slowly being pushed off their land and being forced to assimilate.

34. Prejudices and Discrimination • 1850s onward, the West had the most diverse population in the country. • Had 80% of the nation’s Asian, Mexican, Mexican American, and Native American residents. • Multiple languages, food, and cultures did not mix. • Strong fear and distrust of other cultures. • Many territory issues as well. Who owned different parts of the land? Mexicans, Native Americans or the whites?

35. Closing of the Frontier • Last land rush was the 1889 opening of the Oklahoma territory. “Sooners” • After the closing of the frontier, many issues still remained. • Battles over water and land. • Treatment of minority citizens. (Mexican, Indian, African American, Asian) • Indian’s land rights