Bigger, Better, Faster: The Changing Nation

1. Bigger, Better, Faster: The Changing Nation Ms. Reardon & Mrs. Brown 2008

2. Big Ideas • Moving to new places changes the people, land, and culture of the new place as well as the place they left. • Technology has many different types of consequences, depending on how people use that technology. • Conflict causes change.

3. Georgia Performance Standards • SS5H3: The student will describe how life changed in America at the turn of the century. • Describe the role of the cattle trails in the late 19th century; include the Black Cowboys of Texas, the Great Western Cattle Trail, and the ChisholmTrail. • Describe the impact on American life of the Wright Brothers (flight), George Washington Carver (science), Alexander Graham Bell (communication), and Thomas Edison (electricity). • Explain how William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt expanded America’s role in the world; include the Spanish American War and the building of the Panama Canal. • Describe the reason people emigrated to the United States, from where they emigrated, and where they settled.

4. What was “Westward Expansion?” The migration of people from the Eastern coast of the United States to the Pacific coast. It was one of the biggest human migrations of all time. Migration: A movement from one place to another. Emigrate : To leave one country to settle in another. Immigrate: To come into a new country to settle. Vocabulary:

5. Why did people migrate ? • In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson bought land through the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the U.S. • During the 1840’s thousands of families made the journey west by wagon or foot to California or Oregon. • Many sold everything they had to make the trip to Independence, Missouri, where the Oregon Trail began. (It was a 2,000 mile journey). These Pioneers were pulled to the West by the stories they heard about the fertile and abundant farm land that existed. Click on the wagon.

6. Why did people migrate? (cont.) • Gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in California in 1848. This began the “Gold Rush.” Approximately 80,000 people immigrated to California hoping to strike it rich. These immigrants came from the Eastern United States, Europe, and China. Click here! http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldrush/filmmore/index.html Click on this photo to learn more.

7. Why did people migrate? (cont.) • The Homestead Act of 1862 1.Congress offered 160 acres of land, in the Great Plains Region, to adults who were U.S. citizens or wanted to become one. 2. For a small amount of money they had to farm the land for 5 years and then it was theirs. Vocabulary When price affects the decisions people make it is called a price incentive. http://www.footnote.com/page/83001585_the_homestead_act_1862/?xid=318 http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/homestead-act/

8. Who Took Advantage of the Homestead Act? • People from the eastern part of the U.S., where farmland was expensive. • Settlers from Europe who were looking for larger farms. • African American Settlers, called Exodusters ,settled in Kansas and other parts of the Great Plains. Between 1877 and 1879. • (Benjamin “Pap” Singleton was the most famous Exoduster.) http://www.autrynationalcenter.org/explore/exhibits/sod/daily.htm l http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=296#SELECTED

9. Hardships on The Great Plains • Look at the picture to the left. What hardships do you think settlers faced in the Great Plains? Winters were long and bitterly cold. Spring brought violent thunderstorms, floods and tornados. Summers were hot and dry and droughts were common. This made prairie fires common. Insects would eat their crops, clothing, and wood handles of farm tools.

10. Adapting to the Great Plains • Settlers built houses out of sod they cut from the prairie in the shape of bricks. They got the nickname, sodbusters. • The farmers had to use wheat seeds used on Eastern European farms. • The farmers dug deep wells to get water. Those who could afford it used windmills to pump their water. • New and improved farm machinery such as plows, reapers, and threshers made work faster and easier. http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0500/frameset_reset.html?http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0500/stories/0502_0100.html

11. The Transcontinental Railroad • The Pacific Railway Act (1862) Congress passed this act which set aside land from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean for the first transcontinental railroad. The Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroad companies began construction in 1863. The Central Pacific started in the west and the Union Pacific started in the central U.S., in the state of Nebraska. The two railroads met on May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit, Utah. http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/five/railact.htm

12. The Railroads Change the United States • Take a few minutes to discuss how you think this new transcontinental railroad changed the nation. • Settlers in the West could earn money selling their products to the eastern cities (i.e. cattle, wheat…) • Western farmers could earn more money selling to people in the East. • Businesses and factories in the East used the railroads to ship clothing, tools, and other goods to western towns and mining camps. • Traveling to the West was easier and somewhat safer now. http://cprr.org/Museum/Ephemera/CP-UP_Timetable_1881/index.html

13. Let’s Review! • Let’s fill in the T-Chart about Westward Expansion. Click on the link below for check your answers! Social Studies notes 1.doc

14. Physical Features of the West • As the country became “smaller”, people traveled west and came upon numerous physical features of the United States which were new and exciting. Let’s embark on a scavenger hunt to try and locate some of these physical features.! • The Grand Canyon • The Salton Sea • The Great Salt Lake • The Mojave Desert

15. The Cattle Drives • In the 1860’s cattle was so abundant in Texas that one cow would sell for only $4.00. • This same cattle could be sold in the Northern and Eastern United States for about $40.00 a piece. Supply and Demand This is called: So what would you have done if you were a Texas cattle rancher? The only problem was… …the railroads did not cross into Texas. The closest railheads(a town where railroad tracks begin or end) were hundreds of miles away.

16. The Cattle Drives • The solution was… …to “drive” the cattle to places like Abilene, Kansas so they could be put on trains and shipped to stockyards in the northern and eastern part of the United States. The most popular trail was the Chisholm Trail, which started in San Antonio, Texas and ended in Kansas. Another popular trail was the Great Western Trail, which start in Bandera, Texas and ended in Ogallala, Nebraska. http://www.bcr.org/cdp/exhibits/westerntrails/cattle/index.html http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0500/frameset_reset.html?http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0500/stories/0502_0100.htm l http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/five/cowboys.htm

17. Life on the Drives • What was life like for the cowhands who worked on these cattle drives? http://www.cartermuseum.org/collections/smith/

18. The End of The Cattle Drives • The cattle drives only lasted for about 20 years. • The Homesteaders of the Great Plains region were getting upset that the cattle were trampling their new land and their crops. • to keep the cattle drives off of their land they put up fences with barbed wire What do you think were some causes for the end of this important era for the West? 2. The railroads began to grow. Railroads were built in Texas in the 1870’s, ending the need for cattle drives to northern railheads. 3. Many cattle died during the abnormally cold winter of 1886-1887.

19. Black Cowboys • Many African –Americans had just found freedom from slavery due to the 13th Amendment. For African Americans, the Old West represented a new home, a new beginning, and a new opportunity to enjoy freedom, which they so desperately wanted. Nat Love http://www.blackcowboys.com/blackcowboys.htm Bill Picket

20. Websites • http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/

21. Resources • http://www.sonofthesouth.net/texas/westward-expansion-map.htm • http://www.ncgold.com/goldrushtown/photoalbum/early_photography_people/01people.jpg • http://images.google.com