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Ch 8: Settling the West: 1865-1900

Ch 8: Settling the West: 1865-1900. Section 1: Miners and Ranchers. Objectives. Trace the growth of the mining industry. Describe the ways that new technology changed open-range ranching. Explain why people moved West in search of economic opportunity. Why did people move West?.

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Ch 8: Settling the West: 1865-1900

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  1. Ch 8: Settling the West: 1865-1900 Section 1: Miners and Ranchers

  2. Objectives • Trace the growth of the mining industry. • Describe the ways that new technology changed open-range ranching. • Explain why people moved West in search of economic opportunity.

  3. Why did people move West? • Start new lives in the West after the end of the Civil War • Stories of gold, silver, and copper • Cheap land

  4. Mining techniques • 1. Placer Mining • Using pans, shovels, and picks to get the gold on top of the earth • 2. Quartz Mining • Digging deep into the earth to get the gold

  5. Henry Comstock • Lived in Six-Mile Canyon, Nevada in 1859 • Found silver on his property • Turned the town into a boomtown • The town turned into a ghost town after only a few years when the mines dried up

  6. Boomtown Violence • Boomtowns were dangerous places to live • People were robbed and killed over their finds • No police present • Vigilance committees-community members preserved the peace

  7. Results of Mining Boomtowns • 1,000 people came out per week • Mined $1 billion in metals (billions today) • Caused Denver to become the 2nd largest city in the West (supplies) • Rise in railroads West • North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana became states

  8. Rise of Cattle Ranching • New breed of cattle (Texas Longhorn) could survive in the Great Plains • Did not need a lot of water/land • Cattle roamed freely at first

  9. Open Range • Used by cowboys to raise cattle for free • Covered the Great Plains (owned by the gov’t) • Cattle were not fenced in

  10. Post-Civil War Ranching • Soldiers ate beef during the war • Caused beef prices to rise • Railroads made it easy to move cattle to the East to slaughter • Cattle were sold for 10x their original price

  11. Long Drives • Cattle were gathered up all over the Great Plains and moved to Kansas/Missouri to get onto trains • 2,000-5,000 cattle moved at a time • Cattle ranchers included former soldiers, former slaves, and Hispanic cowboys • Stories were told in “Dime Novels”

  12. Problems with Ranching • Free cattle were collected and sold to private ranchers in Western territories • Started using barbed wire to fence off large areas of land • Cold winters killed off large amounts of cattle • Oversupply in the markets dropped cattle prices • Ended Open Range and Cattle Drives

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