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THE OLD WEST

THE OLD WEST. Transcontinental Railroad (During Civil War – to connect CA with the Union). Pacific Railway Act makes it a RACE! RRs received land and $ for every mile of track laid Union Pacific: building west from Omaha, NE Used many Irish immigrants

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THE OLD WEST

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  1. THE OLD WEST

  2. Transcontinental Railroad(During Civil War – to connect CA with the Union) Pacific Railway Act makes it a RACE! RRs received land and $ for every mile of track laid Union Pacific: building west from Omaha, NE Used many Irish immigrants Central Pacific: building east from Sacramento, CA Chinese immigrants used Most difficult time – had to start out crossing the Sierra Nevada Mtns. Union wins & lays 1,086 miles & Central 689

  3. WEDDING OF THE RAILS:

  4. Railroad Construction

  5. Plains Indians • Nomads – followed their food source • buffalo, 12 to 15 million • Horses made them better hunters and warriors • Plains Wars, 1860-1890 • Fight to protect land and stop waste (buffalo)

  6. Plains Indians

  7. THE BUFFALO • The buffalo or bison was an extremely important part of the plains people’s lives. • They used virtually every part of the buffalo from the hide for clothing, to the stomach for holding water. • At one time, an estimated 60 million buffalo roamed the plains of the present day United States and Canada. A buffalo can weigh up to 2,000 pounds and live as long as 30 years.

  8. The Hunt • For thousands of years, Native Americans used buffalo jumps to kill the creatures. • They would place some of the hunters on either side of a path (usually wearing wolf skins) which they would use to drive large numbers of animals over a steep cliff. • It wasn’t until the arrival of the Spanish in the 1500’s that the horse began to be used by Native Americans. It quickly became an important part of native people’s lives. Typical buffalo jump Native Americans did not hunt using horses until the 1500’s

  9. The Buffalo Soldiers on the Great Plains 1/5 of soldiers on frontier

  10. The Buffalo Soldiers & the Indian Wars

  11. SAND CREEK MASSACRE • Colorado • Cheyenne, under Chief Black Kettle, came to U.S. fort to negotiate • Col. Chivington arrives at fort & ignores attempts to negotiate • Executes them all –men, women & children • Much mutilation

  12. The Battle of Little Big Horn1876 Chief Sitting Bull Gen. GeorgeArmstrong Custer Chief Crazy Horse

  13. BATTLE OF LITTLE BIGHORN Gold found in Black Hills, DK, 1874 Col. George A. Custer, 7th Calvary – leads expedition of 264 soldiers Sioux & Cheyenne force of 2,500 Crazy Horse & Sitting Bull “Custer’s Last Stand” 1st major victory for Indians after a long series of defeats But, short-lived victory

  14. Battle of Wounded Knee • Sioux fleeing reservation after Sitting Bull shot • Rounded up by Army; surrendered & herded into Wounded Knee Army Camp • Ghost Dance • Army ordered to disarm Indians • 190 unarmed Indians massacred in the process • End of Plains Indians Wars

  15. ASSIMILATION • Attempt to have Indians “become white” and become part of white man’s culture • DAWES ACT, 1887 • U.S. government tries to give them land which they could eventually own if they became farmers on the land • Failed – Indian culture was nomadic; not settled farmers Apache children on arrival at the Carlisle Indian School (Pennsylvania) Apache children at the Carlisle School 4 months later.

  16. Factors which brought an end to Plains Indians’ way of life: • RAILROADS!! • Destroy Buffalo • Bring out settlers, miners, etc. • Discovery of gold/silver on Indian lands • Indian Wars • Either killed them OR • Survivors forced to move to reservations (Dakota and Oklahoma); what was life like on the reservations?

  17. MAJOR GOLD STRIKES: California, 1848 Colorado, 1858 (Pike’s Peak or Bust!”) Black Hills of the Dakotas, 1877 MAJOR SILVER STRIKE: The “Comstock Lode” in Virginia City, Nevada $300 million of silver extracted over 18 years MINING IN THE OLD WEST:

  18. MINING IN THE OLD WEST:

  19. Mining Centers: 1900

  20. Cattle Towns and Mining Towns of the Old West

  21. GOLD & SILVER STRIKES & CATTLE RANCHING CAUSED TOWNS TO SPRING UP: • Known as “Helldorados” • 1 in 3 buildings is a saloon • Gambling, prostitutes, etc. • “Vigilante” and “lynch law” justice

  22. Colt .45 Revolver God didn’t make men equal.Colonel Colt did!

  23. Legendary Gunslingers & Train Robbers Jesse James Billy the Kid

  24. CATTLE RANCHINGLONGHORNS • TEXAS • Open range ranching • Spanish gave us techniques of roping, herding, etc. • Also gave us style of dress & equipment • Between 1836 & 1860 3-4 million mavericks (unbranded cattle) roamed on the open range • distinguished only by branding • Owners didn’t have to own much land to get in the cattle business • North had huge markets for meat & new invention of refrigerated rail cars will help get the meat to the North

  25. BUT…. Still had to get the cattle to the RR SO …THE LONG DRIVE BEGAN to drive herds of cattle to rail centers in Kansas and Missouri.

  26. 8 to 10 cowboys could work 2,500 steer Several thousand were black, also many Mexican Dime novels (“tall tales”) were created about such legends as Billy the Kid, Jesse James, etc. Nat Love

  27. MANY DIFFICULTIES ONTHE LONG DRIVE: • Overgrazing • Disease • Floods • Droughts • Stampedes • Rustlers • Homesteaders • Cold Winters/Blizzards

  28. These difficulties led to the end of Open Range Cattle Ranching • Fenced-in ranching took over • Ranching became more expensive since a rancher now must own enough land to keep cattle fenced in and must have a water source on that land • Ranching, just like mining, becomes “big business”

  29. Land Use: 1880s

  30. RAILROADS • Biggest factor in encouraging settlement of the West • Destroyed the Plains Indians – HOW? • Encouraged ranchers and farmers settle the Great Plains – WHY? • No longer isolated from the East • Can ship goods to market and get manufactured goods shipped West

  31. Settlement of the WestThe Homestead Act • Purpose: to encourage settlement of the Great Plains • Provisions: 160 acres for $10 to head of household; settlers must live on it & cultivate it for 5 years and then would own it

  32. ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS OF PLAINS FARMERS • NATURAL DISASTERS: • DROUGHT • SEVERE CLIMATE • PRAIRIE FIRES • GRASSHOPPER PLAGUES

  33. NEW TECHNOLOGY TO ASSIST FARMERS • John Deere’s Steel Plow • Cyrus McCormick’s Reaper • Windmills • BARBED WIRE!

  34. ECONOMIC PROBLEMS: • SPECIALIZED IN SINGLE CASH CROPS • HIGH INTEREST RATES ON THEIR FARMS • DEPENDENT ON RR TO GET PRODUCT TO MARKET – SHIPPING RATES HIGH

  35. PLAINS WOMEN • “Born and scrubbed; suffered and died.” • Western women are seen more as equals in the West – why? • Western women will get the right to vote before women in the rest of the country

  36. THE WILD WEST • Wild West vaudeville shows traveled worldwide • A rodeo show which had sharpshooters, riding and herding tricks and skills and always a cowboys-Indians “fight • Annie Oakley

  37. “Buffalo Bill” Cody & Sitting Bull Calamity Jane Annie Oakley

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