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Settling the Great Plains

Settling the Great Plains. What issues do settlers run into on the Great Plains?. 1850: Railroad boom begins, people begin moving west. Homestead Act. 1862: Homestead Act offered 160 acres to any family wanting to settle in west, 600K families take advantage

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Settling the Great Plains

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  1. Settling the Great Plains What issues do settlers run into on the Great Plains?

  2. 1850: Railroad boom begins, people begin moving west Homestead Act • 1862: Homestead Act offered 160 acres to any family wanting to settle in west, 600K families take advantage • African Americans who moved from the post-Reconstruction South to Kansas known as Exodusters • Govt does set up some protected park land

  3. However, settlers found difficulties on the Plains, including: 2) flooding 1) drought 3) blizzards 4) locusts

  4. Other Problems with the Homestead Act • Lots of the land doesn’t go to families but to: • Speculators (buy land looking to make profit) • Railroad companies • Miners • Ranchers Plus…..families were isolated from big cities, had to be self-sufficient 1. Build your own home (little wood on Plains - Soddies) 2. Make your own clothing 3. Dig your own well for water 4. Grow your own food + educate yourself/children

  5. Morrill Act • Morrill gives states money to start agricultural college – new technology develops, more crops in less time 2) barbed wire 1) steel tipped plow 4) steel windmill 3) Reaper (cuts crops when ripe)

  6. Farmers go into debt fall in wheat prices drought 1885-1890 expensive machinery Farmers’ Debt railroad shipping cost “bonanza farms” huge, single crop, investors mortgaging land to buy more

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