1 / 6

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

william-kennedy
Download Presentation

Settling the Great Plains

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  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

More Related