1. The Mining Industry Growing industries in the East needed the resources of the West. Settlers move to the West’s mountain states to find these riches.

2. Prospectors Used simple equipment like picks, shovels, and pans to mine the shallow deposits or ore by hand. This process is placer mining.

3. Quartz Mining Corporations dug beneath the surface to mine the deposits of ore.

4. Henry Comstock 1859 staked a claim for a silver mine in 6-Mile Canyon, Nevada. This caused Virginia City, Nevada, to go from an outpost to a boomtown. Several years later the mines ran out of silver and a ghost town was created.

5. Vigilance Committees During these boom times crime was a serious problem. These committees were formed to track down and punish wrongdoers.

6. The Mining Legacy Mining helped the growth of Colorado, Dakota Territory, and Montana. Mining in Colorado spurred the building of railroads through the Rocky Mountains. Denver became the supply point for the mining areas and the 2 nd largest city in the West after San Francisco

7. Ranching & Cattle Drives After the Civil War, many Americans began building large cattle ranches on the Great Plains. The Texas longhorn was a breed of cattle that could survive the harsh climate of the plains.

8. Open Range Vast areas of grasslands owned by the federal government. Cattle raise could graze their herds free of charge & without boundaries.

9. Long Drive During the Civil War, large numbers of eastern cattle were slaughtered to feed the armies. After the war, beef prices soared. This made it worth while to round up the longhorns. The 1 st long drive in 1866 crossed the Great Plains to the railroad in Sedalia, Missouri & proved that cattle could be taken north on trains and sold for high prices,

10. Chisholm Trail Major route for moving cattle that went from Texas to Abilene, Kansas.

11. The long drive Began when the spring roundup to collect cattle from the open range were divided and branded. Then the cowboys moved the herds of cattle along the trails to the rail lines.

12. The Cowboys Most cowboys were former Confederate army soldiers, Hispanic, and African American.

13. The end of the cattle drive Cattle drives ended when barbed wire was invented by Joseph Glidden in 1874. Oversupply of animals flooded the market. Prices for cattle dropped. Ranchers went bankrupt. Harsh winters of 1886-1887 killed many cattle.