Westward Expansion

U.S. Land Acquired in the 1800s

Manifest Destiny Americans believed they should own all the land from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean; coast to coast.

The Gold Rush! Eureka!!!!!!!

Gold Rush Gold was discovered in California in 1849.

Gold Rush Gold was discovered in California in People who went West for gold were called forty-niners. The Comstock Lode, a Bonanza, was later discovered.

Gold Rush Gold was discovered in California in 1849 The Comstock Lode, a Bonanza, was later discovered. People who moved West to mine are called miners.

Gold Rush Gold was discovered in California in The Comstock Lode, a Bonanza, was later discovered. People who moved West to mine are called miners.

People moved West to find gold.

Boom towns and Ghost towns. Gold or Silver strike 1.Miners arrive and build a small town. 2.More people come to sell supplies. 3.Real houses get built. Boom Town 1.Gold or silver production falls – decreases. 2.Miners move on. 3.The town is abandoned. Ghost Town.

One man panning for gold. I hope I find gold and become rich!

Men panning for gold. I can’t find any. How about you? Nope. Me either.

Working on the mine.

African Americans were called Exodusters. Many African Americans moved to the West from the 1840s to late 1890s. They were escaping the difficult life in the South where Whites practiced Jim Crow Laws and denied African Americans their new Constitutional Rights.

Exodusters waiting for a steamship.

I hope there’s no slavery in the West. Exodusters moving West. I hope there’s no KKK. Maybe we can vote in the West.

An application for land. People staked their claim by finding a section of land that was marked. Then they registered the piece of land with the government. After cultivating the land for five years, it was theirs for free.

People traveled West on wagon roads, and on the railroad and by steamship.

Plowfarms, plows and families in front of their sodhouses.

A difficult life for the farmers. Farmers had to cut through thick, hard earth called sod. Winters were harsh; cold, windy with a lot of snowstorms called blizzards. Summers were hot and had little rain. Farmers had to use a technique called dry- farming (growing crops that needed little water.) Sometimes grasshoppers would eat all the crops.

Farmers in crisis. Farmers could not repay their debts. The Populist party tried to help farmers. They wanted government to reduce railroad rates and to help with (falling) decreasing prices for grain. Populists wanted all the silver mined in the West to be turned into coinage (money). Free silver would make it easier for farmers to repay their debts. The United States did not turn silver into money.

The Cattle Kingdom.

Cowboys and Vaqueros.

Ranchers and Cowhands drove the cattle to the Transcontinental Railroad.

The Transcontinental Railroad finished in 1869.

Many Immigrants, such as Irish, Mexicans and Chinese were building the Railroad.

The Union Pacific meets the Central Pacific in Utah in 1869.