Moving West

Settlement of the Last Frontier Great Plains, Rocky Mts, and Great Basin still not settled Push and Pull Factors- mostly pull Discovery of Precious Metals Completion of the Trans-Continental Railroad Availability of cheap land Homestead Act of 1862 Great plains- rolling treeless plans from texas to North Dakota, little rainfall, buffalo and Indians- Great American desert Precious metals- California gold rush, gold and silver in Colorado, Nevada, south Dakota, Arizona, - Natives, Railroad- laborers mainly Irish immigrants and Chinese, after the war freedmen joined, easier for settlers to move west, supplies from the east, Availability of cheap land- slaughter of buffalo and removal of natives, homestead act of 1862- 160 acres for 1.65 an acre after improving it for 6 months, or for free if famred for 5 years, railroads sold their land as well Oklahoma – used to be indian territory, 2 million acres, april 12, 1889 50,000 eager settlers waited along the border of the territory for Americas forst land run

Stages of the American West Native Land The Mining Boom Open Range Cattle Kingdom Farming Frontier Mining boom- boom town, then ghost town, mostly men, systems of law scarce- vigilantes after ghost towns, big businesses with heavy machinery Open range- wild longhorn cattle grazing on plains, Texans decide to drive them to Kansas to sell. 3 months to drive cattle from plains to Kansas (long drive) cowboys- 1 in 5 was black, lonely isolated lives, by 1886- overgraving had destroyed grass sheepherders and farmers had bought up the land, and used barbed wire to enclose their land severe winters and drought led the ranchers to buy their own land and enclose their cattle and supplement their food- closd range system Farming- RR made it profitable to be a farmer in the west, homestead act, some immigrants but also children of farmers in the Midwest didn’t like cattleman or Indians, Indians defeated by government, faced many obstacles

Farming Frontier Obstacle- remoteness of Markets Solution- RRs Obstacle- lack of wood, clay or rock for homes Solution- Sod-Houses Obstacle- Lack of wood for fencing Solution- invention of Barbed Wire Obstacle- Lack of Rainfall Solution- dug wells hundreds of feet deep- Windmills powered pumps

Farming Frontier (cont’d) Obstacle- Tough, dry soil Solution- steel or iron plows – “dry farming” Obstacle- lack of fuel Buffalo chips Obstacle- lack of manpower Machinery from industrial revolution