The West Transformed By: Ria and May Chapter 17 The West Transformed By: Ria and May

Section 1 Mining and Railroads Vocabulary- Immigrate- Moving to a foreign region or country Manual- Involving work done by hand Vigilante- Self appointed law keepers Subsidy- Grants of land or money Transcontinental Railroad- Railroad line that spanned the continent

Boom and Bust Settlement came in rush in many parts of the West, Prospectors found gold and silver. New mining town sprang up in a flash. The gold rush of 1849 in California, spread miners to the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains, and to the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory. Mining town

The Comstock Lode Prospectors began to search for gold in the Sierra Nevada. In 1859, two Irish prospectors found the gold, But a third man Henry Comstock claimed the land. The find became known as the Comstock Lode.( A lode is a rich vein of ore) At the Comstock Lode, A blue tinted sand was stuck on all the equipments that made hard to dig gold. Blue sand turned out to be loaded with silver that was far more valuable than gold. This was one of the richest silver mines in the world, produced $300 million worth of silver and made Nevada a center of mining.

The Boom Spreads After the civil War, prospectors fanned out over the west, found valuable ores in Montana, Idaho and Colorado. In 1890, a gold find drew many people to Alaska. The Ore was expensive to extract because it was deep underground. Comstock gave up and sold his mining rights for $11,000 and 2 mules. Many other prospectors also sold their claims to large companies. By 1880s, western mining become a big business.

Boomtown Life Tent cities like Virginia city often grew near the mining. Soon hotels, stores, and wood frame buildings came. Merchants brought tools, food and clothing, but nothing was cheap. Mining camps turned into boomtowns. Miners had to pay high price for drinking water because the water of the stream was polluted by the chemical arsenic, used in mining. Women in boomtowns had good living, some opened restaurants, other washed clothes and baked pies. Half the minors were foreign born such as Italian, German, Spanish, and Chinese. Miners life in boomtowns

Frontier Justice Law and order were hard to find in mining towns, Miners formed groups of vigilantes, who imposed their own rough brands of justice. As the Boom Towns grew, local people need new government, sheriffs, marshals,and judges instead of vigilantes. Mines shut down and miners moved away when all the ore was extracted. Businesses failed and merchants left, Boom Towns became ghost towns Boom town Ghost town

The Railroad Boom Railroads raced to lay track to the mines and boomtowns by the help of federal government. The government pay subsidies - for every mile of track government gave 10 sq. mile of land to railroad. Railroads got 180 million acres of land (size of Texas). They also got federal loans. Many westnerners dreamed of Transcontinental Railroad.

Spanning the Continent Many Westerners dreamed of a transcontinental railroad. In 1862, Leland Stanford and his partners won a right to build a line eastward from Sacramento known as Central Pacific. Another railroad named Union Pacific build west from Omaha. Hired thousands of workers - native whites, mexican americans, and african americans. Also immigrated from Mexico and Ireland. On May 10,1869,the two lines met at Promontory,Utah.

Effects of the Railroad West sprang up by new towns. Rapid growth brought political changes. Nevada became a state in 1864, Colorado 1876, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and washington in 1889 and Idaho and Wyoming in 1890. Ria and May

Questions What does subsidy mean? What two ores was found by many Prospectors What was the name of both railroads Where did both railroads connect

Answers Grants of land and money Silver and gold Union and central railroads utah