The Western Frontier Mrs. Williamson

By the mid-1850s, the gold rush boom had ended in California, and miners were off to prospect in other areas of the West –In 1858 gold was discovered at Pikes Peak in Colorado. As the result of newspaper stories about the gold strike, tens of thousands of prospectors flocked to Colorado. –The prospectors coined the slogan “Pikes Peak or Bust” to lure people into the region

Individual miners panning for gold in streams or using a pick and shovel to dig on the surface were not about to get rich in this gold rush. As a result, mining companies–foreign as well as American–became more common than lone miners. In 1858 several prospectors found a rich lode of gold-bearing ore on the banks of Nevada’s Carson River. By mining the rock, you can extract gold! The discovery, The Comstock Lode, was incredibly rich, yielding about $300 million worth of gold and silver.

The Mining Frontier Boomtowns often grew up almost overnight in mining areas. One such town was Virginia City, Nevada, which developed near the Comstock Lode - Boomtowns: were often wild and lawless places, where miners made a great deal of money quickly and gambled - Because many people carried guns, and few boomtowns had police or prisons, citizens often took the law into their own hands, forming vigilante groups. - They acted as judge and jury

Boomtowns typically had no women and children. The women that did live in boomtowns usually had more rights than women back east. Unfortunately, their prosperity, was often followed by a period of “BUST” Once it was “bust," many boomtowns were completely deserted, becoming ghost towns. Many former mining communities that became ghost towns are still scattered throughout the West.

Railroads Connect East and West The mining booms in the West helped spur development of a transcontinental railroad system. A better transportation system was needed to get western ore to factories and markets in the East and goods and supplies from the East to the people in mining areas of the West. The Transcontinental Railway connected the Atlantic and Pacific along a “northerly” route. Two companies accepted the challenge of creating the Railway- The Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Company The last 10 miles of track was finished by a Chinese Crew in 1869

Texas ranchers had plenty of cattle but needed a way to get them to markets in the North and East. As railroads spread, rail stops in towns such as Sedalia, Missouri; Abilene and Dodge City, Kansas; and Cheyenne, Wyoming, became cow towns, places where cattle were driven from Texas for shipment by rail to market. The ability to get the cattle to market quickly by train greatly increased the value of longhorns. During the Cattle Kingdom heyday, from the late 1860s through the mid-1880s, the trails carried more than 5 million cattle north. Cattle on the Plains

Farmers began to settle the Plains in the late 1860s for several reasons. Railroads made it easier for settlers to get there, the government passed new laws offering free land, and above-average rainfall during the late 1870s made the Plains better suited for farming. - The Homestead Act of 1862 spurred settlement of the Plains. It offered 160 acres of free land to settlers who paid a filing fee and lived on the land for five years. - Thousands of farmers went to the Plains to homestead, or earn land by settling on it. - Even single women and widows could own land under the Homestead Act

Many African Americans, fleeing racism in the South after Reconstruction in the late 1870s, also migrated west to settle. By 1881 more than 40,000 African Americans had migrated to Kansas These people, known as “Exodusters” felt the west was a safer environment. They felt their “flight” was similar to the flight of the Jews from Egypt- as outlined in the Book of Exodus.

The Oklahoma Territory was the last area of the Plains to be settled. It had been designated the Indian Territory in the 1830s and had been off-limits to settlers. But years of pressure from land dealers and settlers led to the opening of Oklahoma to settlers in The federal government allowed homesteaders to take the area in The land was to be given in late April. The Sooners found out about the free land, so they went out to stake their claims before the “boomers” arrived. In 1890, shortly after the Oklahoma land rush, the government announced that the frontier no longer existed.