Chapter 8

 What do I need to be able to do by the end of this chapter? Trace the growth of the mining industry in the west Describe ways in which technology changed open-range ranching Explain why/how people began settling the Plains Trace the growth of commercial farming on the Plains Discuss conflicts between settlers and Plains Indians Summarize problems caused by attempts to assimilate native-Americans

The 1849 Gold Rush  Gold found at Sutter’s Mill in California  Attracted people from all over the world including China  Caused increase in population in West as search for precious metals expanded

Gold, silver, and copper strikes in West attracted people and fed the industries of the East Placer Mining – prospectors extracted metals using picks, shovels and pans Quartz Mining – corporations bought out small miners; dug deep into earth to extract metal

Hydraulic Mining –  Miners used high-pressure water cannons to wash away surface material to get to minerals  Uncovered gold and silver but caused ecological devastation as silt and gravel clogged riverbeds and caused flooding  Courts eventually halted the process

The Comstock Lode  Henry Comstock  Virginia City, Nevada  Boom Town  Ghost Town  Law enforcement – vigilance committees

Leadville, Colorado  1879  1,000 newcomers per week  Spurred railroad construction through Rocky Mountains  Denver, supply point for miners, became 2 nd largest city in West

Learning Target - Trace the growth of the mining industry in the west  How did mining begin in the West?  What was the progression of the mining industry?  How did mining impact settlement of the West?

No future for cattle on Plains due to water, prairie grasses Texas Longhorn Open Range – land owned by government; used by ranchers Many cowboy skills came from Mexican cowboys Spanish words: lariat, lasso, stampede, rodeo

Little financial incentive for ranching before Civil War War caused demand for beef to skyrocket Railroads allowed for transport of beef east Cattle Drives - money made by rounding up longhorns and driving them North to railheads Chisholm Trail

Cattle drives herded 2, ,000 head Many cowboys ex- Confederates, blacks, and Hispanics Some cattle bought by ranchers and moved north into Wyoming and Montana Nat Love

Range Wars - conflict broke out between ranchers (over water and grasslands), farmers, sheep herders Range fenced off cheaply with new invention – barbed wire

End of the cattle drives  Fencing closed off routes  Investors poured money into ranching causing oversupply  Blizzards of 1886 & 1887 killed hundreds of thousands of head  Open range ranching ended – European breeds introduced  Cowboys became ranch hands

Learning Target - Describe ways in which technology changed open-range ranching  Railroads brought about cattle drives  Barbed wire ended open-range ranching

Great Plains opened to settlement by railroads – land sold at low prices or on credit Railroads advertised in Europe Great Plains – “heaven” due to above-average rainfall US government supported settlement with Homestead Act of acres of land free if lived on >5 years

Life on the Great Plains  Lack of water (deep wells)  Lack of building materials – sod houses (Sodbusters)  Lack of trees = sod houses  Harsh climate – summer & winter  Prairie fires  Grasshopper swarms  Wind

Learning Target - Explain why/how people began settling the Plains  Cheap land sold by government and railroads  Recruitment of immigrants by railroads  Wet years on the Great Plains – good harvests  Free land given by Homestead Act 1862

New Innovations in Farming  Dry farming  Steel plows  Seed drills  Mechanical reapers and threshers  Inventions suited to wheat – became most important crop  The Wheat Belt – Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas

Bonanza Farms – investors formed corporations which could buy up land, purchase machines, and reap huge profits Agricultural Decline  Global competition caused glut and drop in prices  Drought of late 1880’s

Learning Target - Trace the growth of commercial farming on the Plains  New innovations in farming – new technology  Corporate farming – Bonanza Farms

Native-Americans on the Great Plains  Nomadic hunter-gatherers; some agriculture  Usually lived in bands up to 500 people but could gather into larger groups  Religion based on spirits from the natural world

Migration of people into Indian lands caused conflict Broken treaties Dakota Sioux Uprising  Annuities  “Let the eat grass”  Uprising put down – Indians exiled

The Fetterman “Massacre” 1864 Sand Creek Massacre 1867 Indian Peace Commission – plans for movement of Indians onto reservations failed due to Indian resistance and US corruption

Indians lived on buffalo – way of life threatened by near- extermination of the species Settler intrusion into sacred Indian lands of Black Hills caused war Custer’s “Last Stand”

Wounded Knee Assimilation  1887 Dawes Act – broke up reservations into individual plots for Indians to farm  Policy a failure – Indians not farmers  End of the buffalo doomed Indian culture

Learning Targets Discuss conflicts between settlers and Plains Indians Summarize problems caused by attempts to assimilate native- Americans  Migration of whites into Indian lands  Broken treaties  Eradication of buffalo  Dawes Severalty Act  Indian culture