1. Miners and Ranchers Chapter 11- Section 1 Brandy Miller, BreeAna Braden, and Megan Loos

2. Wave of Settlers to the West ● Demand for minerals rose after Civil war as the U.S went from a farming nation to an industrial nation. ● Mining/ ranching attracted settlers to the west

3. Henry Comstock ● 1859, prospector staked claim in Six-Mile Canyon, near Virginia, Nevada. ● Struck silver oar, but didn't realize it because he was hoping to strike gold. ● Comstock Lode brought flood of eager prospectors to Virginia City.

4. Boomtowns ● Boomtown: tiny frontier towns that were transformed into small cities almost overnight. ● Boomtowns had much crime and were rowdy ● Vigilance committees: Self appointed volunteers who would track down and punish wrongdoers.

5. Mining Leading to Statehood ● Colorado, Arizona, North and South Dakota, and Montana were developed due to mining. ● Although Arizona didn't grow as quickly as other states, by 1912 it had enough people to apply for statehood, as did the neighboring territory of New Mexico.

6. Early Mining Technology ● Extracting minerals took a lot of work and patience. ● Early prospectors used simple tools like picks, shovels, and pans. Other prospectors used sluice mining -Sluices diverted the current of a river into trenches.

7. Hydraulic Mining ● Hydraulic Mining: water is sprayed at a very high pressure against a hill or mountain, washing away large quantities of dirt, gravel, and rock, and exposing the minerals beneath the surface ● Was effective for mining, but was ● devastating to local environments. – Sediment washed into rivers, causing them to overflow and flood farmland.

8. Hydraulic Mining (Continued) ● 1800s, farmers fought back by suing mining companies. ● Lorenzo Sawyer said it was a “public and private nuisance” and issued an injunction stopping the practice. ● Congress passed a law in 1893 allowing hydraulic mining if the mining company created a place to store the sediment.

9. Ranching and Cattle Drives ● While many Americans went to the Rocky Mountains to mine, others began herding cattle on the Great Plains. ● Almost 5 million Texas longhorns flourished in Texas grasslands ● Open range: vast area of grassland that the federal gov. owned. – Covered most of the Great Plains, provided land for ranchers free of charge.

10. The Long Drive ● After the war, beef prices soared and ranchers needed a way to sell it to the easterners. ● Herded longhorns to Sedalia, Missouri on the first long drive ● Between 1867 and 1871, cowboys drove a herd that was nearly 1.5 million cattle up the Chisholm Trail from southern Texas to towns in Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming.

11. Cattle Industry Changed ● “Range wars” broke out between sheep herders and ranchers that were competing for land. ● Barbed wire was invented to close the open range. ● Fences, oversupply of animals, and plummeting prices ended the long drives. ● Blizzards struck in the Plains, causing massive numbers of cattle to die.

12. Settling the Hispanic Southwest ● After the U.S defeated Mexico, it acquired the Spanish speaking population and control of much of its region. ● Haciendas: huge ranches that covered thousands of acres, owned by a society dominated by a landowning elite. ● Hispanics were majority in public affairs and very influential in New Mexico, Texas, and California.