1. Chapter 17 Section 1
Mining and Railroads

2. Vocabulary Immigrate: to move to a foreign region or country
Manual: involving work done by hand
Vigilantes: self appointed law keepers
Subsides: are grants of land or money
Transcontinental railroad: a railroad line that spanned the continent

3. Boom and Bust The California gold rush of 1849 excited the nation
Miners spread from California to Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains to the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory

4. The Comstock Lode
In 1859 two Irish prospectors found gold in Sierra Nevada
Henry Comstock claimed that it was on his land
Which then became known as the Comstock Lode
The equipment got blue-tinted sand stuck to it and made it hard to dig out gold
For the next 20 years Comstock Lode produced $300 million worth of silver

5. The Boom Spreads
Prospectors found valuable ores in Montana, Idaho, and Colorado
People from all over the world were drawn to Alaska in 1890
For two mules and $11,000 Comstock gave and sold his mining rights
In the 1880’s mining in the west had become a big business

6. Boomtown Life Mining camps started growing quickly into boomtowns
Mule teams hauled tool, food, and clothing
Women were wealthy by opening restaurants, washing clothes or took in boarders, and one woman just baked pies
Mining now had people that spoke Irish, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese, and other languages

7. Frontier Justice
Colorado, Dakota, and Nevada were organized into territories in 1861
Arizona and Idaho followed in 1863 and Montana in 1864
Soon after these boomtowns became ghost towns

8. The Railroad Boom
People raced to lay railroads to the mines and boomtowns
They received help from the federal government

9. Aid to Railroads
Railroads line ended at the Mississippi River before 1860
For every mile of track the government gave 10 sq. miles of land next to the track to the railroads
The railroads got more than 180 million acres (about the size of Texas)
They had also received federal loans

10. Spanning the Continent
Leland Stanford and his partners won the right to build a line eastward from Sacramento in 1862 (called Central Pacific)
Union Pacific would be built west from Omaha, when these to tracks would meet they would stretch coast to coast
Work to build the railroads was hazardous and the pay was low
At last in 1869 two lines were met at Promontory, Utah

11. Effects of the Railroad
As new towns sprung up in the West, many towns and supplies poured in while gold and silver poured out
Growth of population brought political changes
Nevada, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, and Wyoming became states through out the years of