1. Miners, Ranchers, Farmers, Cowboys
Looking to the West ( )
Miners, Ranchers, Farmers, Cowboys

2. OPVL #1

3. Mining Young, single men Desire to strike it rich Cherry Creek, CO
Other CO places in the mountains
Helena, MT
Virginia City, NV
Black Hills (South Dakota)

4. The Mining Frontier Some small prospectors made fortunes
Most money made by large mining corporations.
Mining towns had high populations of foreigners.
Environmental destruction due to blasting, chemicals, and water pollution.

5. Mining’s Economic Impacts
The added gold (and silver)
Boosted U.S. economy
Increased foreign investment
Stimulated U.S. involvement in global economy

6. OPVL #2

7. Ranching Fences Large tracts of land Huge herds of cattle
Rise of the Cattle Barons

8. OPVL #3
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Judge Roy Bean's Courthouse and Saloon

9. OPVL #4
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Hunters in Arizona Territory

10. OPVL #5
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Cradling for gold in Montana Territory

11. OPVL #6
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Mining camp in Colorado Territory

12. OPVL #7
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Street scene in Utah, 1869

13. OPVL #8

14. The Cattle Trails
file:///Users/jcorn/Desktop/Animations/Cattle%20Trails.htm

15. Texas Longhorn Cattle Durable Tough Ornery
Good sense of smell - could locate sources of groundwater

16. Longhorn Cattle

17. OPVL #9
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Roundup on Sherman Ranch

18. OPVL #10

19. OPVL #11

20. The American Cowboy Romanticized Mythologized Lonely, rugged existence
Necessary for Cattle business
“The Virginian”

21. The Cattle Drives Romanticized, difficult Spurred growth of RRs
Food “on the hoof” fed growing demand in Eastern Markets and for Miners
Depended on the Open Range

22. Farming as Business Improved farming technologies:
Mechanical Reaper (Early Combine)
Barbed wire
Dry farming
Steel Plow
Windmills
Hybridization
Seed drills
Led to Bonanza farms:
Specialized in a single cash crop
The rise of ‘agribusiness’.

23. New Technology Eases Farm Labor
Reduced labor force needed for harvest. Allows farmers to maintain larger farms.
Mechanized Reaper
Keeps cattle from trampling crops and uses a minimal amount of lumber, which was scarce on the plains.
Barbed Wire
Allows cultivation of arid land by using drought-resistant crops and various techniques to minimize evaporation.
Dry Farming
Allows farmers to cut through dense, root-choked sod.
Steel Plow
Smoothes and levels ground for planting.
Harrow
Powers irrigation systems and pumps up ground water.
Steel Windmill
Cross-breeding of crop plants, which allows greater yields and uniformity.
Hybridization
Keeps cattle from trampling crops and uses a minimal amount of lumber, which was scarce on the plains.
Improved Communication
Array of multiple drills used to carve small trenches in the ground and feed seed into the soil.
Grain Drill
Farms controlled by large businesses, managed by professionals, raised massive quantities of a single cash crop.
Bonanza Farm

24. Farming Technologies and Innovations

25. Bonanza Farms 10,000 acre farms Wheat boom of the 1880s
Population in Dakotas tripled
Overproduction, high investment costs, droughts, and reliance on one-crop agriculture brought an end to the boom
1890 prices fell, some lost everything

26. The Wild West Gunfights Outlaws (Billy the Kid)
Marshals and Sheriffs (Wyatt Earp)
Mythical
Dodge City, KS
Tombstone, AZ

27. Myth vs. Reality Myth Reality
Cowboys were romantic, self-sufficient, and virtuous
All were white
Ideal, garden of Eden
Could make a fortune in the west
Western towns were lawless
Reality
Cowboys were young, poorly paid, and did hard labor
20% were black or Mexican
Harmonious race relations on the trail
Harsh conditions
Most made little, if any money
There were police forces and order in the West

28. The Western Myth Some (Roosevelt) saw social Darwinism in the west.
Perceived as the last chance to build a truly good society
Novels and accounts glossed over hard labor and ethnic strife.
Reality, western settlement depended more upon companies and railroads than individuals.

29. Frontier Myths
The Wild West: Some elements of the frontier myths were true. Yet, many wild towns of the West calmed down fairly quickly or disappeared.
By the 1880s, the frontier had many churches and a variety of social groups. Major theatrical productions toured growing western cities. The East had come West.
Taming the Frontier
By 1890, the United States Census Bureau announced the official end of the frontier. The population in the West had become dense, and the days of free western land had come to an end.
The End of the Frontier
In 1893, historian Frederick Jackson Turner claimed that the frontier had played a key role in forming the American character. The Turner Thesis, as his view came to be called, stated that frontier life created Americans who were socially mobile, ready for adventure, bent on individual self-improvement, and committed to democracy.
Turner’s Frontier Thesis
The Wild West remains fixed in popular culture and continues to influence how Americans think about themselves. Many stereotypes–exaggerated or oversimplified descriptions of reality, and frontier myths persist today despite our deeper understanding of the history of the American West.
Myths in Literature, Shows, and Song

30. The Frontier Myth Still lives in the American imagination
Depicted in movies
TV shows (Frontier House, Little House on the Prairie, Gunsmoke, etc.)

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Dodge City Peace Commissioners (Wyatt Earp third from left)