1. Ch 5, Section 2 Settling on the Great Plains

2. From 1850 to 1871, made large land grants to railroad companies, about 170 million acres. These lands valued about 500 million dollars, a huge sum in the 1800s Certain railroad companies received 10 square miles of public land for every mile of track laid in a state, and 20 square miles of land for every mile laid in a western territory

3. In the 1860s, the Central Pacific (moving east from California) and the Union Pacific (moving westward from Nebraska) began laying track to make the first transcontinental railroad a reality They completed this project in the 1870s. Railroad companies sold many of their lands to immigrant farmers.

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5. The Homestead Act of 1862 granted free land (up to 160 acres) in certain western territories to settlers. The goal of the Homestead Act was to encourage the settlement of the West. From 1862 to 1900 around 600,000 families took advantage of the federal government’s offer.

6. To receive the free land, homesteaders were required to “improve” the land via farming etc. The Homestead Act was successful in some places, but not in others. In 1889, a federal land giveaway in what became Oklahoma brought in thousands of “Sooners” to claim the land.

7. In 1872 the federal government created the Yellowstone National Park, thus preserving special lands for future generations. In 1890, the U.S. Census Bureau declared that the Western Frontier was “closed” in the sense that Western settlement now surrounded the unsettled areas. The Morrill Act of 1862 was another Civil War era law of immense importance.

8. The Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890 created land grant colleges in order to encourage knowledge of modern agriculture and mechanical know-how. Universities such a Auburn, LSU, Michigan State, Penn State and many others have their roots in the Morrill Act. Under the land grant system, the federal government gave money from the sale of certain western lands to states. The states, in turn, used those monies for the establishment and running of land grant universities.

9. The Hatch Act of 1887 established agricultural experiment stations for the purposes of improving agricultural knowledge. Advances in agricultural technology was important to making western settlement profitable. In 1837, John Deere developed a heavy steel plow that could cut through thick prairie grass and soil

10. In 1847, Cyrus McCormick developed a reaping machine that helped farmers harvest large fields of grain. In the late 1800s, however, many farmers had to go into deep debt in order to compete. Though railroads made it possible for western farmers to ship grain back east, it was expensive.

11. Over time, farmers began to unite politically in the hopes of making it easier for farmers to earn a living. The Populist Movement would emerge out of these economic difficulties for farmers.