Building the West: Transportation and Manifest Destiny

1. Building the West:Transportation and Manifest Destiny Gilcrease Museum Dr. Rich Loosbrock Tulsa, Oklahoma

2. Why This Topic • My background: Grew up on Highway 20 in western Nebraska • My research in western transportation • Besides imparting the stories of how transportation transformed the West, I hope to convey how this history gets written

3. Arrival of the Horse and the Wheel • The Horse does not appear until 1541 with Coronado and his expedition • The wheel does not appear in many places until the 1830s; railroads come just a generation later, 1860s. • Much of the human landscape of the west is the product of the railroads

4. Spread of the Horse Culture

5. Native Americans and the horse • Expanded greatly the range of plains Indians and their pursuit os the buffalo • Also greatly increased the trading networks of the West • And conflict between tribes: Example of the Crow and Lakota

6. Trails West

7. Western Movement

8. The Oregon and Mormon Trails

9. The Covered Wagon

10. Animals Oxen were the most common. Mules were the second common.

11. Distance Traveled • People traveled about 12-15 miles in one day. • They traveled 2,000 miles in total. • The people traveled 6 months in total from their starting point to their destination. • Oxen traveled 2 miles an hour.

12. The Trail Across Nebraska

13. Ft. Kearny • Supplies and the • Trail • Role of army

14. Platte River Crossing • Dangers of river crossings

15. Ash Hollow, Nebraska • Importance of camping spots and watering holes

16. Courthouse and Jailhouse Rocks

17. Chimney Rock • 90 meters high • Rises near Bayard, Nebraska • Nearly half a million emigrants saw Chimney Rock • Most commented on feature of the trail

18. Scotts Bluff and Mitchell Pass, NE

19. The Trail Across Wyoming

20. Register Cliff, Wyoming

21. Ft. Laramie, Wyoming

22. Independence Rock • Many emigrants arrived here on the fourth of July. • Signature rock • 700 feet wide, 1900 feet long, maximum of 128 feet above the Sweetwater Valley floor

23. Devil’s Gate • Just past Independence Rock

24. South Pass, Wyoming

25. Idaho Trail

26. Thousand Springs • Along Snake River • Travel easier in Idaho

27. Ft. Hall, Idaho

28. Three Islands Crossing, Idaho

29. Blue Mountains, Oregon

30. On to Oregon To the Columbia at The Dalles, Oregon

31. Men and Women on the Oregon Trail • Heavy immigration started in 1843 • The peak year was 1852: about 50,000 made the journey • Overall, between 1840 and 1868 about 350,000 made the journey and about 68,000 on the Mormon trail • The transcontinental railroad finished the trail

32. Men and Women on the Trail • Gender dictated the experience • Work was segregated by sex • Men usually made the decision to go

33. Pony Express Route: A Fleeting Moment

34. Freighting and the Pony Express • A major industry; wherever settlement went, so followed freighting close behind • The Pony Express was the most colorful, but it was a financial failure. • It lasted from April, 1860 to October, 1861.

36. Railroads: The First Big Business • Railroads are both cause and effect of American industrialization: • The are the product of industrial advances, but they also drive industrial development • But they provide paradoxical developments: • They provide massive economic development but create monopolies and the concentration of economic power

37. Origins • Like most things of an industrial nature, they started in England. • Railroads had many advantages over canals and roads: • They didn’t freeze in the winter, were much more flexible and could go nearly anywhere. • The major advantage of railroads was (and is) that they are low-friction, thus requiring relatively little energy to run.

38. Early Trains

40. Technical Obstacles • Railroads had to figure out how to build reliable steam engines that were relatively light. • They also had to figure out a good method of laying track; development of the ‘T’ rail was crucial. • During the 1830s, these problems were largely overcome

43. The Tom Thumb

44. Early Railroads • Financing: Financing was always the major obstacle. Most was private, but state assistance immediately became important. Early on, this was usually municipal. • On the Baltimore and Ohio, 3/4s came from private funds, while Baltimore and the state of Maryland kicked in. • The Fed. Government provided little direct assistance. Most was in surveys and technical information. Most engineers were military men, and many went from the military to railroad work.

45. Early Corporations • Railroads pioneered the corporate system: • They operated over long distances • They had to handle a number of functions such as building, track maintenance, rolling stock maintenance, accounting, passenger service, train operations. • Early railroads such as the Pennsylvania RR developed the “line and staff” structure common in later businesses.

46. Early Railroads • They pioneered financing schemes, especially in the use of stock. • They pioneered advertising. • They pioneered food service and passenger comfort.

47. Railroads and the Civil War • By the war, the railroad was the dominant form of transportation. The Union effectively used them during the war. • The war also brought about the victory of the Republicans and their program of business encouragement; laissez faire was never truly in effect.

48. Railroads and the West • Many of the debates about railroads in the 1850s surrounded federal involvement and placement of a transcontinental line. • With California entering in 1850, a line was needed and the Kansas-Nebraska Act became a huge spark for the Civil War. • A critical theme in the history of the West: the “twin pillars” of western development: Big business, big government

50. Types of Development • Railroad building decisions fell into two broad categories: • Opportunistic, which took advantage of existing markets and often meant quick profits. • Developmental, in which railroads built into undeveloped territories for potential, but distant, profits.