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The Western frontier. Modern Day Perceptions. The BIG Picture. As Native Americans gradually lost their battle for their lands in the West, settlers brought in new enterprises—mining, ranching, and farming. The Main Points A mining boom brought growth to the West.
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The BIG Picture As Native Americans gradually lost their battle for their lands in the West, settlers brought in new enterprises—mining, ranching, and farming. The Main Points • A mining boom brought growth to the West. • The demand for cattle created a short-lived Cattle Kingdom on the Great Plains. • East and West were connected by the transcontinental railroad.
What Brought People to the West • Advertised a Better Way of Life • Land • Gold • Exploration
Main Point #1: A mining boom brought growth to the West. • Americans continued to move west during the 1800’s • The American frontier reach the Pacific Ocean when California was added to the Union in 1850 • Settlers built homes, ranches and farms • Railroads expanded west to bring western goods to eastern markets • Mining companies shipped gold and silver east from western mines.
1848 John Marshall finds gold at Sutter’s Mill in California. Created a BOOM in population Started a race to find the GOLD 49’ers Group of people who traveled to California in 1849 in search of GOLD / awesome football team
This was a global event, people came from all over the world • Mexico, China, Germany, Turkey, France
Mining Gold Terms • Placer Mining – surface mining for gold • Panning – wash sand or gravel with water in a pan • Lucky Strike – drive a stake into ground claiming area • Strike It Rich – find a huge deposit of gold
Mining Culture Mining Communities • Most miners were men, but some families and single women also came. • Mining camps were usually just groups of tents and shacks. • Some camps grew into towns with stores and businesses. • As more families arrived, churches, schools, and newspapers sprang up. • Some camps grew into major cities such as Denver, Colorado. Mining as a Business • At first individual prospectors worked mines with hand tools. • When surface deposits ran out, large companies moved in to prospect with machinery. • At that point, most miners went to work for large companies giving up on striking it rich. • It was dangerous work, and some miners tried to organize unions for better working conditions, but mining companies resisted.
Mining Settlements Ghost Towns Mining towns that were deserted after the gold and silver were gone Boom Towns Mining town that “grew up” overnight into mining communities Denver & San Francisco
Law and Order • Vigilante --citizens groups formed in the boom towns to maintain law and order. • Vigilantes often acted and “judge and jury.” Ozarks History
Bald Knobbers Nat McKinney • Non racial vigilantes • They are commonly depicted wearing hoods with horns • Between 1865-1885 40 murders in Taney county occurred with out a single suspect. • (Branson, Hollister, and Forsyth area etc.) • Nat McKinney standing at 6' 6 300 + lbs started Bald Knobbers with good intentions • Violence gained national attention
The organization grew rapidly. • 1st time they met was on April 5, 1885, two hundred people showed up at a meeting on Snapp’s Bald, a hilltop south of Forsyth, Missouri. • Kinney, an excellent speaker, was unanimously elected as their leader. • Extracting a vow of secrecy from his followers, Kinney instructs them to recruit new members to carry out the goals of the group.
Within days, the Bald Knobbers made a public display of their force when over 100 hundred of them broke open the door of the Taney County Jail and kidnapped brothers, Frank and Tubal Taylor. who had previously wounded a store owner over a credit dispute on a pair of boots. The Bald Knobbers took the two men out south of Forsyth and hanged the two men. • This degree of violence made several founding members leave the Bald Knobbers, but the group continued to grow to 500 to 1000 members.
The nation’s newspapers published stories about the bloody war in Missouri and the Bald Knobbers were described as the nation’s largest and fiercest vigilante movement. In 1887, the Bald Knobbers killed William Edens and Charley Green, both of whom had been critical of the group, and seriously injured several members of their families. This brought a further outcry from the nation’s newspapers.
Twenty Bald Knobbers were arrested and most received light sentences ranging from fines to short prison terms. However, four were sentenced to death. On August 20, 1888, Nat Kinney was shot and killed by Billy Miles, a member of the Anti-Bald Knobbers, in a planned assassination. Though Miles was tried for Kinney’s murder, he was found not guilty based on self-defense
Other Fortunes Made in Boom Towns • Levi Strauss – Levi Jeans • Phillip Amour – Amour Meats • John Studebaker – wagons and eventually cars • Henry Wells and William Fargo – banking industry
Main Idea 2: The demand for cattle created a short-lived Cattle Kingdom on the Great Plains. • The increasing demand for beef helped the cattle industry grow. • Cattle ranchers in Texas drove herds to Abilene, Kansas, to be shipped east. • Cattle ranching spread across the Great Plains, creating the Cattle Kingdom that stretched from Texas to Canada. • Ranchers grazed huge herds on public land called the open range. • Competition, the invention of barbed wire, and the loss of prairie grass brought an end to the Cattle Kingdom.
Ranching Culture Ranching the Plains • After the Civil War, cattle ranching dominated the Plains. • First the Spanish in the 1500s, then the Mexicans, became skilled at raising cattle in harsh conditions. They interbred Spanish and English cattle to breed Texas Longhorns, which were hearty and thrived on the Plains. • The Spanish also brought sheep ranching to the Plains, which grew after the Civil War when demand for wool expanded. • Sheep farmers cattle owners clashed over grazing land and became violent.
Cattle Drives • Demand for beef grew in the East, so ranchers hired cowboys, usually white teens, for three–months–long cattle drives to railroad towns for shipping. • The Chisholm Trail from San Antonio to Kansas was a major cattle trail. Ranching as a Big Business • The invention of barbed wire helped cattle owners manage large herds. • Between 1882 and 1886 more than 400 cattle corporations sprang up in the West, but fencing led to conflict when land owners who enclosed their land left landless cattle owners with nowhere to graze their cattle.
The Morrill Act gave the states land to build colleges that taught agriculture and mechanics. This was the first federal government assistance for higher education. The Pacific Railway Act gave millions of acres to railroad companies to build tracks and telegraph lines. Population Explosion • With encouragement from the government, people started pouring onto the Great Plains to build farms. • In 1862 Congress passed three acts to encourage settlement: The Homestead Act let any head of household over 21 to claim 160 acres of land, as long as they built a home, farmed for five years, and made improvements. The Oklahoma Land Rush occurred when a lobbyist found 2 million acres of land not assigned to any Native American nation. Despite the government’s ban against settlers’ entry into the Indian Territory, settlers were still able to claim the land. On April 22, 1889, would-be settlers lined the border until it opened, when 50,000 people rushed in and claimed homesteads.
How Did They Get There? • Prairie Schooner – large, covered wagon • Pilot – person in charge of the wagon train • At evening time the pilot rode ahead and marked a circle of about 100 yards in diameter as a camp site. • Oxen used to pull the wagons • Many had bells tied to the harness so there would be something to fight the monotony • Many people were barefoot the whole way Oregon Trail
Homestead Act of 1862 What did the settler’s receive? **160 acres of land What were the settlers’ citizenship requirements? **Had to be a citizen or in the process **Male and Female could both apply What were their age requirements? **21 years old How long did a homesteader have to reside on the property? **At least 5 years What was a homesteader required to do to improve the land? **Cultivate the land May 20th, 1862
Challenges and Solutions • Farming on the Plains presented challenges because of the harsh climate—bitter cold, wind and snow in the winter, intense heat and drought in the summer. • Many families used wells powered by windmills. • Some settlers learned irrigation from Hispanic and Native American farmers. • Wood for houses was in limited supply. • Settlers used the earth itself to build by digging into the sides of hills or making homes from sod. • Used buffalo chips as fuel instead of wood • Farming was challenging in the hard soil of the Plains. • New machinery like new, sharper-edged plows and combine harvesters helped Plains farmers. • Large companies started giant bonanza farms that were like factories, which profited in good years but were too expensive to survive bad growing years.
Main Idea 3:East and West were connected by the transcontinental railroad. • The growth of the West created a need for communication across the country. • The Pony Express carried messages on a route 2,000 miles long. • Telegraph lines put the Pony Express out of business. • Demand for a transcontinental railroad grew. • Congress passed the Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 and 1864, giving railroad companies loans and land grants. • The railroads agreed to carry mail and troops at a lower cost.
The Great Race • In the race to complete a transcontinental railroad, the Central Pacific started in San Francisco and worked east, and the Union Pacific started in Omaha and worked west. • Large numbers of Irish and Chinese immigrants worked on the railroads. • Geography and weather posed many challenges to building the railroads. • On May 10, 1869, the railroad lines met and joined the two tracks with a golden spike at Promontory, Utah. • Companies continued building railroads throughout the West.
Results of Railroad • Growth • Economic growth and Population increased • Railroads provided better transportation for people and goods • They also encouraged people to move west • Railroads became one of the country’s biggest industries • Panic of 1873 • Railroad speculation increased • The collapse of railroad owner Jay Cooke’s banking firm helped start the Panic of 1873 • Many small western railroads were deeply in debt by the 1880s.
The Big Idea • Native Americans and the U.S. government came into conflict over land in the West. • Main Ideas • As settlers moved to the Great Plains, they encountered the Plains Indians. • The U.S. Army and Native Americans fought in the northern plains, the Southwest, and the Far West. • Despite efforts to reform U.S. policy toward Native Americans, conflict continued.
Old Way of Life • Indians were Nomadic – moved from place to place following the buffalo • Relied on the buffalo for • Food • Weapons • Clothing • Shelter • Fuel • Glue
Indians Long Journey • After the Civil War, railroad companies paid men to kill the buffalo to feed the workers • One man boasted he killed over 4000 buffalo in 18 months • This was the beginning of the end for the Indians • The Government tried to move the Indians from reservation to reservation and this would lead to conflict
Battles • Battle of Little Bighorn • Led his 250 men into battle against over 2000 Indians • Everyone in his company were killed • Geronimo • Outlaw
Dawes Act 1887 Ethnocentrism the tendency to believe that one's ethnic or cultural group is centrally important, and that all other groups are measured in relation to one's own • The law aimed to give Native Americans private individual ownership of land, eliminate their nomadic lifestyle, and encourage them to become farmers • The law broke up the reservations in an attempt to end tribal identification • Native American children were sent to white-run boarding schools for deculturization • The plan failed and speculators acquired most of the valuable land with Natives receiving land that was often dry and ill-suited for farming
Consequences of Dawes Act • Wounded Knee • Native Americans were upset and turned to ,Wovoka, a Sioux prophet • Said that Sioux would gain their greatness Ghost Dance
The Big Idea • Settlers on the Great Plains created new communities and unique political groups. • Main Ideas • Many Americans started new lives on the Great Plains. • Economic challenges led to the creation of farmers’ political groups. • By the 1890s, the western frontier had come to an end.
Farmer’s Complaints • After the Civil War farming expanded and as more land was cultivated supplies grew faster than demand which caused prices to fall while the farmers costs of transporting their goods to market, for seed, and for equipment all rose. Farmers blamed their troubles on three groups: • Railroads – They engaged in pools and rebates • Eastern Manufacturers – because they charged high prices for their goods • Bankers – because of their lending practices and money supply based on gold • Farmers wanted free silver money based on an unlimited production of silver coins
The Grange • Farmers began to organize to solve their problems. In a short time they created a political movement. The movement started with local self help groups that eventually became called the National Grange • The Grange offered farmers education, fellowship, and support • It encouraged economic self-sufficiency • It set-up cash only cooperatives in an attempt to end buying on credit that burdened farmers with debt they often could not pay. • The Grange looked to gets states to limit railroad rates and did get many laws passed. • The railroads put pressure on the state legislatures and the laws were repealed. • The Grange cooperatives also failed as farmers, always short of cash, had to borrow money until their next crop sold. • The Grange was replaced by Farmers Alliances.
