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Competitors for the West and Environmental Impacts of Western Settlement

Competitors for the West and Environmental Impacts of Western Settlement . Homestead Act of 1862 . Allowed anyone to file for a quarter-section of free land.

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Competitors for the West and Environmental Impacts of Western Settlement

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  1. Competitors for the West and Environmental Impacts of Western Settlement

  2. Homestead Act of 1862 • Allowed anyone to file for a quarter-section of free land. • Full ownership occurred at the end of five years if you had built a house on it, dug a well, broken 10 acres, fenced a specified amount, and actually lived there. • New arrivals to the U.S. and landless citizens were obvious candidates for the homestead lands • Homesteaders were more likely to be the children of established farmers seeking a place of their own.

  3. Building a Sod House House Sod was the logical answer to housing for the pioneers who had no trees or stones in sight. Sod was cheap, easily accessible, and provided excellent insulation. Because wood was sparse and coal was expensive, early pioneers used buffalo “chips” for fuel.

  4. Sod Houses

  5. Sod Houses

  6. Sod Houses

  7. Sod Houses

  8. Gold and Silver Production • One of the factors that led to western expansion of the United States was the mining industry. • Individual prospectors found many of the West’s richest gold and silver deposits. • The majority of the gold and silver produced was mined by corporations.

  9. Life at a Gold Mining Camp • Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clapp wrote about life in a Gold Mining Camp. • Her letters were later published in a magazine. • “Imagine a tiny valley about eight hundred yards in length, and perhaps thirty in width, apparently hemmed in by lofty hills, almost perpendicular, draperied to their very summits with beautiful fir-trees…” • “Through the middle of Rich Bar runs the street, thickly planted with about forty tenements, among which figure round tents, square tents, plank hovels, log cabins, etc., the residences varying in elegance and convenience from the palatial splendor of “The Empire” down to a “local habitation” formed of pine boughs and covered with old calico shirts.”

  10. Life on the Range • The life of a cowboy on the Great Plains in the 1800s was challenging. • Working in all types of weather conditions, searching for lost cattle, mending fences, and eating the same food day after day was common place for these men. • The work was hard and dangerous; pay averaged from $25 to $40 a month. • George Martin reminisced with an interviewer from the Federal Writers Project in the 1930s. • Martin recalled the tough work, difficult conditions, and long days required of ranch hands in Texas.

  11. Capturing the American Cowboy Experience • In the late 1890s and early 1900s, the Thomas A. Edison, Inc. recorded the life of the American Cowboy by using the recently invented motion picture camera.

  12. A System of Modern Geography • The status of Native Americans has changed several times throughout the history of the United States. • National leaders stated that Native Americans owned the soil they occupied. • In the 1830s the United States government implemented a policy of removal. • The President of the United States was given the authority to move Native Americans onto land west of the Mississippi River. • Eventually most Native Americans tribes would be required to settle on reservations.

  13. Native Lands 1816-1905

  14. Cattle Trails and Early Transcontinental Railroads • Ranchers in southern Texas met the East Coast’s demand for meat. • In order for the demand to be met, ranchers would have to drive their cattle north to towns such as Dodge City, Abilene and Ogallala. • At these railheads, the cattle would be loaded for the journey east of the Mississippi River.

  15. Media Citations • Slide 2: http://www.nps.gov/home/Homesteading%20Map.htm • Slide 3: http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0600/frameset.html • Slide 4-7: http://rs6.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/ngp:@FILREQ(@field(SUBJ+@BAND(sod+houses))+@FIELD(COLLID+ndfa)) • Slide 9-10: Historical Statistics of the United States • Slide 11: http://www.eurekagoldpanning.com/images/1898-Photo.jpg • Slide 12: http://www.old-picture.com/old-west/pictures/Cowboy.jpg • Slide 13: http://www.forttours.com/images/hoppy.jpg • Slide 15: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jalanne/Maps/Indian_Lands_1816_1905.jpg • Slide 16: http://wps.ablongman.com/wps/media/objects/31/32716/figures/DIVI350.jpg

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