Input

1. Input • Boom and Bust in the Cattle Kingdom • Overstocking and a spell of bad weather eventually put an end to the cattle boom. • The cattle boom lasted from the 1860s to the 1880s. • In 1886 and 1887, a cycle of scorching summers and frigid winters killed millions of cattle. • An economic depression caused a drop in demand for beef. • Giant cattle ranches slowly gave way to smaller ranches that grew their own feed. • Large roundups and long cattle drives vanished.

2. Input • Homesteading • Would-be settlers could get a homestead from the government or land from railroad companies. • During the Civil War, Congress passed the Homestead Act of 1862. • It offered a 160-acre plot to anyone who resided on the land for five years. • Of the thousands that became homesteaders on the Great Plains only one in three homesteaders lasted the required five years. • Railroads recruited thousands of people from the eastern U.S., Ireland, Germany, and Scandinavia to settle on the Great Plains.

3. Input • A Hard Life on the Plains • New techniques and inventions helped settlers adapt to the difficult life on the Plains.

4. Input • A Hard Life on the Plains • New techniques and inventions helped settlers adapt to the difficult life on the Plains. • Whole families worked on the farms. • Men labored from dawn to dusk. • Children tended animals and helped with other chores. • Women helped plant and harvest; they educated children, nursed the sick, sewed clothing, preserved food, and made basic items like soap and candles.

5. Input • A Last Rush for Land • A rush for land in Oklahoma in 1889 signaled the closing of the western frontier. • In April 1889, nearly 100,000 people gathered at a line near present-day Oklahoma City. • These people called “boomers” had come to claim some of the 2 million acres of free homesteads in former Indian Territory. • A few people, known a sooners, had already snuck onto the land; they jumped from hiding and grabbed the best land. • In 1890, the U.S. no longer had land available for homesteading.

6. Input • Farmers Organize • Facing an economic crisis, farmers formed groups like the National Grange and the Populist Party. • As farmers became more efficient, prices fell due to surpluses. Small farmers lost their land. Some communities began to form granges. • In the 1870s and 1880s, Grangers elected state officials who passed laws to limit the rates of railroads and warehouses. • A group called the Farmers’ Alliance organized in the 1870s to help farmers. • In 1892, unhappy farmers joined with labor unions to form the Populist Party. • The party demanded public ownership of railroads and warehouses to control rates, a tax on income to replace property taxes, an eight-hour workday, and other reforms.

7. Input • Farmers Organize • Facing an economic crisis, farmers formed groups like the National Grange and the Populist Party. • The Populists supported Democrat William Jennings Bryan in the election of 1896. • Bryan, known as the “Great Commoner” won the votes of farmers in the South and West for supporting the use of silver to raise prices. • Bankers and business owners claimed rising prices would ruin the economy. • They backed Republican William McKinley and his gold-alone policy. • McKinley won.

8. Research INDEPENDENT WORK Read pages 464-473 in the History textbook. Take more detailed notes based on the “big idea” concepts just introduced.