Looking to the West 1860 -1900 Miners Ranchers

Looking to the West (1860 -1900) ◊Miners, Ranchers, Farmers, Cowboys, Workers

The Spread of Western Mining

Mining ◊ Young, single men ◊ Desire to strike it rich ◊ Cherry Creek, CO • Other CO places in the mountains ◊ Helena, MT ◊ Virginia City, NV ◊ Black Hills (South Dakota)

The Mining Frontier ◊ Some small prospectors made fortunes ◊ Most money made by large mining corporations. ◊ Mining towns had high populations of foreigners. ◊ Environmental destruction due to blasting, chemicals, and water pollution.

Mining’s Economic Impacts ◊ The added gold (and silver) • Boosted U. S. economy • Increased foreign investment • Stimulated U. S. involvement in global economy

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Ranching ◊ Fences ◊ Large tracts of land ◊ Huge herds of cattle ◊ Rise of the Cattle Barons

The Cattle Trails ◊ Chisholm Trail- led cattle from ranches to railroad

Texas Longhorn Cattle ◊ Tough ◊ Ornery ◊ Good sense of smell - could locate sources of groundwater

Longhorn Cattle

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The American Cowboy ◊ Romanticized ◊ Mythologized ◊ Lonely, rugged existence ◊ Necessary for Cattle business

The Cattle Drives ◊ Romanticized, difficult ◊ Spurred growth of RRs ◊ Food “on the hoof” fed growing demand in Eastern Markets and for Miners ◊ Depended on the Open Range

Farming as Business ◊ Improved farming technologies: • Mechanical Reaper (Early Combine) • Barbed wire • Dry farming • Steel Plow • Windmills • Hybridization • Seed drills ◊ Led to Bonanza farms: • Specialized in a single cash crop • The rise of ‘agribusiness’.

New Technology Eases Farm Labor Mechanized Reaper Barbed Wire Dry Farming Steel Plow Harrow Reduced labor force needed for harvest. Allows farmers to maintain larger farms. Keeps cattle from trampling crops and uses a minimal amount of lumber, which was scarce on the plains. Allows cultivation of arid land by using drought-resistant crops and various techniques to minimize evaporation. Allows farmers to cut through dense, root-choked sod. Smoothes and levels ground for planting. Steel Windmill Powers irrigation systems and pumps up ground water. Hybridization Cross-breeding of crop plants, which allows greater yields and uniformity. Grain Drill Bonanza Farm Array of multiple drills used to carve small trenches in the ground and feed seed into the soil. Farms controlled by large businesses, managed by professionals, raised massive quantities of a single cash crop.

Farming Technologies and Innovations

Bonanza Farms ◊ 10, 000 acre farms ◊ Wheat boom of the 1880 s ◊ Population in Dakotas tripled ◊ Overproduction, high investment costs, droughts, and reliance on onecrop agriculture brought an end to the boom ◊ 1890 prices fell, some lost everything

The Wild West ◊ Gunfights ◊ Outlaws (Billy the Kid) ◊ Marshals and Sheriffs (Wyatt Earp) ◊ Mythical ◊ Dodge City, KS ◊ Tombstone, AZ

Myth vs. Reality ◊ Myth ◊ Reality ◊ Cowboys were romantic, self-sufficient, and virtuous ◊ All were white ◊ Ideal, garden of Eden ◊ Could make a fortune in the west ◊ Western towns were lawless ◊ Cowboys were young, poorly paid, and did hard labor ◊ 20% were black or Mexican ◊ Harmonious race relations on the trail ◊ Harsh conditions ◊ Most made little, if any money ◊ There were police forces and order in the West

The Western Myth ◊ Some (Roosevelt) saw social Darwinism in the west. ◊ Perceived as the last chance to build a truly good society ◊ Novels and accounts glossed over hard labor and ethnic strife. ◊ Reality, western settlement depended more upon companies and railroads than individuals.

◊ Still lives in the American imagination ◊ Depicted in movies ◊ TV shows (Frontier House, Little House on the Prairie, Gunsmoke, etc. ) The Frontier Myth

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Railroad Workers ◊ Mostly immigrants • Chinese from the west • Irish from the east ◊ Also veterans and African Americans ◊ Worked on Transcontinental Railroad ◊ Dangerous job; use dynamite to blast mountains

Homestead Act ◊ Passed in 1862 ◊ Government gave 160 acre farm plots to anyone willing to live on the land for 5 years, dig a well, and build a road

Exodusters ◊ Former slaves that fled the South after Reconstruction ◊ Took advantage of Homestead Act opportunities

Problems on the Great Plains ◊ Windstorms ◊ Droughts ◊ Plagues of locusts ◊ Loneliness ◊ No lumber

“Soddies” ◊ Sod houses ◊ Pioneers cut sections of sod and stacked them like bricks

The Best West Photo Ever

Morrill Act- 1862 ◊ Inventions created to make farming easier in the west ◊ Still needed education ◊ Morrill Act granted land to states to establish agricultural colleges

1890 ◊ Frontier closes ◊ Census concluded no square miles were left out west with no white inhabitants