The Transformation of the West

West vs. South: 1877-1900

• West– Linked to Industrial Future– Home to booming towns– Producing food and raw materials for industry

by increasingly industrialized means

• South– Only industrializing a little– Still cotton dependent

Jackson Frederick Turner

• Frontier Thesis– Frontier conditions create and reinforce

democracy– What happens when frontier closes in 1890?

Transcontinental Railroad

• Two Lines Become One: Union Pacific and Central Pacific

• July 1862-May 10, 1869

• Government Funding is key– 131 million acres - Feds– 49 million acres from States

Transcontinental Railroad Route

At The Golden Spike

Rail Growth

• 1860: 30,000 miles of rail exist

• 1864: Northern Pacific Commissioned

• 1910: 240,000 miles of track

• National Market

Northern Pacific Line

Native Americans

• Great Basin Tribes--Shoshone, Paiutes– Stone Age Technology– Hunter/Gatherers – Family Organization

• Plains Indians– American Technology, Native Lifestyle– Skilled Warriors and Buffalo Hunters– Tribal Organization

Relations

• Reservations and Indian Territory

• Tensions due to settlers

• Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851)

• Dakota War: 1862

• Sand Creek Massacre: 1864

Indian Wars (1864-1892)

• Plains War (1864-7)

• Second Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)

• Little Big Horn: 1876

• Nez Pierce

• Destruction of the Buffalo

• Ghost Dance: 1890-2

Indian Reform

• Assimilation

• Dawes Severality Act of 1887

• Education

The Mining Frontier

• Colorado, 1859 and the Comstock Lode

• Deadwood (1874)

• Transitory Settlements

• Hope of Wealth

• Few Women

• Ethnically Diverse

Placerville, California, 1850

Deadwood, Dakota Territory, 1877 (Wall Street)

Violence

• Racism

• Poor Law Enforcement

• Violence

• Vigilante Justice

Prospector to Prospectus

• Precious Metals: Gold and Silver

• Practical Mining: Iron, Coal, Quartz, Copper

• Private to Corporate– Hydraulic Mining

– Wage Labor

– Pollution

– Unions and Union Busting

– 1893: Western Federation of Miners

River Mining

Gold Dredging Damage

The Cattlemen: Glory Days

• The Chisholm Trail

• Cattle Drives

• Cowboys

• Cattle Towns

Hispanic-styled Ranch House

Industrialization of Cattle

• Northern Cattle

• Industrialization

• Sheep

• Specialized Farming

• Cherokee Strip

Settling the West: The Landscape

• Great Plains

• Great Basin

• Buffalo

Prairie in Washington State

Land Grants

• Homestead Act of 1862

• Timber Culture Act of 1873

• Desert Land Act of 1877

• Speculators

Water Policy

• Prior Appropriation Doctrine

• Carey Act of 1894

• Newlands Act of 1902

Going West

• 1840: 175,000 west of Mississippi

• 1880: 10 million (20% of US pop)

• Exodus Movement

Western Hispanics

• New Mexico, California, Texas

• Rights?

• Loss of Land

• Wage Labor

• Agriculture and Food Influence

Home on the Range

• Frontier Women

• Isolation– The Grange

• Churches