Westward Expansion

These are the 22 Western States . . . . that form the American West

. . . .(west of the Mississippi River).

• The expansion of the American West is most often associated with the California Gold Rush of 1849.

• Discovery boosted California's population by 80,000 prospectors, but there was still much land land between the Pacific Coast and St. Louis, Missouri.

• Early United States started exploring the vast land to the west from St. Louis almost fifty years before gold nuggets started hitting the pan in California.

1803

• In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson sent a secret message to Congress calling for an expedition into the area west of the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. He felt that an intelligent military man with perhaps a dozen hand-picked men could successfully chart the entire route and do it on roughly $2,500. Jefferson's message was secret because France owned the territory in question and such an expedition would be considered trespassing.

Louisiana Purchase

• Then in July, Napoleon of France offered the whole Louisiana Territory to the United States for $15,000,000. America accepted and the United States grew by about one million square miles, from the Mississippi to the Rockies and from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada.

1804 - Under order of President Thomas Jefferson, the Lewis and Clark Expedition depart from St. Louis, Mo.,

on May 14, to chart a course to the Pacific Ocean.

• Shortly before the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson had chosen his personal secretary, Meriweather Lewis, to lead his expedition.

• When the need for a second-in-command was addressed, Lewis recommended his good friend William Clark, and on May 14, 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition started out from St. Louis in search of the Pacific Ocean.

• Two and a half years and 8,000 miles later the explorers returned to St. Louis. Although the route never became widely used, it provided the starting point for the great western exploration movement. The search for America had begun.

• In 1815, save for the Louisiana Purchase, Spain held most of the territory west of the Mississippi.

• Spanish holdings included present-day Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, California and more. North of California was Oregon Territory, disputed between America and England.

• 1841 - First emigrant wagon train for California. Forty-seven people leave Independence, Mo., on May 1, and reach California on November 4.

• 1842 - Settlement of Oregon begins via the Oregon Trail.

Manifest Destiny

• Phrase coined in 1845 by John L. O’Sullivan, editor of the Democratic Review.

• Expressed conviction that the development of a superior system of government and lifestyle dictated a God-given right of Americans to spread their civilization to the four corners of the continent.

Annexing Texas, 1845• Mexico feared a hostile takeover of Texas after

repeated attempt by the United States to buy the territory.

• To strengthen border areas, Mexico offered land for reduced costs requiring only that the settlers become Mexican citizens and Catholics.

• Stephen Austin and many other contractors organized parties of settlers into Texas.

• Few settlers honored their agreement with Mexico.• Texans won their independence from Mexico in

1836 and were annexed by America nine years later.

• In February 1848, Mexico ceded claims to Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and portions of Colorado. U.S. pays Mexico $15 million.

• United States had acquired undisputed title to all land westward from the Rockies to the Pacific Coast, north to the 49th parallel and south to the Rio Grande. It was this "legitimate possession" that fully convinced thousands of settlers to move westward in search of land.

1849 - 80,000 prospectors emigrate to California to follow the gold boom.

• I…jumped from the pit and stepped to him, and on looking in his hat discovered say ten or twelve pieces of small scales of what proved to be gold. I picked up the largest piece, worth about fifty cents, and tested it with my teeth, and as it did not give, I held it aloft and exclaimed, "gold, boys, gold!" At that they all dropped their tools and gathered around.

• The pioneer spirit came from a need to own land.

• Emigrants did not know what to expect. – Stories were told from explorers and missionaries

of vast , open landscapes, abundant game and pristine rivers and lakes.

• Larger cities along the eastern seaboard were moving into the industrial age

• The streets were crowded with workers and the mid-day skies were constantly blackened by coal smoke from numerous factories.

• For a small filing fee the Federal Government would grant you a title to 320 acres of land. There was one small catch though--in order to remain eligible for that amount of acreage, you had to work the land.

• This stipulation helped avoid land speculation. Smaller acreage such as the 320 mentioned were fairer to the common man, and helped with equal distribution of land resources.

• A problem solved was one of political and territorial unrest. Mexico to the south harbored small gangs of Banditos who saw the areas as morally belonging to the Mexican government. Until these areas became more populated with American citizens these gangs would likely come and go as they pleased, stopping to loot and plunder remote western outposts.

Western pioneers of the 1800s faced:

• Runaway horses, stampeded cattle, prairie fire, blizzards, heat, sunstroke, Indians, lice, snakes and the loneliness of the open plains

• Some gave up, moving back to the security of the East, but many more stayed and helped build and shape the West from small houses to farms to eventually towns and cities

• To provide the fastest mail delivery between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California.

• April 3, 1860, to late October 1861. • The Pony Express ran day and night, summer and winter. • Riders: 183 men are known to have ridden for the Pony

Express during its operation of just over 18 months.• Rider Qualifications: Ad in California newspaper read:

"Wanted. Young, skinny, wiry fellows. Not over 18. Must be expert riders. Willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred." Most riders were around 20. Youngest was 11. Oldest was mid-40s. Not many were orphans. Riders Pay $100 per month.

• Rider Relay: New riders took over every 75 to 100 miles. • Horse Relay: Riders got a fresh horse every 10 to 15 miles. • Speed: Horses traveled an average of 10 miles per hour. • Horses: 400 horses purchased to stock the Pony Express

route. • Trail Length: Almost 2,000 miles. • Telegraph Completed: October 24, 1861. Official end of the

Pony Express.

Transcontinental Railroad

A brief history of the Transcontinental Railroad—and how it changed California

• When James Marshall blinked disbelievingly at the lumps of gold in John Sutter’s millrace in the Sierra foothills in 1848, California was not yet even a United States Territory. News traveled slowly then—even news so exciting as incredible wealth lying in streams for the taking. It took several weeks for the gold fever to spread to San Francisco. It took nearly seven months for the news of Marshall’s accidental discovery of gold to reach the East Coast. Spurred by letters and witnesses, newspapers crowed of the "new El Dorado" and the opportunities to become wealthy merely by walking around picking gold nuggets off the ground. Tens of thousands of men—but at first, only a few women and families—hastily left their old lives for the dash to the West.

• Within three years the population of the state had swelled to more than 250,000. Even before the U.S. won the Mexican War to claim California, visionaries in the East dreamt of iron rails opening the vast West and uniting the country. By 1850, California was even granted statehood. But Californians knew that their prosperity would depend on the railroad.

A Railroad Must be Built

• Almost as soon as the railroad demonstrated its practicality in the mid-1830s, far-thinking men realized that it would be the tool Americans used to pry open the continent and extract wealth from mines, factories, and fields. But this was before the discovery of gold, and the politicians of the day could not conceive of a 2,030-mile, $60-million iron highway across what they understood as the "Great American Desert."

• .

• While the federal government tried to make up its mind,a few courageous individuals got to work. Theodore Judah had no illusions that his Sacramento Valley Rail Road would become the route to the East, but it represented a toehold for the iron horse in the Far West. Sacramento was one of California’s liveliest cities—and the state capital—in 1854 when construction began on the Sacramento Valley’s line to Folsom. Two years later it was done. Judah then turned his sights to a true transcontinental railroad, and became the catalyst for the creation of the Central Pacific Railroad

1869 - Transcontinental railroad completed; golden spike driven at Promontory, Utah, May 10, marking the junction of Central Pacific and Union Pacific railways.

• In mid-1862, President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act authorizing the Central Pacific Railroad to build east from Sacramento and the Union Pacific Railroad to build west from Omaha, on the Missouri River. On May 10, 1869, the two companies met at Promontory Summit, Utah, completing the nation’s first Pacific Railroad a quarter century after the first visionary proposals.

• No other state depended so greatly on a railroad link to the rest of the country. No other state grew so fast or matured so quickly under the combined influences of the railroad, gold, and massive immigration.

• In many ways California represented the "new" United States. Americans had done in eight decades what the best minds of the early 1800s had predicted would take centuries to accomplish: continuous settlement from coast to coast.

• The land of potential became a land of real prosperity as gold and timber and produce flowed east and manufactured goods and migrants went west. Soon enough, the middle filled in and by 1900 gave us the United States we know today. Had it not been for the Gold Rush, statehood would have come to California later and much more slowly. Had it not been for the railroad, statehood might not have come at all.