PERIOD 6: 1865-1898APUSH – MS. JUSTICE - BHS

SETTLING THE WEST

THE FIRST TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD

• Pacific Railroad Act –1862

• Immigrant labor –Chinese, Mexican, Irish

• May 10, 1869 –Promontory Point, Utah

SETTLERS AND THE RAILROAD

• Federal land granted to the railroads• Recruited settlers

HOMESTEADING ON THE GREAT PLAINS

• 1862 Homestead Act• 160 acres: $10 registration fee Live on the land & cultivate it for 5 years

NEW FARMS, NEW MARKETS, NEW STATES

• Advances in farm mechanization & barbed wire• Expensive & unpredictable weather

• 14 states added between 1861-1912• Washington – 1889

EXPLOITING THE WESTERN LANDSCAPE

THE MINING FRONTIER

• Gold rush – 1849• Comstock Lode – 1853• Alaska territory 1867• Toll on the environment

COWBOYS & THE CATTLE FRONTIER

• Increase in open range cattle ranching• Cowboys – glorified as men of rough-hewn integrity & self-reliant

strength• 1/5 were black or Mexican• Cattle towns & prostitution• Railroad expansion brought open range cattle drives

to an end by 1885

Nat Love