Topic 10.2The West is Transformed

1865-1900

Mining, Ranching, and Farming

2.9, 3.1, 3.5

“Comstock Lode”

Placer Mining – Using picks, shovels, and pans.

Quartz Mining – Dug deep beneath the surface. -Dynamite

Henry Comstock –Right

Staked a claim in Six Mile Canyon, Nevada.

Vigilance Committees – self appointed volunteers punishing wrongdoers.

Boom Town: Virginia City http://www.ghosttowns.co

m/states/nm/nm.html

The Transcontinental Railroad Impacts the Frontier Transcontinental Railroad: Linked the east

and west Land Grants: Government land given to RR

companies to sell Central Pacific: Sacramento, California (Chinese

Immigrants) Union Pacific: Omaha, Nebraska (Irish, German,

African American) 1869: Promontory Point, Utah: Place that

country was officially “connected” with GOLDEN SPIKE

“ The Long Drive”

Open Range – A vast area of grassland owned by the government.

Long Drive – From either Abilene or Dodge City in Kansas to Sedalia, Missouri.

Chisholm Trail – A town that rivaled the mining towns in terms of rowdiness.

Mavericks – stray calves with no identifying symbols

“Range Wars”-open fighting between cattle ranchers (Cowboys)

William H.

Bonney:

“Billy the Kid”

Lincoln County

War: N.Mex.

Major Cattle Trails on the LONG DRIVE

“End of Long Drive”

Barbed Wire – enabled hundreds of square miles to be fenced off cheaply and easily. –Joseph Glidden (Right Pic.)

Refrigerated Rail Car -Gustavus Swift (Left

Pic.)

“Great American Desert”

Great Plains – Extended westward to the Rocky Mountains from around the 100th meridian.

Stephen Long – Explored the region with an army expedition in 1819.

Homestead Act – For a $10 registration fee, an individual could file for a homestead.

Homestead – A tract of public land available for settlement.

Exodusters

Farming the Plains

Dry Farming – Plant seeds deep in the ground where there was enough moisture for them to grow.

Sodbusters – those who plowed the soil on the Plains.

Bonanza Farms – Large Corporate Farms that often yielded big profits. Drove Small Family Farms out of Business.

Mexicans Americans Defend Property Rights

• Abuse and Discrimination Undermine Rights

• Courts backed white Americans land claims most of the time

• Las Gorras Blancas: Extremist group who targeted large ranch owners with terror tactics

• Alianza Hispano-Americana: Organization formed to protect Mexican-American Culture