1. Chapter 17
The West Transformed
1860-1896

2. Section 1
Mining & Railroads

3. 1865
 Western Frontier
 Stretched from Mississippi River to Pacific Ocean
 Native Americans, Mexican settlers, & pioneers
migrating to California & Oregon
 Value of the frontier was underestimated & was
often called the American Desert (prior to Civil War)
 Railroad builders & miners were among the 1st to transform
the West & help make it a part of the Nation’s economy

4. Boom & Bust
 Settlement came in a rush
 Where gold & silver was found
 Towns formed quickly, but did not last long
 1849
 Gold rush in California excited the nation
 Miners spread from California to Nevada, across
the Rocky Mts. & to South Dakota

5. Comstock Lode
 1859 (Before the Civil War)
 Irish prospectors discovered gold, but Henry
Comstock claimed the gold was on his land;
became known as the Comstock Lode
 Comstock Lode contained blue-tinted mud which
made mining the gold difficult
 Mud was actually loaded with silver, more valuable than the
gold
 Became richest silver mine in the world
 Next 20 years: produced $300 million worth of silver
 Nevada became center of mining

6. The Boom spreads
 Valuable ores found in Montana, Idaho, &
Colorado
 Along with gold strike in South Dakota
 1890s gold found in Alaska
 Strikes caused excitement, but few actually got
rich
 Gold deep underground & difficult to extract
 Comstock gave up mining & sold mining right for
$11,000 & two mules
 1880s mining had become a big business

7. Boomtown Life
 Tent Cities
 Arose near diggings
 Hotels, stores, & other wood buildings appeared
later
 Mining towns grew into boomtowns
 Merchants
 Followed miners with tools, food, & clothing
 Items were expensive
 Women
 Had various jobs: opened restaurants, washed
clothes, took in boarders, & baked pies

8.  ½ of miners were foreign-born
 Irish, Italian, German, Spanish, & Chinese
 Often faced hostility
 Chinese: not allowed to claim abandoned mines;
often driven out of towns by mobs

9. Frontier Justice
 Law & Order hard to find
 Vigilantes formed: self-appointed law keepers
 Hunted bandits & imposed their own justice
 Sheriffs, marshals, & judges replaced vigilantes
as boomtowns grew
 1861
 Colorado, Dakota, & Nevada organized into
territories
 1863
 Arizona organized into a territory
 1864
 Montana organized into a territory

10. The Railroad Boom
 Race to lay line to boomtowns began
 Federal Government
 Offered subsidies to railroads (grants of land or
money)
 For every mile of track, gov’t gave the railroad 10
sq. miles of land next to the track
 180 million acres altogether
 Also received federal funds

11. Spanning the Continent
 Transcontinental railroad dream
 Rail line that would span across the continent
 1862
 Leland Stanford: Central Pacific Railroad, won right to
build line eastward from Sacramento
 Union Pacific Railroad would build west from Omaha
 Thousands of workers hired
 Native born whites, Mexican Americans, African
Americans, Chinese, & Irish
 Work was hazardous & low paying
 Daily progress often measured in inches
 May 10, 1869
 Two lines met at Promontory, Utah

12. Effects of the Railroads
 New towns developed in the West
 People & supplies poured in
 Gold & silver poured out
 Population growth lead to addition of new states
 Nevada, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota,
Montana, Washington, Idaho, & Wyoming

13. Section 2
Native Americans Struggle to Survive

14. People of the Plains
 360,000 Native Americans lived in the West after
the Civil War
 Life in Transition:
 Hunted, gathered, raised crops, & fished
 Europeans arrival changed their lives
 Tamed herds of wild horses (could travel faster & farther) &
traded with French & British for guns (could kill more game
w/ guns)
 Some groups became wanderers & lived in tepees
 Followed buffalo herds (buffalo was a source of
food, shelter, & clothing)

15. Division of Labors
 Women managed village life
 Cared for children & prepared food
 Carved tools & made tepees
 Sometimes they went to war
 Wise women sometimes ruled
 Men
 Hunters & warriors
 Led religious lives
 Sun Dance: 4 day ceremony that brought together
thousands of Native American from many nations;
men made pledges to the Great Spirit

16. Broken Treaties
 U.S. treaties promised to protect Native American
lands
 Miners & railroad crews as they pushed West broke
these treaties
 Fort Laramie Treaty 1851
 10 thousand people from many Plain nations
gathered for a “big talk” w/ U.S. officials
 Officials wanted: nations to stop following buffalo; would
protect their lands “as long as the grass shall grow” if they
settled permanently
 Settlers soon after began settling on Native
Americans land, along with the 1859 gold rush to
Pikes Peak in Colorado

17. Sand Creek Massacre
 1860s
 Native Americans forced from their land around
Pikes Peak
 Many warriors resisted & attacked supply trains & homes
 Colonel John Chivington
 Led 700 volunteers to attack Cheyenne at Sand Creek
 Cheyenne were friendly & under army protection; they
raised a white flag to signal peace
 Chivington ordered men to attack; more than 100 men,
women, & children died

18. Buffalo Soldiers
 Sand Creek Massacre ignited an era of war
 African Americans who fought on the Plains for
20 years
 Part of the U.S. army
 Fought Native Americans & bandits
 Started roads & communication lines still found
today

19. End of the Buffalo
 1870s
 Giant herds of buffalo vital to Native American way
of life began to decline
 Railroads had hunters kill the animals to feed their
crews
 Others killed them because the value of the buffalo
hides
 Hides were removed and rest of animal was left

20. Last Stand for Custer & the Sioux
 1860s
 New treaties between U.S. & Native Americans
 Reservations
 Kiowas, Comanche, & Arapahos moved to
Oklahoma
 Life was terrible; poor soil made farming difficult
 Sioux & Cheyenne moved to Black Hills
 1874 gold rush flooded area with miners
 Sitting Bull & Crazy Horse led attacked to keep whites out

21. Little Bighorn
 June 1876
 Colonel George Armstrong Custer ordered to force
Native Americans onto a reservation
 Attacked a large band of Sioux & Cheyenne at Little
Bighorn Valley in Montana Territory
 Custer & all his men died at the Battle
 Crazy Horse & Sitting Bull victory did not last long

22. Other Efforts at Resistance
 Nez Perces
 Lived in Idaho, Oregon, & Washington
 Bred horses & cattle
 Many agreed to go to reservations
 Chief Joseph fled with a large band in 1877 to
Canada
 U.S. army pursued them
 Nez Perces traveled 1,300 miles in 75 days
 Army caught band near Canada's border
 Chief Joseph declared as he surrendered, “I shall fight no
more forever”

23.  The Navajos
 Raised sheep, horses, & cattle in the Southwest
 Some bands raided settlers’ farms for livestock
 Army called in for protection
 1864
 Navajos defeated in Arizona after a series of wars
 Were taken on a “Long Walk” to the Pecos River where they
suffered years of disease & hunger

24.  The Apaches
 Fierce resistance
 Geronimo refused to go to reservation
 From Mexico Geronimo & men attacked settlers in
Arizona & New Mexico for 10 years
 1886
 Geronimo was captured & sent to a reservation in
Oklahoma

25. The Ghost Dance
 1880s
 Native Americans across the Plains began performing a
unique dance
 Dancers fell into a trance; believed they were talking to ghosts of
their ancestors; believed their ancestors & buffalo would return &
white people would leave
 December 1890
 Native American police went to a Sioux Village to stop
dances
 In a struggle to arrest Sitting Bull, police killed him
 Sioux tried to flee to avoid further violence
 Army pursued them to Wounded Knee Creek in SD
 Sioux began to give up guns; a shot rang out & army troops
opened fire with machine guns and rifles
 200 Sioux men, women, & children were killed
 30 soldiers died
 The Battle of Wounded Knee marked the end of the era of Indian

26. The Failure of Reform
 Reformers criticized gov’t for treatment of N.A.
 Susette La Flesche
 Father was Omaha chief
 Talked about destruction of Native American culture
in lectures & articles
 Alice Fletcher
 Promoted Native American rights
 Became agent of U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs

27. The Dawes Act
 Passed in 1887
 Tried to end Native American’s wandering and turn
them into farmers
 Received 160 acres to farm
 Schools were also set up to make Native Americans
children more like other children
 Dawes Act failed
 Few took to farming
 Land sold cheaply to dishonest whites
 Federal agents replaced native leaders
 Traditional ways given up, like the buffalo hunt
 Many grew dependent on the government for food & supplies

28. Section 3
The Cattle Kingdom

29. The Rise of the Cattle Industry
 Wild cattle wandered open range
 Called longhorns
 Little care needed: prairie grass & watering holes
 Means & Markets
 Stray herds grew from strays lost by Spanish
ranchers
 American settlers: set up ranches, but didn’t round
up stray herds; no means to get them to market
 Railroads: provided means to get longhorns to
market; demand for beef to feed city
dwellers, miners, & soldiers rose

30. The Long Drives
 1860s
 Cattle began to be rounded up
 Cowhand were hired
 Skilled riders who knew how to herd cattle
 Moved cattle to rail lines in Kansas, Missouri, & Wyoming (about
1,000 miles away)
 Cattle Drives
 Spring was ideal time
 Grass was long & rivers flowed full
 Multiple horses used
 Allowed for fresh horse each day
 Drives lasted 2-3 months
 Followed worn trails
 Chisholm Trail: San Antonio, TX to Abilene, Kansas
 Goodnight Loving Trail: led to rail towns in Wyoming

31. Life on the Trail
 Hard & Dangerous Work
 Cowhands kept herds together as the cattle
moved along the trails
 Developed nerves of steel
 Stampedes could occur without warning
 Swift river currents could carry longhorns away
 Fought grass fires, pulled cattle from swamps, &
cased off thieves
 Often spent 18 hours in the saddle
 Earned less that $1 per day

32. Spanish Roots
 Cowhands learned herding methods from
Spanish & Mexican vaqueros
 Riding, roping, & branding
 Wore Mexican spurs & leather chaps
 Cowboy hat came from Mexican sombrero
 Used leather lariat, lasso, to catch cattle and horses
 1/3 of western cowhands were Mexican

33. The Wild West
 Cattle drives ended at towns along railroad lines
 Towns were unruly & developed fantasy of Wild
West
 Cow Towns
 1867 Joseph McCoy
 Cowboys need place for a bath, good meal, bed, & fun
 Cattle needed place to be penned
 Founded Abilene, Kansas were Chisholm Trail met Kansas
Pacific Railroad
 1st cow town: settle at end of cattle trail
 Rival cow towns soon developed
 Wichita & Dodge City
 Dance halls, saloons, hotels, & restaurants served cowboys
 Gunfights were rare

34. The Myth of the West
 Myths
 Spread due to rough-tumble life in cow towns
 Filled w/ violence, adventure, & opportunity
 William “Buffalo Bill” Cody
 Former buffalo hunter
 Created traveling Wild West show in 1883
 Gun-slinging cowboys & Native Americans performed
 Sharp shooting & horseback riding
 Depicted frontier events (Custer’s Last Stand)
 Annie Oakley broke stereotype of woman

35. Boom and Bust in the Cattle
Kingdom
 Last from 1860s to 1880s
 Area of ranches, trails, & cow towns known as
cattle kingdom
 Ranchers profited as herds & markets grew
 The Cattle Boom:
 Buy calf for $5 & sell mature steer for $60
 Profits were extremely high, especially with the
introduction of new breeds of cattle
 Caught fewer diseases & had more meat than longhorns
 People from East coast & Europe began investing millions
in huge cattle companies

36. The Boom Ends
 Mid-1880s
 7 million cattle roamed the open range
 More than land could feed
 1886 & 1887
 Scorching summers & frigid winters killed millions of cattle
 Economic depression put many city dwellers out of work, &
demand for beef dropped
 Sheep starting competing with cattle for grasses
 Farmers fenced open range to keep cattle away from crops
 Ranchers had to buy expensive feed
 Giant cattle ranches gave way to smaller ones that grew
their own feed
 Railroads brought lines closer to ranches, doing away
with long cattle drives

37. Section 4
Farming in the West

38. Homesteading
 1900
 ½ million farmers settled the Great Plains
 Homestead Act
 Passed in 1862
 Offered 160 acre plot to anyone who resided on
land for 5 years
 Chance for poor to own farms
 Few had money to move west & start a farm
 Land companies took over large areas illegally
 160 acres not enough to grow crop for profit
 1 in 3 homesteaders lasted 5 years

39. Railroads Promote Farming
 Railroads gave away some of 180 million acres
they got from the government
 Recruited people from eastern U.S., Ireland,
Germany, & Scandinavia to settle Great Plains
 More farms = more shipping

40. A Hard Life on the Plains
 Not an easy life
 Scare water supply & crops difficult to grow
 Farmers struggled to make ends meat
 Busting Sod
 Early settlers cut sod into bricks to build walls for
their homes
 Kept homes cool in the summer & warm in the winter

41. New Farming Methods
 Plows made of wood or iron were not strong
enough to break through tough sod
 1877
 John Deere of Illinois invented a sodbusting plow
made of steel
 Plain farmers, or sodbusters, used drills to plant
crops
 Buried seeds into the ground where there was
moisture
 Reapers were used to harvest crops & threshers
to beat off the hard coverings of the grains

42.  Windmills used to pump water from hundreds of
feet below ground
 Fences were used to keep cattle away from crops
 Barb wire was used
 1874 Joseph Glidden invented it

43. Farm Families
 Whole families worked farms
 Men labored from dawn to dusk
 Children tended animals & helped with chores
 Women kept the house, planted & harvested
crops, educated children, nursed the sick, sewed
clothing, preserved food, & made basics like
candles & soap

44. Exodusters
 African Americans streamed onto the plains
 Became known as exodusters because they
believed they were like the Jews fleeing slavery in
Egypt
 Some took up farming, others moved to towns
 Men often worked as hired hands & women as
laundresses

45. The Spanish Southwest
 Spanish speaking farmers & sheepherders
resided along the border with Mexico, some
before the Mexican American War
 Many of the new railroad lines were built with the
help of Mexican immigrants
 Ricos, Hispanic large landowners
 Fought to keep their lands deeded under Spanish or
Mexican law

46. A Last Rush for Land
 1880s
 Few areas of unsettled land on the Plains remained
 Federal Government agreed to open Oklahoma to
homesteaders
 Boomers & Sooners