Post- Civil War Western Migrations and the Western Frontier
America After the Civil War: 1870-1900 Ranching, Mining, & Farming Industrialization & Urbanization Reconstruction & Rise of Jim Crow Segregation
The United States by 1890 Washington Montana North Idaho Dakota Established new states & closed the frontier by 1890 1876 Colorado Wyoming 1890 1889 South Dakota
Western raw materials fueled eastern factories
..but this came at the expense of the Native Americans
Settling the West
The Mining Bonanza John Sutter s partner, James W. Marshall discovered several flakes of gold at Sutter s Mill 24 Jan 1848:
The Mining Bonanza Spring 1859: Two Mormon miners discovered a deposit of almost pure silver ore in Nevada on grazing lands belonging to Henry Comstock
The Mining Bonanza Mining was the 1 st magnet to attract settlers to the West California (1849) started the gold rush, but strikes in Pikes Peak, Colorado & Carson River Valley, Nevada (1859) set off wild migrations to the West: The Comstock Lode = $306 million John Mackay s Big Bonanza made him richest man in world John Mackay earned $25 a minute from his gold/silver lode in Sierra Mountains
Created need for local gov t, law enforcement, sanitation, businesses, prostitutes Mining Regions of the West Discoveries of gold & silver led to overnight mining towns
Individual placer miners took little skill or money to start, but could not reach deep lodes Mining Regions of the West
Corporations had the expensive machinery ( hydraulic mining techniques ) to extract most of the gold in the West Mining Regions of the West
In the 1860s, Cattle Ranching Boomed The Cattle Bonanza Many Ranchers used the Open Range to graze longhorns
By the 1870s, long Cattle Drives brought Cattle to Miners The Cattle Bonanza
A cattle bought for $4 in Texas sold for $40 in Kansas The Cattle Bonanza By 1867, ranchers started using trains to ship cattle to Chicago
The Cattle Bonanza ½ of all cowboys were black & ¼ were Mexican By 1880, the open range was ending: Wheat growers, homesteaders, & barbed wire blocked the range Many switched to raising sheep But range wars erupted over grazing rights between cowboys, farmers, & sheep-boys
The Cattle Bonanza The Lincoln County War (1878): Broke out in New Mexico between two factions led by John Chisum and Lawrence Murphy over Cattle Grazing Rights and Dry Goods Trade Billy the Kid Pat Garrett
The Cattle Bonanza The Pleasant Valley War (1886-1892): Broke out in Arizona between the Cattle-herding Grahams and the Sheep-herding Tewksburys
Lawlessness of the West Jesse James Wild Bill Hickok Pearl S. Hart Wyatt Earp Doc Holliday
The Farming Bonanza The U.S. gov t offered 2/3 incentives of all homesteaders for farmers to settle the West: failed to farm their land Homestead Act (1862) gave 160 acres of land if families pledged to live there for 5 years Other gov t acts helped develop western lands by planting trees & building irrigation systems Due to land grants, RRs were the largest western landowners 500 million acres doled to businesses but only 80 million to homesteaders
The Farming Bonanza In 1870, homesteaders pushed West & adapted to the harsh farming conditions: Farmers used dry farming techniques & planted tougher varieties of wheat New machinery sped harvesting & planting; led to bonanza farms By 1890, the U.S. became a major crop exporter
The Farming Bonanza A pioneer sod house By the1880 s, ranchers started calling the new prairie farmers Sodbusters
Exodusters Exodusters were black farmers who moved West to escape Southern crop liens & Jim Crow Laws
The Mormons Brigham Young led his Mormon followers to the new territory of Utah to establish a new homeland
Rails Across the Continent In 1862, Congress authorized the transcontinental railroad:
1 st transcontinental railroad connected the west coast to eastern cities in 1869 Irish workers made up a large percentage of laborers on the Union Pacific s Eastern Section Chinese workers made up a large percentage of laborers on the Central Pacific s Western Route
Federal Land Grants to Railroads by 1871 The national gov t doled $65 million & millions of acres in land grants (received reduced rates for shipping)
The Transcontinental Railroad In 1870, RR companies developed the 1 st time zones to better schedule the RR system; the US would not adopt time zones until 1918
The Plains Indians In 1865, 2/3 of all Indians lived on the Great Plains Their culture was dependent upon the buffalo & the horse Most tribes were subdivided into bands of 100s which made it difficult for the U.S. to negotiate treaties
The Plains Indians Rapid Western expansion in the 1850s brought a new Indian concentration policy with distinct boundaries for each tribe as long as the waters run and grass grows
Concentration did not last as whites ignored these boundaries: The Sand Creek Massacre Chivington s Order: Kill & scalp all, big & little The Indian Wars Congress investigated & condemned Chivington s attack
Discoveries of Gold caused whites to ignore these boundaries: The Sioux War of 1876 George Custer s attempt to destroy up the Sioux The Indian Wars Resulted in the Sioux slaughter of Custer s 7 th Cavalry
The warlike nature of some tribes led to numerous conflicts: The Apache Wars The U.S. Army fought the Apache for 40 years The Indian Wars The wars continued until Geronimo surrendered in 1886
The Indian Wars (1870 s 1880 s) Black soldiers in the U.S. army called buffalo soldiers were used to fend off Indian attacks in the West
Custer s Last Stand set off demands for revenge among Americans The Indian Wars The U.S. army was ordered to stop Sioux ghost dances & machine gunned 200 men, women, & children
The Final Fling In 1889, Congress responded to demands to open the Oklahoma Territory settlement About 100,000 Boomers and Sooners flooded into the last Indian Lands White Settlers claimed 2 million lands of homestead Creeks and Seminoles were displaced once more by the U.S. Army