The Western Frontier1858 - 1896

Chapter 18

The Mining BoomsChapter 18 – Section 1

Mining is Big Business

• Although the Gold Rush was ending in California, news of other gold mines sprang in other places

• Pikes Peak was located in the Colorado Rockies and newspapers claimed that miners were given $20 a day panning for gold

• This was more than what servants made ($1/day)

Mining is Big Business However most of the gold was deep in underground

lodes – rich streaks of ore sandwiched between layers of rock (ore)

Mining the ore and then extracting the gold required expensive machinery, a lot of workers, and even an organized business

Gold and silver mining attracted foreign investors as well such as the British who invested heavily in the industry

The Comstock Lode This was the discover of a rich lode of silver-bearing

ore on the banks of the Carson River in Colorado, but named after the investor

Mining companies immediately set up shop there and reaped the benefits

When Henry Comstock sold his share, he made $11,000 from it

But this was only a fraction of the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold and silver pulled from the lode

The Mining Frontier

• Boomtowns – were towns that grew up almost overnight around mining sites

• They were lively & lawless with people from all over

• Money came and went quickly because of lavish lifestyles

• Food, lodging, clothing and other goods cost a lot

• Violence was common where people carried large amounts of cash & guns; there was little police

• Vigilantes – were citizens who sometimes took the law into their own hands

Women in Boomtowns Men definitely outnumbered women However some women worked as laundresses,

cooks, or dance-hall entertainers They founded schools and churches They also worked to make the communities safer and

more orderly

Boom & Bust

• “booms” were followed by “busts”

• When the mines no longer had ore, people left.

• They eventually turned into ghost towns – deserted as prospectors moved on to more promising sites or returned home

• Some of these ghost towns still exist today as reminders of the glory days of the mining frontier

New States Enter the Union

Many people who went to these towns settled there permanently

With the increase in population these areas eventually became states

1876: Colorado joins the US 1889: North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, and

Montana join the US 1890: Wyoming and Idaho join the US

Railroads Mines operated far from the industrial centers of the

East & Midwest Because of this, transportation played a vital role in

survival of the mining communities The nation’s railroad network expanded rapidly since

people needed shipments of food and other supplies Also to reach out to factories, ports, and markets to

sell their gold/silver

Government & the Railroad

Government subsidies helped support railroad construction

These were financial aid and land grants The federal government granted more than 130

million acres of land to the railroad companies Much of it was purchased or obtained by treaties

from NA

Spanning the Continent A search began for a transcontinental rail line –

one that would span the continent and connect the Atlantic with the Pacific coasts

Southerners wanted this line to run through the south, while northerners wanted it in the north; the north was chosen

The challenge was to lay 1,700 miles of of track across hot plains and through rugged mountains

2 companies took on the challenge

The Railroad Companies• The Union Pacific Company began laying track westward from

Omaha, Nebraska • The Central Pacific Company worked eastward form

Sacramento, California• They both competed fiercely while trying to cover a greater

distance in order to receive more of the subsidies

Transcontinental Railway May 10, 1869: construction was completed A Chinese crew was chosen to lay the final ten miles

of track, complete in 12 hours Both sets of track met at Promontory Point in Utah Leland Stanford (gov. of California) drove a final

golden spike into a tie to join the two railroads

Effects of the Railroads 1883: 2 more transcontinental lines and dozes of

shorter lines connected cities in the West with the rest of the nation

They brought thousands of workers to the west, carried metals and produce to the east, manufactured goods to the west

The demand for steel boosted the nation’s steel industry as did the production of coal, manufacturers of railroad cars, and construction of the tracks

Effects of the Railroads• Towns sprang up along the rail lines, bringing new waves of new

settlers to the west – cattle ranches and farmers• It also changed how people measured time• Clocks in Boston were 11 minutes ahead of clocks in New York• The railroad companies divided the country into 4 time zones – all

communities in each zone shared the same time; each zone was 1 hour apart from the zones on either side

Ranchers & FarmersChapter 18 – Section 2

Cattle on the Plains

• The Spanish brought over a breed of cattle with them when they settled Mexico & Texas

• These cattle were called longhorn because of their prominent horns

• Much of Texas was an open range – not fenced or divided into lots

• Ranchers had to brand – burn a symbol – onto their cattle to distinguish them

Cow Towns• Cow Towns – towns located near railroads to market and ship

cattle• Texas ranchers had plenty of cattle, but the beef markets were in

the north• Railroads were used to ship cattle to these locations for selling in

the markets

The Long Drive This was the herding of cattle 1,000 miles or more to

meet the railroads These drives left Texas in the spring, where there was

enough grass along the way to feed the cattle It was important to keep the cattle well fed so they

could be sold The Chisholm Trail was a famous drive from central

Texas to Kansas The Goodnight-Loving Trail headed west through

NM and then turned north

Life on the Trail Cowhands – those who herded/handled the cattle They had a difficult job because they had to ride up

to 15 hours a day on the saddle in the rain, dust storms, and blazing sun

It was also very lonely since these cowhands saw few outsiders

Spanish Influence

• Other than Confederate veterans & African Americans, Hispanics also made up the cowhand population

• They had a tradition of cattle herding; they were called vaqueros

• They developed many skills – riding, roping, and branding

• Some Spanish words have made their way into the English dictionary from these cowhands

• Words such as rancho which means ranch

Cowhand Equipment

• It was based on the vaquero equipment

• They wore wide-brimmed hats to protect themselves from the sun

• They also wore chaps – leather leggings – to shield themselves from brush and mishaps with cattle

• They used lariats – ropes to lasso cattle that strayed from the herd

Trouble on the Trail

• Cowhands faced violent storms along the way, as well as “rustlers” who tried to steal their cattle

• Sometimes their cattle would get lost along the rivers

• The greatest danger, however, were stampedes – when thousands of cattle ran in panic

• Any sound could set off the cattle (thunder, or crack of gunshot)

• Cowhands had to race on horseback with the stampeding cattle and bring them under control

Discrimination• Even though cowhands of many races met together at

markets, discrimination still existed• Minorities rarely became trail bosses and received less pay

for their work• Hispanics, African Americans, or Chinese cowhands were

either discriminated, segregated, or excluded

The Wild West After tiresome weeks on the trail, the cowhands

enjoyed some time off to rest They drank and gambled They got involved in fistfights and gunplay Some towns were rowdy, lawless, and often violent

such as Dodge City and Abilene

Farmers Settle the Plains The people who arrived in the Great Plains believed

they could not farm the dry, treeless area However they soon turned the area from a

“wilderness” to farmland The railroads made the journey west easier &

cheaper New laws offered free land Above-average rainfall made the Plains better suited

to farming

Homestead Act 1862: Congress passed the Homestead Act This gave 160 free acres of land to a settler who paid

a filing fee and lived on the land for five years This brought a lot of farmers to homestead – earn

ownership of land by settling on it

Promoting the Plains Homesteaders came to own land and be

independent They were swayed by advertising paid for by:

Railroads Steamship companies Land speculators Western states and territories

African American Settlers

Thousands of African Americans migrated from the southern states into Kansas

They were called exodusters – from the biblical book of Exodus, which describes the Jews’ escape from slavery

A.A also feared for their safety in former slave regions

By 1881: more than 40,000 A.A had migrated to Kansas but some had to return because they lacked the money to start new farms or businesses

The Farmers’ Frontier The climate presented a great challenge for farmers There was little rainfall but in some years the rain

came down in large numbers – destroying crops & flooding areas

On the other extreme, drought threatened crops and lives

Fire was another challenge because brushfires swept rapidly though a region, destroying crops, livestock, and homes

The Farmers’ Frontier Summer brought grasshoppers and other insects

who would land on a field of corn When they left, not a single stalk of corn would

remain Winters brought winds which howled across the open

Plains Snow could bury the animals and trap families in

their homes People always had to plan ahead and store food for

the winter

Farm Families Men labored hard in the fields Women did the same work but also cared for children A wife sewed clothing, made candles, and cooked and

preserved food She also tended to the children’s health and education When the husband was away she would take his

responsibilities Children worked on the farm when they got older and

helped in the fields, tended animals, and did chores around the house

New Farming Method Since the Plains could not be farmed by the usual

methods, they had to find other ways of farming Plain farmers were known as sodbusters One of their methods was dry farming which was to

plant seeds deep in the ground where there was some moisture

Some of the tools they had were the light-weight steel lows

Windmills helped to pump water from deep in the ground

Barbed Wire were wire fences used to protect their land

Oklahoma Land Rush This was the last part of the Plains to be settled However after years of pressure from land dealers

and settlers’ groups, the federal government finally opened Oklahoma to homesteaders

April 22, 1889: was the official opening day of the territory and at the sound of a bugle, the homesteaders charged across the border to stake their claims

Oklahoma Land Rush These eager boomers – the homesteaders waiting

to claim land – discovered that some settlers had already slipped into Oklahoma

Sooners were the ones who had “snuck” in and already claimed most of the best land

Closing the Frontier 1890: the government announced that the frontier

no longer existed Settlement had changed the Plains dramatically No one felt these changes more harshly than the

Native Americans who had live on the Plains for centuries

Native American StrugglesChapter 18 – Section 3

Following the Buffalo

• The Plains was home to Native American for centuries

• Some lived in communities as farmers and hunters, while others were nomadic – moving from place to place

• They traveled in search for food and followed the buffalo

• They were divided into groups of up to 500 people each with a governing council

• The women reared the children, cooked, and prepared hides while men hunted, traded, and supervised the military life

Threats to the Buffalo

• The Natives had millions of buffalo at their disposal but after the Civil War, American hunters slaughtered the animals to feed the crew building the railroads

• Railroad companies also wanted to prevent huge herds of buffalo from blocking the trains

• William Cody had claimed to have killed 4,000 buffalo in 19 months and earned the nickname Buffalo Bill

Conflict In the beginning white settlers regarded the Plains as

the “Great American Desert” Because of this, they left Native Americans alone When the whites began to settle, the situation

changed and proposed new Indian policies

Reservation Policy

• 1867: the government appointed the Indian Peace Commission to deal with the NA

• The Commission proposed to move the NA to a few large reservations – tracts of land set aside for them

• Some of the reservations were in Oklahoma & the Dakota Territory

How to Relocate NA Agents used trickery to persuade NA to move These reservation lands were located on poor lands

and the government failed to deliver their promised food and supplies to the Natives

Whatever was delivered was in poor quality Many Natives agreed to stay on the reservations or

be relocated to other reservations Some, however, did resist

Conflict on the Plains – The Sioux

• Minnesota Territory was the site of a bloody confrontation

• Sioux warriors, who were led by Red Cloud, burned and looted white settlers’ homes

• Hundreds of people died before troops arrived to put down the uprising

Conflict on the Plains – The Lakota

The Lakota were another branch of Native Americans They fought hard to keep control of their hunting

grounds from the Dakotas to Nebraska

The Fetterman Massacre

• Native American groups staged a series of attacks

• The bloodies occurred on December 21, 1866 when army troops were manning a fort on the Bozeman Trail

• A Sioux military leader, Crazy Horse, acted as a decoy and lured the troops into a deadly trap

• He tricked them into sending a group of about 80 soldiers

• Hundreds of warriors were waiting in ambush and wiped out the entire group of soldiers

• This is known as the Fetterman Massacre

Attacking the Miners Miners who moved out west for gold and silver had

their wagons trains raided and their cattle & horses stolen

These mining camps were no longer safe Dozens of ranches had been burned and settlers

killed The governor of Colorado ordered the NA to

surrender where he said they would be given food and protection

Black Kettle• Several Natives surrendered

but many did not• November 1864: Chief Black

Kettle brought several hundred Cheyenne to negotiate a peace deal

• They camped at Sand Creek• Colonel John Chivington led an

attack on the unsuspecting Cheyenne

Little Bighorn This tension arose in the Black Hills of the Dakotas The government promised “No white person or

persons shall be permitted to settle upon or occupy” or even “to pass through” these hills

Rumor had it that these hills contained gold An expedition was led into the hills where it was

confirmed that gold did exist “from the grass roots down”

People swarmed the area

Little Bighorn The Sioux Natives protested against the trespassers Sitting Bull was an important leader of the Lakota

Sioux tribe: “I do not want to sell any land. Not even this much” as he held a pinch of dust

Sitting Bull gathered Sioux & Cheyenne warriors along Little Bighorn River in present-day Montana

They were joined by Crazy Horse (another Sioux chief) and his forces

Little Bighorn The US army responded by rounding up their soldiers, the

Seventh Cavalry, led by Lieutenant Colonel George Custer Custer divided his regiment and attacked the NA on June 25,

1876 but he underestimated their strength 250 of Custer’s troops vs thousands of Sioux & Cheyenne Custer & his entire army lost their lives The NA triumph was short-lived after another army came and

crushed them, sending them to reservations Many fled to Canada while others agreed to live on

reservations because of starvation & exhaustion

The Apache Wars This trouble occurred in the southwest The Chiracahua Apache had already been moved

from their homeland and many of them resented living in reservations

Apache leader, Geronimo, escaped and fled to Mexico with a small group of followers

During the 1880s he led raids against settlers and the army in Arizona

After being captured and being sent to the reservations many times, he continued to escape but finally gave up

A Changing Culture Contributions to the change of life for Native

Americans Movement of whites onto their land Slaughter of the buffalo United States Army attacks Reservation policy

More change came when reformers wanted to abolish the reservations and absorb Native Americans into white American culture

A Changing Culture Helen Hunt Jackson was a reformer who was

horrified by the massacres of NA and the cruelty of the reservation system

“It makes little difference . . . where one

opens the record of the history of the Indians;

every paged and every year has its dark stain”

A Changing Culture 1887: Congress introduces the Dawes Act which

aimed to eliminate what Americans regarded as the two weaknesses of Native American life: the lack of private property & the nomadic tradition

It also proposed to break up the reservations and to end identification with a tribal group

Each Native would receive a plot of land in order to encourage them to become farmers and American citizens

Children would be sent to white-run boarding schools

Wovoka The Dawes acted changed NA way of life and

weakened their cultural traditions Therefore the Sioux turned to one a NA prophet

named Wovoka He claimed that the Sioux could regain their former

greatness if they performed a ritual known as the Ghost Dance

The Ghost Dance This dance was a way for the Sioux to express their

culture that was being destroyed The ritual spread and reservation officials became

alarmed and decided to ban the dance The officials went to Sitting Bull and arrested him

because they believed he was their chief; they shot him during the scuffle

Wounded Knee After Sitting Bull’s death, several hundred Lakota

Sioux fled in fear They gathered at Wounded Knee in South Dakota December 29, 1890: the US army went there to

collect the Sioux’s weapons Suddenly, a pistol shot rang out, the army responded

with fire and more than 200 Sioux and 25 soldiers were killed

This marked the end of armed conflict between whites and NA; the NA lost their struggle

The Farmers in Protest

Chapter 18 – Section 4

The Farmers Organize The supply of crops grew faster than the demand for

them and prices fell steadily 1866: bushel of wheat = $1.45 1880s: bushel of wheat = $0.80 1890s: bushel of wheat = $0.49 Farmers’ expenses for transporting, for seed, and for

equipment remained high

Who is to Blame? Farmers blamed 3 groups:

The railroad companies who charged farmers more to ship crops than they charged manufacturers to ship goods

The eastern manufacturers who charged high prices for their products

Bankers were also a problem because of the high interest on their loans

The Grange• Farmers began to organize and

created a mass political movement

• The National Grange was the first farmers’ organization of this period and was a network of local self-help organizations

• They offered farmers education, fellowship, and support

• Library of books on planting and livestock, social gatherings

• It tried to encourage economic self-sufficiency

The Grange It set up cooperatives which were stores where

farmers bought products from each other They charged lower prices than regular stores and

provided an outlet for farmers’ crops The “cash-only” policy was to remove the burden of

credit buying It also tried to cut farmers’ costs But they also failed because farmers were always

short of cash and had to borrow money until their next crop was sold

The Farmers’ Alliances• These were networks of organizations that sprang up in

the west and south • Southern Alliance was founded in Texas when farmers

rallied against the railroads and against “money power”• There were other organizations which suited other people

such as the Colored Farmers’ National Alliance

The Farmers’ Alliance They sponsored education and cooperative buying

and selling They proposed a plan in which the federal

government would store farmers’ crops in warehouses and lend money to the farmers

However regional difference brought the alliances down and tore them apart

Part of the People In the 1890 election, the Alliances became active in

political campaigns Candidates they supported won 6 governorships, 3

seats in the Senate, and 50 seats in the House of Representatives

Populist Party February 1890: Alliance members formed the

People’s Party of the USA Also known as the Populist Party Their goals were rooted in populism – appeal to the

common people The government, not private companies, should own

the railroads and telegraph lines Wanted to replace the country’s gold-based currency

with a flexible currency that based on free silver Free silver was the unlimited production of silver

coins

Populist Party The reforms they wanted:

Limiting the president and vice president to a single term

Electing senators directly Introducing the use of secret ballots Shorter hours for workers The creation of a national income tax

Populist Gains & Problems

July 1892: Omaha, Nebraska convention Populist Party - James B. Weaver of Iowa to run for

president Democrats – Grover Cleveland to run for president Grover Cleveland won the election Although they lost they still did well for a 3rd party,

made a strong showing in the state and local elections and had high hopes for the presidential election of 1896

The only thing they lacked was money and organization

Free Silver Tension between the north & south plagued the Populist

Party White southerners could not bring themselves to join

forces with African American Populists The Democrats also struck a blow to the Populists when

state legislatures placed strict limits on the rights of African Americans to vote – many who might have supported the Populists

Their crusade for free silver was dealt a blow by the bankers who told them that unlimited amounts of new currency would lead to inflation and ruin the economy

Election of 1896

• The Democrats chose a new candidate for president who supported free silver and other Populist goals

• They nominated William Jennings Bryan who was known as the Great Commoner because of his appeal to average Americans

• Populists chose to endorse Bryan as their president and nominated Tom Watson for VP

• Republicans – William McKinley who opposed free silver

Election of 1896

Bryan was a great speaker but his campaigning was in vain because by the time of the

election, the economic depression that had slowed

business was overVoters believed that good times

were returning and they put their trust in the Republican partyEven the farmers’ economic situation was improving so

people saw no urgency in the Populist message

Populist Legacy They were still victorious in other ways Reformers adopted many Populist ideas and

succeeded in getting many new laws passed The US abandoned the gold standard, adopted an 8-

hour workday, and introduced an income tax Election reforms brought in the secret ballot and

direct election of senators