The West

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The West

• 1860-1900

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Three Frontiers

• Cattle
• Farming
• Mining

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The Cattle Frontier
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Cattle Industry

• Longhorn Cattle
• First brought to Americaby the Spaniards,
  alongwith horses
• Those that escaped thrived on thesouthern
  plains

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• Prior to the Civil War, cattle ranching was
  limited
• Ranchers sold hide and meat to local markets
• 1849 some ranchers drive cattle to market in
  California to collect 25-125/head
• 1854 cattle driven to Muncie, Indiana and then
  shipped by rail to NYC. Stampede on 3rd Avenue!
• Post Civil War demand for beef grows, esp in
  cities
• How to get cattle to market?

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• Joseph McCoy
• Creates firststockyards in Abilene, KS
• 1866-1888 4million steerdriven northby
  hiredhands (1/4 black 1/10 Mexican)
• Beef BaronsSwift, Armourindustrialize
• meat packing.

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• Demise of the Cattle Drive
• Population of west grows farmers and ranchers
  dont want herds trampling over their land.
• Barbed wire Joseph Glidden.
• Invented in 1874 10,000 lbs sold.
• By 1878 27 million lbs sold
• Great Freeze Up of 1887
• Temps below -68 F
• Overgrazing and drought
• Cattle breeding/ranching

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The Farming Frontier
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Farming Expands West

• Homestead Act 1862
• 160 acres per settler free IF
• A settler can live on and improve land for 5
  years
• Pays 30
• Also authorizes the immediate sale of land a low
  cost (1.25/acre)
• Purpose rapid settlement not is the goal.
• 500,000 families move west under the HA
• Railroads
• Railroad boom 1850-1871
• Railroads given land grants to pay cost. Land
  then sold to settlers, many are immigrants.
• Transcontinental RR completed in 1869 Union
  Pacific and Central Pacific.
• Oklahoma Land Rush 1889
• 2 million acres given away in 24 hrs.
• boomers and sooners

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• Factors encouraging settlement
• Cheap, accessible land
• Railroads
• New railroads help bring settlers out and send
  crops to eastern markets
• RRs given land by govt as payment sell land to
  immigrants
• Technologies
• Steel plow
• Dry farming techniques
• west of 100th meridian, rainfall drops from
  20-30in/yr to 10-20in/yr
• Drought resistant crops (Russian wheat, etc) used
• Windmills pump water up from wells
• Barbed wire
• McCormicks Harvester-Thresher
• Can cut and thresh wheat in one pass
• 1830 takes 180 minutes to produce a bushel of
  grain by 1900 10 min
• Seed drill
• High prices.
• Wheat and corn prices up due to crop failures in
  Europe in the 1860s and Civil War in America

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• Life in the West
• Hardships
• Lonely existence
• Difficult conditions heat, wind, dust, insects,
  rattlesnakes, drought, and harsh winters.
• Locusts
• Lack of water and trees
• Adaptations
• Dugouts and Soddies
• Locusts used as a food source
• Buffalo chips (dung) used as fuel

A dugout (above) and a soddy (below)
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• The Cycle of Debt
• High prices for crops encourage investment.
• Farmers get loans to purchase machinery to
  produce more.
• Drops in the prices in the 1870s make it
  difficult for farmers to repay loans.
• Bonanza Farms
• High prices encourage massive investment
• Huge farms run by corporations and investors
• Some had 10,000 acres in cultivation
• Many fold because of droughts in the 1880s/90s.
• Railroads
• Farmers grow upset at railroad rates that charge
  western farmers more then eastern farmers, and
  sometimes charge more for hauling items short
  distances than they do long distances.

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The Farmers Movement

• In response to hardships, debt, and discontent,
  and anger at railroad monopolies, farm
  organizations emerge.

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• The Grange (1860s-70s)
• Originally a communal organization
• Cooperative efforts grain elevators,
  negotiated rates with RRs
• Political efforts Granger Laws
• Farmers Alliance (1880s)
• Political organization (a modern day P.A.C.)
• Endorses candidates Alliance Yardstick
• Southern Alliance Colored Farmers Alliance.
• Populist Party (1892)
• Significant 3rd party that challenges the Dems
  and Republicans in 1892 1896

A grain elevator.
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Farmers Alliance the Populist Party
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Populist Party the Election of 1896

• Populist successes in 1892 and discontent over
  the Panic of 1893 pave way for a major campaign
  in 1896
• Central issue bi-metallism
• Gold bugs vs. silverites
• Popocrats a fusion ticket
• Populist Party nominates William Jennings Bryan
  (NE) and VP Tom Watson (GA)
• Democrats nominate WJB and VP Arthur Sewall (a
  Maine banker)

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Election of 1896

• GOP nominates William McKinley (OH)
• Protectionist
• Marcus Hanna (Cleveland) runs the campaign
• Backed by wealthy industrialists
• Bryan campaigns vigorously, speaking in 27 states
  and traveling over 18K miles
• McKinleys campaign targets industrial workers,
  immigrants, and business interests.

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The Mining Frontier
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Mining

• Gold Rush
• Gold discovered in California in 1848
• Most surface gold is gone by the 1850s.
• Mining in the West
• 1858 Gold and silver discovered in Pikes Peak,
  Colorado.
• 1859 The Comstock Lode is discovered
• 340 million dollars of gold and silver mined
  1860-1890
• Settlers pour into the western states of
  Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Montana, and Idaho.
• Industry becomes highly mechanized, with large
  businesses dominating.
• Mining towns boom then bust
• Helldorados 1 in 3 buildings is a saloon.

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• Map illustrating the location of mining and
  supply towns in the western US in the late 19th
  century