Miners and Ranchers

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Miners and Ranchers
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Q What were those who traveled west looking for?

• A
• Rich farmland in the Oregon Territory
• Gold in California

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Q What did the settlers have to pass through to
get there?

• A
• Great Plains
• Rocky Mountains

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Q What were the Great Plains known as during
this time?

• A
• The Great American Desert

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Q What were peoples thoughts about the Plains?

• A
• Crops would not grow
• Region was too dry for farming

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Q What is a lode?

• A
• A source, or deposit of ore

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Q Explain a boom town.

• A
• Miners and shopkeepers who hurried to sites of
  gold and silver often lived in tents.
• A few people, sometimes women, set up cook tents
  and sold hot meals.
• Soon whole tent cities grew up near a gold or
  silver strike.
• If the strike turned out to be rich, wood
  buildings gradually replaced the tents.
• The tent city became a boom town.

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Q What impact did the discovery of gold and
silver have on the west?

• A
• Quickened the settlement of the west
• Population in the territories grew
• People began asking for statehood

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Q What was the open range?

• A
• Millions of longhorn cattle roamed across the
  Southern Plains.
• No fences on the Plains.

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Q Why did cattle herding begin on the Great
Plains?

• A
• Some Texans decided that they could make money by
  selling the cattle on the open range.
• They hired cowhands to round up the herds and
  take them to New Orleans for sale.

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Q How did cattle herding change over time on the
Plains?

• A
• Railroads solved the problem of getting to the
  cattle market.
• Cowhands drove the herds to railheads (where
  ranchers sold their cattle to buyers)
• Cattle was then shipped in cattle cars to
  meatpacking plants.

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Q What was the cattle drive?

• A
• A long, dusty, dangerous job
• 12 or more cowhands on horseback guided 2,000 or
  more head of restless cattle north.

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Q What caused the end of the cattle boom on the
open range?

• A
• There were so many cattle for sale that the price
  dropped.
• At the same time, farmers were moving onto the
  Plains and putting up fences.

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