Western Frontier

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Western Frontier
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Ranching and Farming

• Cattle Ranching
• Always existed but on the local level no way to
  get the cows to Eastern cities.
• What would change?
• Railroads
• Could bring cattle from Texas to Eastern cities.
• As long as the cattle were driven from Texas to
  Kansas they could be shipped to Chicago and from
  there other cities.

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Ranching and Farming

• Railroads
• Cattle industry boomed very inexpensive to
  maintain sold cows for up to 10x their original
  value.
• Only real cost was Cowhands people who drove
  the cattle
• The Long Drive
• Referred to the cattle drive to cow towns along
  the railways.

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Ranching and Farming

• Railroads
• Over time cattle drives followed specific paths.
• Chisolm Trail
• Stretched from San Antonio Texas to Abilene,
  Kansas
• From 1867 1884 over 4 million cattle would be
  driven on this trail.
• Cowhands
• Vaqueros First cowhands from Mexico
• Taught the Spanish, Mexican, and Americans how to
  ranch in the Southwest
• About 1/3 of cowhands were either Mexican or
  African American

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Ranching and Farming

• The Wild West ?
• Cow towns had no local governments at first.
• No law enforcement
• Fights
• Con-Men
• Crime became a way of life
• Jesse James
• Billy the Kid
• Citizens took law into their own hands
• Vigilante Groups
• People who take the law into their own hands.
• Often hung suspected criminals from the nearest
  tree w/o trial.

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Ranching and Farming

• Citizens took law into their own hands
• Eventually as towns became more civilized they
  elected sheriffs or asked for a marshal.
• End of the Drive
• The drive ended as railroads pushed deeper and
  deeper into the West.
• End of the Cattle Boom
• Price of cattle dropped
• Barbed wire was used to fence in land
• Winter of 1886-1887 was harsh killing thousands
  of cattle.

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Ranching and Farming

• Farming
• Homestead Act
• Offered 160 acres of land for free to anyone who
  agreed to live on and improve the land for 5
  years.
• Exodusters
• African Americans who escaped the Reconstruction
  era in the south.
• Many Europeans

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Ranching and Farming

• Farming
• Challenges
• No trees to build homes
• Sod Top layer of soil matted with grass roots
• Sodbusters Nickname given to these new western
  farmers.
• No Fuel
• Burned corn cobs or manure
• Unpredictable Weather

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Ranching and Farming

• Farming
• Improvements
• John Deere invented the steel plow
• Windmills were developed to pump well water to
  the surface
• Barbed wire was used to fence in property
• Reapers made harvesting easier
• Threshers helped separate grain or seed from straw

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Ranching and Farming

• Farming
• Farms face price drops
• Why do you think this occurs?
• Farms also face a rise in operation costs
• Needed a solution
• Grange (Patrons of Husbandry)
• Goal meet the social needs of farm families who
  lived great distances from one another.
• Cooperatives Organizations owned and run by
  their owners
• Bought grain elevators and sold crops directly to
  merchants

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Ranching and Farming

• Farming
• Began demanding government action
• Regulate shipping and storage rates
• Government backed farmers
• Have the right to regulate the railroads because
  they are businesses that served the public
  interest.

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Ranching and Farming

• Farming
• Political Action Formed their own political
  party
• Populist (Peoples) Party
• Platform Freely print silver money to create
  inflation which would drive up prices Free
  Silver Policy.
• Opponents Gold Standard
• Each dollar is backed with a certain amount of
  gold
• Less money is produced keeping its value and
  reducing chance of inflation

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Ranching and Farming

• Farming
• Political Action
• Election of 1892
• Won by Grover Cleveland
• Populist party received over a million votes.
• Election of 1896
• William McKinley Republican
• William Jennings Bryan Democrat/Populist
• McKinley won by 500,000 votes based on his
  eastern industrialist support.
• Populist begin to decline in popularity

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Ranching and Farming

• Farming
• Closing the Frontier
• 1889 - Oklahoma Territory was all that was left
• 1890 Census Bureau declared that the country no
  longer had a continuous frontier line.

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Mining

• 1859 Gold and silver strikes attracted people
  to Colorado and Nevada
• Pike Peak, Colorado
• Western Nevada
• Comstock Lode
• Lode A deposit of a valuable mineral buried in
  layers of rock
• Produced 300 million is 21 years

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Mining

• Boomtowns
• Towns that have a sudden burst in economic or
  population growth
• Virginia City, Nevada
• Population jumped by over 17,000 people in 10
  years.
• Very few prospectors ever got rich
• Began to move underground
• Stripped hillsides of vegetation and left rivers
  polluted.

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Mining

• Became dangerous and eventually died out.
• Many boomtowns were left as ghost towns
• As a result of the mining boom Nevada, Colorado,
  and South Dakota gained statehood

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Struggles with Native Americans

• Plains Indians
• Relied heavily on the buffalo.
• Used it for food, shelter, clothing, blankets,
  fuel, weapons, utensils.
• As a result the tribes were nomadic to keep up
  with the buffalo.

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Struggles with Native Americans

• Clashes With Whites
• The government pushed Indians west promising the
  West would be theirs as long as grass grew and
  water ran.
• Treaties were usually broken
• Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851)
• Bought back Native American land and set
  boundaries for tribal lands
• Most agreed

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Struggles with Native Americans

• Clashes with Whites
• Treaty of Fort Laramie
• Reactions
• Cheyenne and Sioux resisted
• Government sent troops under Col. John Chivington
• Opened fire on a Cheyenne village killing 150
• Sand Creek Massacre (Colorado)
• Indians fire back ambushing many militias

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Struggles with Native Americans

• Clashes with Whites
• Battle of Little Big Horn (Montana)
• Sioux were united by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse
  and began to leave the reservation
• Seventh Calvary was sent out Col. George Custer
• 211 men were wiped out by the Indians in 2 hours
• Last major Native American victory.
• Chief Joseph (Nez Perce)
• Tried to lead his tribe to Canada
• Was caught 40 miles from the border and
  surrendered to U.S Troops

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Struggles with Native Americans

• Clashes with Whites
• Geronimo (Apaches)
• Led raids on settlers homes.
• Captured many times but always escaped.
• 1886 surrendered and was thrown in prison

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End of Plains Life

• In ten years hunters killed 1,000,000 buffalo
• Food
• Sport
• Leather
• Ghost Dance
• Done to bring about a prophesied age in which the
  whites would be removed and Native Americans
  would once again be free.

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End of Plains Life

• Many of these ghost dancers prepared for war and
  gathered in South Dakota
• Tracked down by the army at wounded knee.
• Shots were fired and around 300 Indians were
  killed.
• Wounded Knee Massacre.
• Ended armed Indian resistance in the West