THE OLD WEST

Transcontinental Railroad(During Civil War – to connect CA with the Union)

• Pacific Railway Act makes it a RACE!– RRs received land and $ for every mile of

track laid• Union Pacific: building west from Omaha, NE

– Used many Irish immigrants• Central Pacific: building east from

Sacramento, CA– Chinese immigrants used– Most difficult time – had to start out

crossing the Sierra Nevada Mtns.• Union wins & lays 1,086 miles & Central 689

WEDDING OF THE RAILS:

Railroad Construction

Plains Indians• Nomads – followed

their food source– buffalo, 12 to 15

million• Horses made them

better hunters and warriors

• Plains Wars, 1860-1890– Fight to protect land

and stop waste (buffalo)

Plains Indians

THE BUFFALOTHE BUFFALO• The buffalo or bison

was an extremely important part of the plains people’s lives.

• They used virtually every part of the buffalo from the hide for clothing, to the stomach for holding water.

• At one time, an estimated 60 million buffalo roamed the plains of the present day United States and Canada.

A buffalo can weigh up to 2,000 pounds and live as long as 30 years.

The The HuntHunt

• For thousands of years, Native Americans used buffalo jumps to kill the creatures.

• They would place some of the hunters on either side of a path (usually wearing wolf skins) which they would use to drive large numbers of animals over a steep cliff.

• It wasn’t until the arrival of the Spanish in the 1500’s that the horse began to be used by Native Americans. It quickly became an important part of native people’s lives.

Typical buffalo jump

Native Americans did not hunt using horses until the 1500’s

The Buffalo Soldiers on the Great The Buffalo Soldiers on the Great PlainsPlains

1/5 of soldiers on frontier

The Buffalo Soldiers & the Indian WarsThe Buffalo Soldiers & the Indian Wars

SAND CREEK MASSACRE

• Colorado• Cheyenne, under Chief

Black Kettle, came to U.S. fort to negotiate

• Col. Chivington arrives at fort & ignores attempts to negotiate

• Executes them all –men, women & children

• Much mutilation

The Battle of Little Big HornThe Battle of Little Big Horn18761876

Chief Sitting Chief Sitting BullBull

Gen. GeorgeGen. GeorgeArmstrong Armstrong

CusterCuster

Chief Crazy Chief Crazy HorseHorse

BATTLE OF LITTLE BIGHORN• Gold found in Black Hills,

DK, 1874• Col. George A. Custer, 7th

Calvary – leads expedition of 264 soldiers

• Sioux & Cheyenne force of 2,500

• Crazy Horse & Sitting Bull• “Custer’s Last Stand”• 1st major victory for Indians

after a long series of defeats• But, short-lived victory

Battle of Wounded Knee

• Sioux fleeing reservation after Sitting Bull shot

• Rounded up by Army; surrendered & herded into Wounded Knee Army Camp

• Ghost Dance• Army ordered to disarm

Indians• 190 unarmed Indians

massacred in the process• End of Plains Indians

Wars

ASSIMILATION• Attempt to have

Indians “become white” and become part of white man’s culture

• DAWES ACT, 1887DAWES ACT, 1887– U.S. government

tries to give them land which they could eventually own if they became farmers on the land

– Failed – Indian culture was nomadic; not settled farmers

Apache children on arrival at the Carlisle Indian School (Pennsylvania)

Apache children at the Carlisle School 4 months later.

Factors which brought an end to Plains Indians’ way of life:

1. RAILROADS!!– Destroy Buffalo– Bring out settlers, miners, etc.

2. Discovery of gold/silver on Indian lands

3. Indian Wars– Either killed them OR– Survivors forced to move to

reservations (Dakota and Oklahoma); what was life like on the reservations?

MINING IN THE OLD WEST:

• MAJOR GOLD STRIKES:– California,

1848– Colorado,

1858 (Pike’s Peak or Bust!”)

– Black Hills of the Dakotas, 1877

• MAJOR SILVER STRIKE:– The

“Comstock Lode” in Virginia City, Nevada

• $300 million of silver extracted over 18 years

MINING IN THE OLD WEST:

Mining Centers: Mining Centers: 19001900

Cattle Towns and Mining Towns of the Old West

GOLD & SILVER STRIKES & CATTLE RANCHING CAUSED TOWNS TO SPRING UP:

• Known as “Helldorados”

• 1 in 3 buildings is a saloon

• Gambling, prostitutes, etc.

• “Vigilante” and “lynch law” justice

Colt .45 Colt .45 RevolverRevolver

God didn’t make men equal.God didn’t make men equal.Colonel Colt did!Colonel Colt did!

Legendary Gunslingers & Legendary Gunslingers & Train RobbersTrain Robbers

Jesse JamesJesse James

Billy the KidBilly the Kid

CATTLE RANCHINGLONGHORNS

• TEXAS• Open range ranching • Spanish gave us techniques of roping,

herding, etc.– Also gave us style of dress & equipment

• Between 1836 & 1860 3-4 million mavericks (unbranded cattle) roamed on the open range– distinguished only by branding

• Owners didn’t have to own much land to get in the cattle business

• North had huge markets for meat & new invention of refrigerated rail cars will help get the meat to the North

BUT…. Still had to get the cattle to the RRSO …THE LONG DRIVE BEGAN to drive herds of cattle to rail centers in Kansas and Missouri.

• 8 to 10 cowboys could work 2,500 steer• Several thousand were black, also many

Mexican• Dime novels (“tall tales”) were created about

such legends as Billy the Kid, Jesse James, etc.

Nat Love

MANY DIFFICULTIES ONTHE LONG DRIVE:

• Overgrazing• Disease• Floods• Droughts• Stampedes• Rustlers• Homesteaders• Cold Winters/Blizzards

These difficulties led to the end of Open Range Cattle Ranching

• Fenced-in ranching took over

• Ranching became more expensive since a rancher now must own enough land to keep cattle fenced in and must have a water source on that land

• Ranching, just like mining, becomes “big business”

Land Use: 1880sLand Use: 1880s

RAILROADS

• Biggest factor in encouraging settlement of the West

• Destroyed the Plains Indians – HOW?• Encouraged ranchers and farmers settle the

Great Plains – WHY?– No longer isolated from the East– Can ship goods to market and get manufactured

goods shipped West

Settlement of the WestSettlement of the WestThe Homestead ActThe Homestead Act

• Purpose: to encourage Purpose: to encourage settlement of the Great settlement of the Great PlainsPlains

• Provisions: 160 acres Provisions: 160 acres for $10 to head of for $10 to head of household; settlers must household; settlers must live on it & cultivate it live on it & cultivate it for 5 years and then for 5 years and then would own itwould own it

ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS OF

PLAINS FARMERS

• NATURAL DISASTERS:–DROUGHT–SEVERE CLIMATE–PRAIRIE FIRES–GRASSHOPPER PLAGUES

NEW TECHNOLOGY TO ASSIST FARMERS

• John Deere’s Steel Plow

• Cyrus McCormick’s Reaper

• Windmills• BARBED WIRE!

ECONOMIC PROBLEMS:

• SPECIALIZED IN SINGLE CASH CROPS

• HIGH INTEREST RATES ON THEIR FARMS

• DEPENDENT ON RR TO GET PRODUCT TO MARKET – SHIPPING RATES HIGH

PLAINS WOMEN

• “Born and scrubbed; suffered and died.”• Western women are seen more as equals

in the West – why?• Western women will get the right to vote

before women in the rest of the country

• Wild West vaudeville shows traveled worldwide

• A rodeo show which had sharpshooters, riding and herding tricks and skills and always a cowboys-Indians “fight

• Annie Oakley

THE WILD WEST

““Buffalo Bill” CodyBuffalo Bill” Cody& Sitting Bull& Sitting Bull

Annie Oakley

Calamity Jane