APUSH - Spiconardi
 What images come to mind when you envision the American
West post-Civil War?
A welcome, warm and hearty, do we give the sons of toil
To come to the West and settle and labor on free soil;
We've room enough and land enough, they needn't feel
alarm –
O! come to the land of freedom and vote yourself a
farm.
Then come along, come along, make no delay;
Come from every nation, come from every way.
Our lands, they are broad enough - don't be alarmed,
For Uncle Sam is rich enough to give us all a farm.
 Homestead Act (1862)
 Act that allowed a
settler to acquire as
much as 160 acres of
land by living on it for
5 years, improving it,
and paying a nominal
fee of about $30
 The land given to the
settlers usually had
terrible soil and the
weather included no
precipitation
 Morrill Act
 Act that set aside 140
million acres of federal
land that states could
sell to raise money for
public universities
 Grant colleges land so
they could provide
educational programs
for agricultural and
mechanics
 Problems
 Land was not suited for agricultural
without modifying the environment
 “Great American Desert”
 Native American Indians were
already living on the land (leads to
conflict)
 Many of the farms were repossessed
 Fraud
 False claims on land
 Weather
 Blizzards in the winter
 Lack of rainfall to grow wheat and
grain
 John Wesley Powell
 Union veteran who led an
expedition into the West
 Issued the Report on the Lands
of the Arid Region of the United
States
 160-acre homesteads were not
compatible with dry regions of
the Great Plains
 Called for the building of
irrigation systems, canals, and
dams
 At first, after much debate,
Congress did not act, but
eventually provided funding
for canals and dams
 Conservationist began to fear
overdevelopment of the West
 Perhaps the federal government
should not sell all of the public
land
 Yellowstone National Park
 In 1872, Congress set 2 million
acres aside for the world’s first
national park
 The Northern Pacific Railroad
company lobbied Congress for a
national park to support railroad
tourism
 U.S. Fisheries Commission
 Made recommendations to
address the declining
commercial fish population
 Most settlers were motivated
by the possibility of economic
improvement
 Population
 Union soldiers
 Scandinavian immigrants
 After a depression hit northern
Europe Norwegians and Swedes
came in great numbers
(especially in Minnesota and the
Dakotas)
 Former slaves
 The Great Plains represented a
promised land of freedom
 Native American Indians
 Chinese Immigrants