Tensions
Native
Americans
Cattlemen
Ranchers
Buffalo Hunters
Railroads
U. S. Government
Sheep Herders
Farmers
Tensions
Ethnic
Minorities
Nativists
Environmentalists
Lawlessness of
the Frontier
Big Business Interests
[mining, timber]
Local Govt. Officials
Farmers
Buffalo Hunters
“Civilizing” Forces
[The “Romance” of the West]
Start of Railroad Construction
1862: Pacific Railway Act: authorized the
construction of a transcontinental
railroad
Railroad Construction
Transcontinental Railroads
• 1866-1869
Central Pacific Railroad Company moving
east from Sacramento, CA
Union Pacific Railroad moving west from
Omaha, Nebraska
How to build railroads?
•
•
•
•
Very expensive
Federally funded
A) tax payer funded government bonds
B) by sale of land given by government
to railroad companies
Ripe for massive corruption
and fraud
• Publically funded railroad companies
• A) bilked the government by not paying
back loans
• B) lied to their investors about rates of
return
• C) speculated on land (drove up price
and pocketed the difference)
• D) bribed politicians with free stock and
favors for votes and a continuation of
land subsidies
Fraud continued:
• Union Pacific: formed a mining company
and mined coal for $2.00 per ton and
sold it to the company for $6.00 per ton
(pocketing the difference)
• Railroad companies paid per mile of
track $16,000 for flat, $32,000 for
hilly, and $48,000 for mountainous:
tendency to go through more difficult
terrain
• Used cheap materials that needed
frequent repair
Private (Free Market) System
better than government
• 1. Britain built entire railroad system
privately (It could be done)
• 2. most of the U.S. publically funded
companies went bankrupt
• 3. Only profitable railroad companies were
privately held: Great Northern Railroad
owned by James Hill
• 4. Congress enacted more legislation that
hindered efficiency and prevented executives
from making sound business decisions
Continued
• Federally subsidized railroads were
mired in regulation and handicapped by
inherent inefficiencies of government
financed public works projects (Lorenzo,
How Capitalism saved America, 2004.
“The Big Four” Railroad Magnates (Central Pacific)
Charles Crocker
Collis Huntington
Mark Hopkins
Leland Stanford
Promontory Point, UT
(May 10, 1869) Travel time cut from 3 months to one week: Ordered by the
government to connect rail lines because companies selfishly were trying to
continue government subsides by building parallel tracks that would not connect.
The Bronc Buster
Frederick Remington
Black Cowboys
Colt .45 Revolver
God didn’t make men equal.
Colonel Colt did!
Legendary Gunslingers & Train Robbers
Jesse James
Billy the Kid
Dodge City Peace Commission, 1890
Prospecting
Mining
• Colorado gold rush in 1859
• “Pikes Peak or Bust”
• Leadville, Co. (silver, lead, zinc and
copper)
• Comstock Lode in Nevada (gold and
silver)
• Anaconda Mine, Montana (copper)
Pikes Peak or Bust
Mining Centers: 1900
Anaconda Copper Mining Co. (MT)
Mining (“Boom”) Towns-Now Ghost Towns
Calico, CA
The
Cattle
Trails
Cattle Drives
• Cattle driven to “railroad” terminals for
train rides to the east
• Kansas City, MO
• Dodge City, Kansas
• Meat packing industry developed in
Cincinnati, Chicago, Milwaukee, and
Minneapolis, MN
Land Use: 1880s
New Agricultural
Technology
Steel Plow [“Sod Buster”]
“Prairie Fan”
Water Pump
Barbed Wire: Enclosed property much easier
than split post rail fences
Joseph Glidden
The Range Wars:
Cattlemen vs. Farmers
Sheep
Herders
Cattle
Ranchers