Warm Up

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Warm Up

1. Raise your hand if you have moved from one house to another at some point in your life.

2. Find someone who has moved and ask them the following questions:

– Why did you move?

– Did you like the place you moved?

– How was it different from where you used to live?

Objectives

Content: Determine the most important reasons for Westward Expansion.

Language: List the features of the Great

Plains.

Westward Expansion

“The Great Plains”

The Great Plains

• Pre Civil War it was viewed as a

“treeless wasteland”

• Features:

– Flatlands that rise gradually from east to west

– Land eroded by wind and water

– Low rainfall

– Frequent dust storms

The Great Plains

• Now seen as a vast area for settlement and opportunity

Land

Homestead Act – citizens can acquire 160 acres of land as long as they pay a filing fee and live on the land for a minimum of 5 years. http://youtu.be/yxaJY8UZxn4?list=PL6813F8A8A1A97A4E

Adventure

Railroad

Gold and Silver

Escape from discrimina tion

Inventions and Adaptations

• Western settlement was aided by new inventions and technologies

• There were a total of 8 adaptations and inventions that helped settlers to survive the harsh climate they are:

1. Railroads (most important reason for

Westward Expansion)

Transcontinental Railroad

• Transcontinental Railroad

– Completed May 10, 1869.

– The last spike was driven at Promontory Point in Utah. It was called the Golden Spike.

– The Union Pacific (from the East) and the

Central Pacific (from the West) had laid over

1700 miles of track.

– Most important reason for Westward

Expansion

Story of US http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcAoIlyw9i0&feature=related

Effects of Railroads

• Towns grew along the rail line

• Transported goods to cities and larger markets

• Increased demand for steel, coal and construction work

Effects of Railroads

• Led to increase in farming and cattle ranching

• Established 4 time zones in 1883. Made official in 1918 by Congress.

– Story of US

Objectives

Content: Name the adaptations the settlers developed to survive in the Great

Plains.

Language: Write a paragraph on the most important adaptation(s) western settlers made.

2. Dry Farming

• Plant seeds deep into the ground where there was some moisture.

• Allows for crops in climates that seemed un-farmable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48H7zOQrX3U&safety_mode=t rue&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active

3. Steel Plow

• By 1870’s the steel plow was invented that could break through the tough layers of sod.

4. Wheat Farming

• Farmers adopted an improved strain of

Russian wheat which required less water and grew well in the dryer soil of the Great Plains.

5. Windmills

• Farmers could use windmills to pump water out from under the ground.

6. Sod Houses

• Built using rectangles of grass and the part of the soil beneath it held together by the roots.

• It was a similar style to an igloo.

• They were very well insulated, but also very damp.

A Nebraska Sod House

Sodbusters- Name given to the plains farmers

Story of US

7. Beef Cattle Raising

• In the early 1800s, cattle ranches began appearing on the Great Plains, especially in

Texas.

• Demand for beef was high, and as railroads developed, cowboys and vaqueros would drive the rancher’s cattle north to meet up with the rail lines.

Vaqueros and Cowboys

8. Barbed Wire

• Developed barbed wire to protect their land in r esponse to cattle herders.

• Story of US

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