Transcontinental Railroad:
The Move West
Across the Continent. "Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way"
Frances Flora Bond Palmer, American (born England), 1812 - 1876. Published by Currier & Ives, New York.
http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/308328.html
Map of the United States
Need To Know:
1. The Great Plains:
-grasslands
-dry and hot summers
-harsh winters
2. Transcontinental Railroad: 1869 Union Pacific and Central
Pacific railroads came together at Promontory Summit, Utah.
-First time country is connected
3. Homestead Act:
-Government offered 160 acres FREE
-5 years and improve the land
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/85/Map_of_the_Great_P
lains.png
Transcontinental Railroad
http://www.tcrr.com/Transcontinental-Railroad-map-wiki.jpg
Homestead Act
• Survey the text: what features do you notice? (dates,
etc.)
• What questions do you have?
• Read the text to try to answer those questions and
gain a basic understanding
• Respond/discuss: what’s happening here?
• Reread more carefully, this time, focusing on the
idea of opportunity
– Describe the opportunity in one word/phrase
– Write words/phrases within the text that create this power
The Homestead Act
• What is the purpose of this act?
• The Homestead Act was meant to insure
that United States citizens who actually
wanted to farm land were the recipients
of the government's largess.
–Who else might have wanted to profit
from this deal, and how? How is the
law trying to prevent various abuses?
The Pacific Railway Act
• Individually read The Pacific Railway Act
The Pacific Railway Act
1. What is the purpose of this act?
2. What is the Union Pacific Railroad Company empowered by this act to do?
3. What will be the most difficult terrain on which to lay track? What other
difficulties do you foresee in terms of crews of men living and working in a
variety of environments as they lay tracks?
4. Why do you think the government is providing for the building of telegraph
poles along the length of the railroad?
5. What does the government promise to do if American Indian tribes claim
title to this land?
6. In Section 3 the act provides the railroad with more land than what is
needed to give it a right of way. Why will this land fronting the railroad tracks
be even more valuable than land given to homesteaders at a distance from
the railway?
Government and Migration
• How are these two acts related?
• What month and year did Congress pass each of these two acts?
Why do you think they were passed within months of each other?
(Contextualization: What major event is happening during this
time?)
• In what ways are these acts mutually beneficial both to settlers and
the railways?
• How do the acts transfer power?
• What role does the railroad have on the idea of opportunity
(American Dream) on Homesteaders?
Debrief
What are the consequences of the development
of the railroad? Positive and negative?