Topic 10.2
The West is Transformed
1865-1900
Mining, Ranching, and Farming
2.9, 3.1, 3.5
“Comstock Lode”
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Placer Mining – Using
picks, shovels, and pans.
Quartz Mining – Dug
deep beneath the
surface. -Dynamite
Henry Comstock –Right
Staked a claim in Six Mile
Canyon, Nevada.
Vigilance Committees –
self appointed volunteers
punishing wrongdoers.
Boom Town: Virginia City
http://www.ghosttowns.co
m/states/nm/nm.html
The Transcontinental Railroad
Impacts the Frontier
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Transcontinental Railroad: Linked the east
and west
Land Grants: Government land given to RR
companies to sell
Central Pacific: Sacramento, California (Chinese
Immigrants)
Union Pacific: Omaha, Nebraska (Irish, German,
African American)
1869: Promontory Point, Utah: Place that
country was officially “connected” with GOLDEN
SPIKE
“ The Long Drive”
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Open Range – A vast
area of grassland owned
by the government.
Long Drive – From either
Abilene or Dodge City in
Kansas to Sedalia,
Missouri.
Chisholm Trail – A town
that rivaled the mining
towns in terms of
rowdiness.
Mavericks – stray calves
with no identifying
symbols
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“Range Wars”-open
fighting between
cattle ranchers
(Cowboys)
William H. Bonney:
“Billy the Kid”
Lincoln County
War: N.Mex.
Major Cattle Trails on the LONG
DRIVE
“End of Long Drive”
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Barbed Wire –
enabled hundreds of
square miles to be
fenced off cheaply
and easily. –Joseph
Glidden (Right Pic.)
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Refrigerated Rail Car
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-Gustavus Swift (Left
Pic.)
“Great American Desert”
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Great Plains – Extended
westward to the Rocky
Mountains from around the
100th meridian.
Stephen Long – Explored
the region with an army
expedition in 1819.
Homestead Act – For a $10
registration fee, an
individual could file for a
homestead.
Homestead – A tract of
public land available for
settlement.
Exodusters
Farming the Plains
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Dry Farming – Plant seeds deep in the
ground where there was enough moisture
for them to grow.
Sodbusters – those who plowed the soil
on the Plains.
Bonanza Farms – Large Corporate Farms
that often yielded big profits. Drove Small
Family Farms out of Business.
Mexicans Americans Defend Property
Rights
• Abuse and Discrimination
Undermine Rights
• Courts backed white
Americans land claims most
of the time
• Las Gorras Blancas:
Extremist group who targeted
large ranch owners with terror
tactics
• Alianza Hispano-Americana:
Organization formed to
protect Mexican-American
Culture