Opening the West1858 - 1896

Mining Booms● California gold rush ends in mid 1850s - miners still hoping to find gold● 1858 gold was found at Pikes Peak in Colorado Rockies.

○ Miners were making $20 a day (servants earned less than $1)○ By the spring of 1859 about 50,000 prospectors have flocked to the goldfields of Colorado

● Skimmed gold dust from the streams - most was deep in the underground lodes - rich streaks of ore running between rock layer-

● 1859 - Nevada’s Carson River - Called Comstock Lode (Henry Comstock owned a share of the land)

○ Only few were profitable

● Boomtowns - towns that developed almost over night○ Lively and often lawless○ Spending and gambling ○ Violence - no real police or prisons - vigilantes○ Men mostly lived there - women would work as laundresses, cooks, or entertainers.

Pg. 553

Railroads Connect East and West ● Colorado becomes a state in 1876, North and

South Dakota, Washington and Montana in 1889, Wyoming and Idaho in 1890.

● Survival of mining communities lies on transportation

○ Gold and silver have little value unless they reach factories, ports, and markets

○ Stagecoaches and wagons could not move fast enough - railroads.

● Railroad network expanded rapidly between 1865 and 1890

○ 35,000 miles to 150,000 miles. ○ Pacific Railway Acts were passed in 1862, allowing

the first transcontinental railroad to be completed in 1869, making possible a six-day trip from New York to San Francisco.

Government and the Railroads● Railroads were constructed with subsidies -

financial aid and land grants from the government. ○ Railroad executives made the argument that their

companies should receive free public land where they would lay their tracks

■ Since it would bring benefits from East to West. ■ Bring business and benefits to the whole nation

○ Govt. grants more than 130 million acres to the RR companies

○ Purchased or obtained by treaties from Native Americans■ Included land for tracks and strips of land along the

railway 20 to 80 miles■ Example: LA gave Southern Pacific Railroad money

and paid for a passenger terminal to ensure that the RR would be built near their town.

Transcontinental Railroad ● Span the continent and connect Atlantic to Pacific - began in 1850s

○ Southern vs. Northern (both want the tracks to go through them)○ During the Civil War the Northern Govt. chose the Northerly route. ○ Govt offers land grants for companies who would build.

● Union Pacific Company - westward from Omaha, Nebraska○ Irish and AA - Low wages○ Laid 1,038 miles of track

● Central Pacific - Eastward from Sacramento, CA○ 10,000 Chinese workers - 1865 - $28 per month○ 742 miles of track (harsher conditions)

● Harsh conditions ○ Heat, icy winter, cleared forests, blasted tunnels through mountains, etc.

● May 10, 1869 - construction was completed ○ Leland Stanford - Gov. of CA - drove a golden spike through the last tie. ○ Telegraph lines flashed across country

■ “The last rail is laid...The last spike driven… The Pacific Railroad complete.”

Pg. 556 Primary Source

Effects of the Railroads ● 1883, 2 more transcontinental railroads & dozens

shorter lines were built● Thousands of workers westward

○ Trains carried more metal & produce.○ More tracks laid = more steel needed - steal industry boom ○ Coal production○ Air Brakes - pull longer & heavier goods.

● Towns sprang up along the railroads = Denver, Colorado

○ Agricultural goods to market

● Time Zones - 4 - exactly one hour later than the zone to its west

○ American Railway Association created this in 1883■ Safety issues - eg. Boston was ahead of NY -

collisions ■ Congress recognizes this in 1918

It “made the people more homogenous (alike), breaking the peculiarities and proclaims (local ways) which marked separate and unmingiling regions.” -Omaha Daily Republican

Ranchers and Farmers

Railroads and Cow Towns ● The Spanish settled Mexico and Texas

the brough a tough breed of cattle - Longhorns

○ Spread throughout Texas - Open range○ Ranchers added to the heards by capturing

them and branding them showing ownership

● Markets for beef were in the North and East

○ Cattle could now be hearded miles/loaded on trains for shipment

○ Longhorns that were worth $3 were going for $40

○ Long Drives - herding of cattle 1,000 miles ■ Traveled to Cow Towns - located on the

route near RR.■ Led from Texas to Abilene, Kansas, on

the Chisholm Trail - pg. 562

Life on the Great Plains ● Cowhands - Dangerous conditions:

weather, stampede, saddle for 15 hours

○ Veterans of the Civil War, African Americans (searching for better life; Nat Love), & Hispanics

■ Cattle herding began in the Spanish Southwest

● Vaqueros - Hispanic ranch hands

● Cattle Kingdom Ends ○ Ranching eventually replaces cattle drives

■ Produce hardier cattle - too much cattle = price drop

■ Farming = Economic activity in the palins

○ Pg. 561 / Netflix

Native American Struggles

Following the Buffalo● Govt.intervening on NA land

○ Red Cloud wants to ensure safety of whites moving into NA territory

■ “The white children (settlers) have surrounded me and left me nothing but an island.”

● Omaha & Osage lived in communities w/ farmers and hunters

● Plains Indians - Sioux, Comanche and Blackfeet- nomadic life

○ Following the buffalo - source of food/living ○ American hunters/ RR workers use them to feed

the crews.○ 1872 Americans target Buffalo for hide to sell.

Native American Conflict ● 1867 - Indian Peace Commission to

develop a policy towards NA.○ Moving NA to reservations - plots of land. ○ Army would deal with any group that did not want

to move.

● Reservations - Indian Territory - ○ Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs

■ Mange the reservations■ Poor land, failed to deliver food and

supplies, poor quality food. ○ Many nations did move - but later abandoned

Conflict ● 1860s many armed clashes

○ Minnesota Territory - Sioux warriors led by Red Cloud burned and looted white settlers homes in summer 1825 - hundreds died.

● Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho 1865 - 1867○ Army stationed at Bozeman Trail - used to reach gold

mines○ Crazy Horse acted as a decoy leads troop to an ambush

where warriors wiped out the lot.■ Fetterman Massacre.

● Colorado - Raiding wagons, trains, stealing cattle and horses from ranchers.

○ Gov. orders NA to surrender - prommise food and protection,

■ Some do not - Chief Black Kettle to negotiate peace - attacked by. Col. John Chivington

■ Agree to stop fighting oct. 1865○ Pg. 569

Red Cloud

Little Bighorn● Black Hills of the Dakotas - rumored to be gold

○ “No white person or persons shall be permitted.” to settle on that land.”■ People flocked - the Sioux protested - govt. Tried to buy the land

○ Sitting Bull - important leader of the Lakota Sioux refuses■ “I do not want to sell an land. Not even this much,” he said

holding a pinch of dust■ Gathers Sioux & cheyenne warriors & meets with Crazy Horse■ Lieutenant col. George Custer and 210 soldiers collide - less

than 30 minutes all are dead at Little Bighorn.● Shocked the nation ● Army soon crushed the uprising sending Sitting Bull and

followed to Canada● 1881 - the Lakota and cheyenne agree to live on

reservations.

Apache People ● Apache people - Would break the US people

up into groups - could be at war w/ one and not the other

○ Blue Coats - lived in forts○ Ranchers groups - raised cattle○ Mining groups - dug holes in the ground

● Women were highly regarded - US only talked to the men

○ Saw land had sacraded - US gold/value

● Two types of raids○ You would get in and out with no one knowing you

were there○ Revenge raid - Kill and scare

● US Govt. tries to lump them together○ Several diff. Groups ○ Not allowed to raid/ starvation/ wouldn't give them food

Apache Wars 1861 - 1886 ● $100 for a scalp for and Apache leader ● Gen. James Carlton - “there is to be no council heald

with the indians, the men will be slayed and woman and children held prisoners.”

● Geronimo - raids on US people○ $40 million Us dollars spent to kill 100 Apache and returned

thousands of US army ○ On September 4, 1886, surrendered in Skeleton Canyon,

Arizona, after fighting for his homeland for almost 30 years■ He was the last American Indian warrior to formally

surrender to the United States■ Exiled to Oklahoma and not able to return to his people

after pleading to Pres. Roosevelt■ “Place my people in their native homes so that our name

will not become extinct. I pray to you cut the ropes, make me free, let me die in my own country an old man who has been punished enough.”

A Changing Culture ● Movement of whites into territory,

slaughter of buffalo, US army attacks, reservations, etc.

● Dawes Act - 1887○ Aimed to remove what whites regarded as

weaknesses:■ Lack of private property and nomadic

tradition ○ Breakup reservation land - NA would become

farmers or ranchers and then American Citizens.■ Little training or enthusiasm to succeed■ Land was too small to be profitable - so

they sold it.

Chief Joseph was a leader of the Wallowa band of the Nez Perce Tribe, who became famous in 1877 for leading his people on an epic flight across the Rocky Mountains

Wounded Knee● A ceremony called the Ghost Dance -

celebrated the hope for a day when settlers would disappear and the buffalo would return

● Army thought Sitting Bull was leading this = made them nervous

○ Tried to arrest him - shot and killed him in a scuffle

● Several hundred Lakota Sioux gathered at Wounded Knee

○ Dec.1890- Army went to collect their weapons○ Shot rang out army responded with fire

■ 200 Sioux and 25 soldiers are killed■ Marked the end of the armed conflict between

Native Americans and the US govt. \

Pg.570 people in history

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQDkefN5-bk

Farmers in Protest

A Farmers Organization ● The price for crops declined but the shipping of good remained

high ○ Blamed the railroad companies - charged farmers more to ship crops○ Angry with Eastern manufacturers - charged high prices for their product ○ Resented bankers - charged high interest rate

● Railroad companies “took possessions of the land” and the bankers “took possession of the farmer.” - Sen. William A. Peffer

● National Grange - first farmers organization ○ Offered farmers education, fellowship and support ○ Organized social gatherings○ Cash-only cooperatives - economic self sufficiency

■ Charged lower prices, prevented farmers from buying on credit■ 1878 RR put so much pressure on the states that they repealed acts to

help farmers ○ Farmers are short on cash and still had to borrow = FAIL of the Grange.

Farmers Alliance ● A network of organizations that sprang

up in the west and south in 1880s○ 1890 Southern Alliance had over 3 million ○ Colored Farmers National Alliance - AA

farmers 1 million ○ Sponsored education and co-ops. ○ Federal Govt. would store the crops and

lend money to farmers ■ Farmers would pay back loans when

crops sold ○ Regional differences and personality

clashed kept the alliances a part

Populist Party ● 1890 election the Farmers Alliance became active in

politics. ○ Worked to turn the movement into a political party

■ People’s Party of the USA or Populist Party ● GOAL - appeal to the common people

● Claimed that the Govt., not private companies should own RR and Telegraph networkers

○ Wanted to replace the country's gold based currency with free silver

■ More circulation - can pay of debts○ Supported political labor reforms

■ Limiting the pres and vp. terms , electing senators directly , use of secret ballots, shorter working hours and income tax

● Tax higher earnings more heavily.

Pg. 577 Political cartoon

Free Silver● Division from North & South

○ Many white southerners couldn't join a party with AA

● 1890s Democrat controlled Southern state leg. ○ Placed limits on the rights of AAs○ Many freedmen who might have supported the populist

couldn't vote

● Farmers and debtors would join ○ Supporting free silver ○ Thought it would clear their loans

● West joined ○ If govt. Coined large quantities of silver the mining cos.

Would have a place to sell their metal.

Election of 1896● Dems elect William Jennings Bryan

○ Firey speaker, supported free silver & other populist goals, believed in farmers, traveled across the nation to give speeches, attacked bankers

● Reps elect William McKinley○ Opposed free silver,

● Economic depression that slowed business in the 1890s was over.

○ Bryan’s ideas were not as urgent

● McKinley wins!● Populist ideas make an impact!

○ 1900s US abandons gold○ 8 hour work day○ Income tax○ Secret ballot○ Direct election of senators (pg. 576)