Settling The West: Miners & Ranchers

The Growth of Mining

Big Ideas:

The economy of the American West from

the mid 1800s to the late 1900s was

centered around harvesting natural

resources to be used in manufacturing and

industry in the east.

The Growth of Mining

Boom Towns:

Gold discoveries

continued to draw

people westward in

hopes of striking it

rich.

Towns sprung up

quickly around the

mining areas

earning them the

name “Boom

Town.”

The Growth of Mining

The sudden influx of

new people gave

some western

territories a large

enough population

to apply for

statehood.

In 1864, Nevada

had enough people

to apply for

statehood.

The Growth of Mining Boomtowns were rowdy places.

Some towns formed their own vigilance committees to help keep some degree of law and order.

Women arrived after the men, and many made more money than the men by providing services such as boarding houses, cafes, laundries, and brothels.

Many immigrants also found work out west. An 1880 census of the 2700 men working the mines in Nevada found that only 770 were American born.

The Growth of Mining

Most of the boomtowns

lasted only as long as

the mines produced.

○ Once the mines dried

up, the boom went

bust and people

moved on.

○ Some towns were

abandoned and

became “ghost-

towns.”

○ Most prospectors

went home broke.

The Growth of Mining

Mining Technology:

Early prospectors

used placer mining

to extract shallow

deposits using hand

held tools.

The Growth of Mining

Mining Technology:

In time, the only

deposits left were

those deep

underground, and

new methods were

needed to extract

the minerals.

An early popular

method was called

hydraulic mining.

The Growth of Mining

High pressure water

cannons were used

to erode the earth

and expose mineral

deposits.

It was a faster and

cheaper way of

mining, but it had

devastating effects

on the environment.

The Growth of Mining Underground mining was

expensive, so mining

corporations sold stock to

raise capital.

○ San Fran’s first stock

exchange was established

simply to handle the trading

in Comstock mining shares.

In 1876 the value of

Comstock shares was more

than the total value of San

Francisco.

○ A few years later, the stock

was worthless.

Ranching & Cattle Drives

Big Ideas:

As the US continued to industrialize, there

was an increased demand for food products

to feed the growing cities.

○ As a result, people in the city begin to become

detached from the food-chain process. Fewer

and fewer people consumed food they grew or

raised themselves.

Ranching & Cattle Drives

Most of the vast open

land in the West was

owned by the federal

government.

This open range

allowed cattle rancher

to raise cattle without

having to pay for the

use of the grazing

land.

Ranching & Cattle Drives

The Civil War caused beef prices to skyrocket and ranchers looked for a means to get their herds to market.

In 1866 ranchers began moving their cattle north in long drives towards the rail lines where they could be shipped to meat packing plants. From 1867-1861 cowboys

moved 1.5 million head of cattle from Texas to Abilene, Kansas.

Ranching & Cattle Drives

As settlers, farmers,

and sheep herders

moved into the

territory of the cattle

barons, disputes

erupted over grazing

rights.

These “range wars”

happened often and

were violent.

Ranching & Cattle Drives

To protect their herds and

property, more and more

ranchers chose to surround

their acreage with a new

type of cheap fencing called

barbed wire.

The invention made Joseph

Glidden one of the richest men

in America.

Barbed wire ended the era of

the open range and cattle

drives.

Ranching & Cattle Drives

The cattle boom was

ruined by its own

success.

As more and more

investors poured money

into cattle ranching, the

increase in the supply of

beef caused prices to

plummet, and many

ranchers went bankrupt.

Settling the Hispanic Southwest

Big Ideas:

Much of the culture and identity of the

American Southwest has its roots in the

Spanish speaking people who occupied the

territory before the arrival of settlers from the

East.

Settling the Hispanic Southwest

At first the Spanish speaking populations welcomed becoming part of the US as it brought stability and protection that Mexico could not or would not provide.

However, as more and more English speaking settlers arrived, the Hispanics saw themselves becoming marginalized.

Settling the Hispanic Southwest

American settlers encroached on the haciendas owned by Hispanics. American courts would not recognize the validity of Spanish land grants, and many Hispanics lost their land.

Ironically, it was Hispanic vaqueros who taught cattle management to many of the American cowboys.

Settling the Hispanic Southwest

In order to maintain

their culture, many

Hispanics settled in

their own

neighborhoods called

barrios.

They had Spanish

newspapers, Spanish

speaking businesses,

and helped promote

cultural and religious

traditions.