THE WEST:�Mining

The Bonanza West

• Quest to “get rich quick” produces
• uneven growth
• boom-and-bust economic cycles
• wasted resources
• "instant cities" like San Francisco
• Institutions based on bonanza mentality

The Mining Bonanza

• Mining first attraction to the West
• Mining frontier moves from west to east
• individual prospectors remove surface gold
• big corporations move in with the heavy, expensive mining equipment
• 1874-1876--Black Hills rush overruns Sioux hunting grounds

Mining Regions of the West

Gold Miners (placer mining)

Mining Bonanza:�Ethnic Hostility

• 25-50% of camp citizens were foreign-born
• French, Latin Americans, Chinese hated
• 1850--California Foreign Miner's Tax drives foreigners out
• 1882--federal Chinese Exclusion Act suspends Chinese immigration for 10 years

Cashing in

The Comstock Lode

The Comstock Lode was the richest silver mine (it was also plentiful in gold) in the United States.

It was “Loded” with 57% Silver and 43% Gold.

By 1882 the mine had produce $397,000,000 in ore—half of the silver in the United States during the period.

People rushed out West to strike it rich.

Mining Bonanza: �Camp Life

• Camps sprout with each first strike
• Camps governed by simple democracy
• Men outnumber women two-to-one
• Most men, some women work claims
• Most women earn wages as cooks, housekeepers, and seamstresses

Virginia City, NV-Then and Now

Mining Bonanza: �Effects of the Mining Boom

• Contributes millions to economy
• Helps finance Civil War, industrialization
• Helps populate the West
• Early statehood for Nevada, Idaho, Montana
• Invaded Indian reservations
• Scarred, polluted environment
• Ghost towns

������THE WEST: Homesteaders/Farmers

Farming the West

• Difficulties:
• No building materials
• Indians
• Cattle Industry during the Long Drive
• Harsh climate-little water
• Natural Disasters-drought, hail, blizzards, prairie fires and tornadoes
• Stampeding buffalo & swarms of locusts
• Hard prairie soil couldn’t be turned over efficiently until John Deere’s steel plow

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The Homestead Act of 1862

• The Homestead Act gave public lands (lands owned by the national government) to American citizens.

Facts:

• Any person who was the head of a family or was at least 21 years old could become the owner of a homestead.

- homestead = 160 acres

• Married couples were entitled to two shares, or 320 acres.

In the photos above, the blue square represents one acre. 

- an acre = 4,840 square yards, or 43,560 square feet

Requirements:

• The settler must live on the land and work it for five years.

Homesteader with an 8-mule team, Nebraska, late 1800’s

Effects:

• The Homestead Act helped poor families who could not afford land in the eastern states.

• It gave unemployedworkers a chance to find work on land of their own.

Daniel Freeman Standing, Holding Gun, with Hatchet Tucked in Belt,�The "first homesteader" to settle in Beatrice, Nebraska, 1863.

A Sod House?

• Sod is, in many ways, an ideal building material.
• Sod is, literally, dirt cheap and generally available.
• It is warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
• Sod is fire-proof, allowing families on the great plains to huddle in their soddys as prairie fires swept their farms.

“Soddy” on the Plains

Sod home of John and Marget Bakken, Milton, N.D., circa 1895.

Sod School House

Steel Plow

• Invented by John Deere, the steel plow was made to cut through the tough sod on the Great Plains without the dirt clogging up along the blade. This meant the farmer could plow without having to stop and clean his plow off every few yards.

Dry Farming & Wheat Farming

• Dry farming is used in areas that have little rainfall. Basically, the farmer divides his fields in wide strips and then plants crops on every other strip. This allows the soil to gather moisture for two years.
• Wheat became popular on The Great Plains because it actually grows better this way, especially Red Wheat introduced by Russian Immigrants.

Windmills

• A windmill is a machine that is operated by wind power. Windmills are used chiefly to pump water, grind grain and generate electric power.
• Windmills were used all over The Great Plains. They were used to pump water from the ground to the surface so the settlers could use it. This helped make The Great Plains more livable.

• Thousands of African-Americans move West in 1879 in an effort to find a better life.

• This was known as the “Exodus of 1879”, and the participants were called “Exodusters”.

Exodusters

Natural Disasters-Dust Storms

Barbed Wire

• The widespread use of barbed wire fences changed life on the plains. Land that was once open to all was now being fenced off by ranchers and homesteaders. Homesteaders were better able to protect their crops and ranchers had better control over their herds. The American Indian was also affected by the wire that they referred to as “Devil’s rope”.

Barbed Wire

• A farmers protection against cattle and buffalo
• Put an end to the Long Drive

Bonanza Farms

• The Northern Pacific Railroad and investors from eastern states, however, invested in large farms, which they used for cultivation of wheat. These lavish farms - some of them covering 65,000 acres- were highly successful and profitable ventures and were soon dubbed ‘bonanza farms’.
• Farmers pinched by bad economic times and rising railroad rates were forced to sell to large companies.

Bonanza Farm

Closing of the Western Frontier

• Frederick Jackson Turner: The Significance of the Frontier in American History (1890)-The frontier is closed…no more free land available.
• Set the stage for American Imperialism

THE WEST:�Cattle Industry

Gold from the Roots Up:�The Cattle Bonanza

• Herds of longhorns from Mexico roam the open ranges of West
• Cattle drives take herds to rail heads
• Trains take herds to Chicago for processing
• Profits enormous for large ranchers
• Cowboys work long hours for little pay
• Cattlemen’s Boom – Railroads and Population in East

Cattle Trails

To the Stockyards in Chicago

Chicago Stockyards

Beef from Texas feeds the East and changes our culture

• …and the # 1 source of protein before the 1870’s?

Gold from the Roots Up:�The Cattle Bonanza (2)

• By 1880 wheat farmers begin fencing range
• Mechanization modernizes ranching
• 1886--harsh winter kills thousands of cattle
• Ranchers reduce herds, switch to sheep

Barbed Wire by Farmers destroys the Open Range and the Long Drive

Populism-Power to the People

Farmers Unite

• The more farmers produced, the lower prices went.

• Farmers quickly went into debt.

• As a result, farmers formed the National Grange, which worked to boost their profits.

• Grangers saved money by pooling their money into cooperatives and buying supplies wholesale.

Beginnings of Populism

• The National Grange of the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry was founded in Washington, DC on December 4, 1867, by Oliver Hudson Kelley, a clerk with the Federal Bureau of Agriculture, and six other men.

Populist Party

• The Populist Party was formed by farmers and labor unions.

“The fruits of the toil of millions,” they say, are being “stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few.”

• The unidentified artist depicts the People's Party as a hot air balloon made up of a patchwork of pieces, with each piece labeled with the name of the political organization or party that has been subsumed under the banner of the Populists. Some of the more recognizable "patches" include the Prohibition Party, the Greenback Party,

Omaha Platform

• Increase money supply—unlimited coinage of silver
• Graduated income tax
• Federal Loan Program
• Direct Election of U.S. Senators
• Single Terms for Pres. & VP
• Australian (Secret) Ballot
• 8 Hour Work day
• Restrictions on Immigration

William Jennings Bryan, Populist Party candidate for president, 1896

Dynamic Orator: Wm. Jennings Bryan

Silverites vs. Gold Bugs

• “Free silver" was an appeal for cheaper dollars. It would cheat lenders of an honest return on their money, allowing uninhibited borrowers to steal value from those who had extended loans….BANKS.

• In 1896 the Democratic Party held his convention to decide who would be the official candidate for the Presidential Elections. Bryan presented himself and made a speech so powerful that he soon won the nomination.

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• “…we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”

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• -Bryan (1896) Cross of Gold Speech

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1896 Judge cartoon shows Populist Party presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan swallowing up the Democratic party.

* Populist Presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan narrowly lost the 1896 election to the Republican William McKinley.

Omaha Platform

Occupy Wall Street Proposed List Of Demands

Demand one: CONGRESS PASS HR 1489 REINSTATING GLASS-STEAGALL ACT.

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Demand two: USE CONGRESSIONAL AUTHORITY AND OVERSIGHT TO ENSURE APPROPRIATE FEDERAL AGENCIES FULLY INVESTIGATE AND PROSECUTE THE WALL STREET CRIMINALS

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Demand three: ELIMINATE "PERSONHOOD" STATUS FOR CORPORATIONS

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Demand four: CONGRESS PASS THE BUFFETT RULE ON FAIR TAXATION SO THE RICH AND CORPORATIONS PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE & CLOSE CORPORATE TAX LOOP HOLES AND ENACT A PROHIBITION ON HIDING FUNDS OFF SHORE.

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Demand five: Free College Education

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• Increase money supply

—unlimited coinage of silver

• Graduated income tax
• Federal Loan Program
• Direct Election of U.S. Senators
• Single Terms for Pres. & VP
• Australian (Secret) Ballot
• 8 Hour Work day
• Restrictions on Immigration