Competitors for the West and Environmental Impacts of Western Settlement

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Competitors for the West and Environmental
Impacts of Western Settlement
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Homestead Act of 1862

• Allowed anyone to file for a quarter-section of
  free land.
• Full ownership occurred at the end of five years
  if you had built a house on it, dug a well,
  broken 10 acres, fenced a specified amount, and
  actually lived there.
• New arrivals to the U.S. and landless citizens
  were obvious candidates for the homestead lands
• Homesteaders were more likely to be the children
  of established farmers seeking a place of their
  own.

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Building a Sod House

• House Sod was the logical answer to housing for
  the pioneers who had no trees or stones in sight.
• Sod was cheap, easily accessible, and provided
  excellent insulation.
• Because wood was sparse and coal was expensive,
  early pioneers used buffalo chips for fuel.

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Sod Houses
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Sod Houses
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Sod Houses
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Sod Houses
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Gold and Silver Production

• One of the factors that led to western expansion
  of the United States was the mining industry.
• Individual prospectors found many of the Wests
  richest gold and silver deposits.
• The majority of the gold and silver produced was
  mined by corporations.

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Life at a Gold Mining Camp

• Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clapp wrote about life
  in a Gold Mining Camp.
• Her letters were later published in a magazine.
• Imagine a tiny valley about eight hundred yards
  in length, and perhaps thirty in width,
  apparently hemmed in by lofty hills, almost
  perpendicular, draperied to their very summits
  with beautiful fir-trees
• Through the middle of Rich Bar runs the street,
  thickly planted with about forty tenements, among
  which figure round tents, square tents, plank
  hovels, log cabins, etc., the residences varying
  in elegance and convenience from the palatial
  splendor of The Empire down to a local
  habitation formed of pine boughs and covered
  with old calico shirts.

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Life on the Range

• The life of a cowboy on the Great Plains in the
  1800s was challenging.
• Working in all types of weather conditions,
  searching for lost cattle, mending fences, and
  eating the same food day after day was common
  place for these men.
• The work was hard and dangerous pay averaged
  from 25 to 40 a month.
• George Martin reminisced with an interviewer from
  the Federal Writers Project in the 1930s.
• Martin recalled the tough work, difficult
  conditions, and long days required of ranch hands
  in Texas.

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Capturing the American Cowboy Experience

• In the late 1890s and early 1900s, the Thomas A.
  Edison, Inc. recorded the life of the American
  Cowboy by using the recently invented motion
  picture camera.

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A System of Modern Geography

• The status of Native Americans has changed
  several times throughout the history of the
  United States.
• National leaders stated that Native Americans
  owned the soil they occupied.
• In the 1830s the United States government
  implemented a policy of removal.
• The President of the United States was given the
  authority to move Native Americans onto land west
  of the Mississippi River.
• Eventually most Native Americans tribes would be
  required to settle on reservations.

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Native Lands 1816-1905
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Cattle Trails and Early Transcontinental
Railroads

• Ranchers in southern Texas met the East Coasts
  demand for meat.
• In order for the demand to be met, ranchers would
  have to drive their cattle north to towns such as
  Dodge City, Abilene and Ogallala.
• At these railheads, the cattle would be loaded
  for the journey east of the Mississippi River.

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Media Citations

• Slide 2 http//www.nps.gov/home/Homesteading20Ma
  p.htm
• Slide 3 http//www.nebraskastudies.org/0600/frame
  set.html
• Slide 4-7 http//rs6.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?amme
  m/ngp_at_FILREQ(_at_field(SUBJ_at_BAND(sodhouses))_at_FIEL
  D(COLLIDndfa))
• Slide 9-10 Historical Statistics of the United
  States
• Slide 11 http//www.eurekagoldpanning.com/images/
  1898-Photo.jpg
• Slide 12 http//www.old-picture.com/old-west/pict
  ures/Cowboy.jpg
• Slide 13 http//www.forttours.com/images/hoppy.jp
  g
• Slide 15 http//freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/
  jalanne/Maps/Indian_Lands_1816_1905.jpg
• Slide 16 http//wps.ablongman.com/wps/media/objec
  ts/31/32716/figures/DIVI350.jpg