Settling the west 1865-1890

Staked a mining claim near Virginia city, Nevada

Henry cornstock

Overnight, pure silver ore went from a town of a few hundred to

30,000

Boomtowns did not survive and the miners went

Bust

Process that used simple equipment such as picks and pans

Placer mining (stereotypical mining)

Settlers raised cattle here after the civil war

Great Plains

Cattle didn’t survive on the tough prairie grasses but what did?

Texas Longhorns

Federal government

Owned vast areas of grassland

Open range

Provided land for cattle ranchers to feed their herds for free

Sedalia MO

I’m 1866 ranchers drove 260,000 cattle here

Vaqueros

Taught American cowhands their tree and taught words of Spanish origin

Barrios

neighbohrhoods of spanish speaking immigrants

The civil war

Made the population of the Great Plains steadily grow

Railroads

Important factor that made the population grow

1862 the year of the homestead act

The settlement increased

Homestead act

Entitled settlers to 160 acres after living there for 5 years

Dry farming

Farmers planting seeds deep in the soil where there was good moisture

Inventions that made harvesting wheat crops easier

Seed drill and threshing machine

Wheat belt

Included parts of dakotas and Nebraska and Kansas

1880s

a severe drought destroyed wheat crops and turned the soil to dust

1880s

Wheat prices dropped due to overproduction

Oklahoma Land rush

An event in 1889 that opened one of the last large territories for settlement