Ch 8: Settling the West: 1865-1900

Ch 8: Settling the West: 18651900 Section 1: Miners and Ranchers Objectives Trace the growth of the mining industry. Describe the ways that new technology changed open-range ranching. Explain why people moved West in search of economic opportunity.

Why did people move West? Start new lives in the West after the end of the Civil War Stories of gold, silver, and copper Cheap land Mining techniques 1. Placer Mining

Using pans, shovels, and picks to get the gold on top of the earth 2. Quartz Mining Digging deep into the earth to get the gold Henry Comstock

Lived in Six-Mile Canyon, Nevada in 1859 Found silver on his property Turned the town into a boomtown The town turned into a ghost town after only a

few years when the mines dried up Boomtown Violence

Boomtowns were dangerous places to live People were robbed and killed over their finds No police present Vigilance committees-community members preserved the peace Results of Mining Boomtowns 1,000 people came out per week Mined $1 billion in metals (billions today)

Caused Denver to become the 2nd largest city in the West (supplies) Rise in railroads West North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana became states Rise of Cattle Ranching New breed of cattle (Texas Longhorn) could survive in the Great Plains

Did not need a lot of water/land Cattle roamed freely at first Open Range Used by cowboys to raise cattle for free Covered the Great Plains (owned by the govt) Cattle were not fenced in

Post-Civil War Ranching Soldiers ate beef during the war Caused beef prices to rise Railroads made it easy to move cattle to the East to slaughter Cattle were sold for 10x their original price Long Drives Cattle were gathered up all over the Great Plains

and moved to Kansas/Missouri to get onto trains 2,000-5,000 cattle moved at a time Cattle ranchers included former soldiers, former slaves, and Hispanic cowboys Stories were told in Dime Novels Problems with Ranching

Free cattle were collected and sold to private ranchers in Western territories Started using barbed wire to fence off large areas of land Cold winters killed off large amounts of cattle Oversupply in the markets dropped cattle prices Ended Open Range and Cattle Drives