Miners and Ranchers Chapter 11- Section 1 Brandy Miller, BreeAna Braden, and Megan Loos

Wave of Settlers to the West ● Demand for minerals rose after Civil war as the U.S went from a farming nation to an industrial nation. ● Mining/ ranching attracted settlers to the west

Henry Comstock ● 1859, prospector staked claim in Six-Mile Canyon, near Virginia, Nevada. ● Struck silver oar, but didn't realize it because he was hoping to strike gold. ● Comstock Lode brought flood of eager prospectors to Virginia City.

Boomtowns ● Boomtown: tiny frontier towns that were transformed into small cities almost overnight. ● Boomtowns had much crime and were rowdy ● Vigilance committees: Self appointed volunteers who would track down and punish wrongdoers.

Mining Leading to Statehood ● Colorado, Arizona, North and South Dakota, and Montana were developed due to mining. ● Although Arizona didn't grow as quickly as other states, by 1912 it had enough people to apply for statehood, as did the neighboring territory of New Mexico.

Early Mining Technology ● Extracting minerals took a lot of work and patience. ● Early prospectors used simple tools like picks, shovels, and pans. Other prospectors used sluice mining -Sluices diverted the current of a river into trenches.

Hydraulic Mining ● Hydraulic Mining: water is sprayed at a very high pressure against a hill or mountain, washing away large quantities of dirt, gravel, and rock, and exposing the minerals beneath the surface ● Was effective for mining, but was ● devastating to local environments. – Sediment washed into rivers, causing them to overflow and flood farmland.

Hydraulic Mining (Continued) ● 1800s, farmers fought back by suing mining companies. ● Lorenzo Sawyer said it was a “public and private nuisance” and issued an injunction stopping the practice. ● Congress passed a law in 1893 allowing hydraulic mining if the mining company created a place to store the sediment.

Ranching and Cattle Drives ● While many Americans went to the Rocky Mountains to mine, others began herding cattle on the Great Plains. ● Almost 5 million Texas longhorns flourished in Texas grasslands ● Open range: vast area of grassland that the federal gov. owned. – Covered most of the Great Plains, provided land for ranchers free of charge.

The Long Drive ● After the war, beef prices soared and ranchers needed a way to sell it to the easterners. ● Herded longhorns to Sedalia, Missouri on the first long drive ● Between 1867 and 1871, cowboys drove a herd that was nearly 1.5 million cattle up the Chisholm Trail from southern Texas to towns in Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming.

Cattle Industry Changed ● “Range wars” broke out between sheep herders and ranchers that were competing for land. ● Barbed wire was invented to close the open range. ● Fences, oversupply of animals, and plummeting prices ended the long drives. ● Blizzards struck in the Plains, causing massive numbers of cattle to die.

Settling the Hispanic Southwest ● After the U.S defeated Mexico, it acquired the Spanish speaking population and control of much of its region. ● Haciendas: huge ranches that covered thousands of acres, owned by a society dominated by a landowning elite. ● Hispanics were majority in public affairs and very influential in New Mexico, Texas, and California.