1st Block( 7mins) Look over your notes with a partner. Ask each other questions about The West

Why People Went… PULL..(attracting) PUSH..(forcing) Free land Homestead Act and Oklahoma Land Rush.. gov’t was giving away the land to get people to move out to the west Independence Get rich quick Looking for silver and gold Political instability Economic hard times Racial discrimination for AA

Homestead Act 1862 ( Civil War era) Farm plots of 160 acres to anyone willing live on the land for five years Just had to dig a well and build a road Many were former slaves

Other Reasons Comstock Lode Oklahoma Land Rush 1st major discovery of silver in the U.S. Discovered under what is now Virginia City, Nevada Helped spur advances in the technology of mining Gov’t going to sell plots of land 50,000 line up but only 42,000 plots Biggest rush to the West in one single day (4-22-1898) Major Pull factor

The Life Plagued by windstorms, blizzards, droughts locusts and loneliness Tough life but were inventive Created sod homes Built wind mills to harness wind for electricity Used steel plow to help cultivate land

Morrill Land Grant (1862) Passed by Congress to give lands to states so they could establish higher education agricultural schools A&T and NC State University

Exodusters African Americans who fled the South after Reconstruction & headed West to OK and Kansas looking for more opportunities Named from the Book of Exodus when Moses led his ppl to the Promise Land

The Wild Wild West Miners, ranchers farmers and sheepherders were at odds with each other In the west, there was no type of law To keep order, vigilantes ( self-appointed law enforcers) settled disputes but still lots of crime Cities only “boomed” when the resources were plentiful When they were gone ( the bust) so were the people and the town became a Ghost Town

What was life like for settlers in the west? Plagued by windstorms, blizzards, droughts locusts and loneliness Built wind mills to harness wind for electricity Used steel plow to help cultivate land

Transcontinental Railroad (1842-1869) Railroad linking the East to the West for the transport goods Unlike Europe, built by private companies not the gov.’t But still gave their support by giving loans and land grants to companies Central Pacific laid tracks east of Sacramento, CA Use Chinese immigrants for labor Union Pacific laid tracks west from Nebraska Used Irish immigrants for labor Two tracks met at Promontory Point, Utah

Name two push and pull factors for going west!

Home, Home On The Range During the open rang system, Texas Long Horn roamed the land freely Brands used to I.D. ownership of cattle Vaqueros or cowboys hired to round up the cattle Cattle drives too cattle to railroads for transport to eastern markets Invention of refrigerated railcars by Gustavus Swift Meat can be shipped not the entire cow Much cheaper & decreases need for cattle drive. The age of open range ends because of barded wire

The End of The Frontier? In 1890 Census, gov’t said that the frontier(place of uninhabited wilderness in the west) was closed No more empty land in America? Frederick Jackson Turner writes his Frontier Thesis encouraging “ rugged individualism” People can support themselves out west