Chapter 12: The West

¶1 the West begins at the Rocky Mountains 3 areas in the West States in the Plains and in the Rockies States between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada Mountains States of the coastal area along the Pacific Ocean

States in the Plains and in the Rockies: New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana

States between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada Mountains : Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona

States of the coastal area along the Pacific Ocean: Washington, Oregon, and California

Large cities : Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles

Biggest and most populous state: California with more than 26,000,000 people

¶2 A lot of beautiful open land in the West, fertile valleys: good for Agricultural products : fruits and vegetables, and cotton and rice

Yosemite forested mountains: famous national parks: Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon.

Yosemite

Yellowstone

Grand Canyon

wide deserts in the dry Southwest: the lack of water is a big problem. a severe water supply problem: Phoenix and Los Angeles

Hoover Dam

Early History

¶3 The first explorer and settler: the Spanish and the French. until 1803 the Louisiana Purchase US government bought Louisiana form Napoleon, a French Hero included Parts of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico

Louisiana Purchase 1803

¶4 until 1821, the southwestern states belonged to Spain and Mexico. California a, Arizona and New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and part of Colorado 1848 – 1853: the United States fought for or bought these lands

¶5 Spanish explorers and missionaries :the first Europeans in 1540, the Spanish explorer Cardenas and Coronado saw the Grand Canyon, Arizona in 1609, Santa Fe, New Mexico, started as a Spanish trading post and colonial town: the oldest city in the US where people have live continuously.

Santa Fe

¶6 In 1769,Spanish people began living in California Juan Bautista de Anza founded Monterey and San Francisco along El Camino Real or the ‘King’s Highway’ from San Diego to San Francisco

Christian saints names for towns San Francisco San Jose Spanish towns in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas were named for Christian saints:

¶7 Today, many Spanish speaking people = Hispanics living since the time of the original Spanish settler recently arrived Hispanics from Mexico and from Central and South America

¶8 Important Spanish culture Spanish American art and building, Mexican food rock and popular music: ‘Santana’ and ‘Los Lobos’ hit songs: Richie Valens’ classic, ‘La Bamba’

There’s Gold in California!

¶1 The United States took most of the Spanish land in 1848, the Spanish land north of the Rio Grande River after the Mexican War In 1853, southern Arizona and New Mexico, from the Mexican government

¶2 Gold made California important in 1848 Found gold in the American River, near the Sierra Nevada mountains. ‘Gold Rush’ year of 1849 the news of ‘Gold in California’ made more than 80,000 people hurried to California

¶3 Most of these ‘Forty-niners’ went first to San Francisco. A small quiet town => a 20,000-people city

¶4 the Gold Rush brought many people to California, became a US state in 1850 the Pacific Coast was settled

¶5 merchants and farming families looking for good land. the pioneers through Death Valley in the southern California desert through Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada mountains. found new homes in the ‘promised land’ along the West Coast.

Death Valley & Donner Pass