Americans worked to find ways to deal with the cattle industry’s decline and challenging farming conditions.

Standard : Trace patterns of agricultural and industrial development as they relate to climate, use of natural resources, markets, and trade and locate such development on a map. Standard : Explain how states and the federal government encouraged business expansion through tariffs, banking, land grants, and subsidies. Standard : Identify the characteristics and impact of Grangerism and Populism.

open range: unfenced lands. cattle drive: the herding and moving of cattle over long distances. vaquero: cowhand, or cowboy (Spanish). cow town: settlement at the end of a cattle trail. cattle kingdom: the region dominated by the cattle industry and its ranches, trails, and cow towns.

homesteader: settlers who acquired free land from the government. sod: a surface layer of earth in which the roots of grasses tangle with soil. sodbuster: plains farmers. sooner: a person who sneaked onto the land before the start of the Oklahoma land rush.

grange: groups of farmers who met for lectures, sewing bees, and other events. farm cooperative: groups of farmers who pool their money to make large purchases of tools, seeds, and other supplies. inflation: general rise in prices. William Jennings Bryan

Main Idea & Details 1.Fold 2 papers into 4 sections each for notes. 1.Write down the section heading and the main idea. You will fill in the details at the end of the lesson.

The Rise of the Cattle Industry The coming of railroads gave western ranchers a way to get cattle to distant markets. In spring, cowhands would go on a cattle drive, the herding and moving of cattle over long distances, that would last two to three months. Cattle drives followed well- worn trails such as, the Chisholm Trail from San Antonio, Texas to Abilene, Kansas

The Rise of the Cattle Industry Cowhands, working long hours for low pay, learned skills developed earlier by Spanish and Mexican vaqueros. Safari Montage Texas, Chapter 3 Cities and Culture of Texas; Chisholm Trail (1 min 53 sec)

The Wild West The West gained an exaggerated reputation for lawlessness and violence. In 1867, Joseph McCoy, an Illinois businessman, founded Abilene, Kansas, where the Chisholm Trail met the Kansas Pacific Railroad. It was the first cow town, or settlement at the end of a cattle trail. Rival cow towns such as Wichita and Dodge City, Kansas, soon sprang up along rail lines. Dance halls, saloons, hotels, and restaurants served the cowboys. Soon, the myth of the West as a place of violence, adventure, and endless opportunity spread to the East. Easterners called it the Wild West.

Boom and Bust in the Cattle Kingdom Overstocking and a spell of bad weather eventually put an end to the cattle boom. The cattle boom lasted from the 1860s to the 1880s. In 1886 and 1887, a cycle of scorching summers and frigid winters killed millions of cattle.  An economic depression caused a drop in demand for beef.  Giant cattle ranches slowly gave way to smaller ranches that grew their own feed. Large roundups and long cattle drives vanished.

Homesteading Would-be settlers could get a homestead from the government or land from railroad companies. During the Civil War, Congress passed the Homestead Act of It offered a 160-acre plot to anyone who resided on the land for five years. Of the thousands that became homesteaders on the Great Plains only one in three homesteaders lasted the required five years. Railroads recruited thousands of people from the eastern U.S., Ireland, Germany, and Scandinavia to settle on the Great Plains.

A Hard Life on the Plains New techniques and inventions helped settlers adapt to the difficult life on the Plains.

A Hard Life on the Plains New techniques and inventions helped settlers adapt to the difficult life on the Plains. Whole families worked on the farms. Men labored from dawn to dusk. Children tended animals and helped with other chores. Women helped plant and harvest; they educated children, nursed the sick, sewed clothing, preserved food, and made basic items like soap and candles.

A Last Rush for Land A rush for land in Oklahoma in 1889 signaled the closing of the western frontier. In April 1889, nearly 100,000 people gathered at a line near present-day Oklahoma City. These people called “boomers” had come to claim some of the 2 million acres of free homesteads in former Indian Territory. A few people, known a sooners, had already snuck onto the land; they jumped from hiding and grabbed the best land. In 1890, the U.S. no longer had land available for homesteading.

Farmers Organize Facing an economic crisis, farmers formed groups like the National Grange and the Populist Party. As farmers became more efficient, prices fell due to surpluses. Small farmers lost their land. Some communities began to form granges. In the 1870s and 1880s, Grangers elected state officials who passed laws to limit the rates of railroads and warehouses. A group called the Farmers’ Alliance organized in the 1870s to help farmers. In 1892, unhappy farmers joined with labor unions to form the Populist Party. The party demanded public ownership of railroads and warehouses to control rates, a tax on income to replace property taxes, an eight-hour workday, and other reforms.

Farmers Organize Facing an economic crisis, farmers formed groups like the National Grange and the Populist Party. The Populists supported Democrat William Jennings Bryan in the election of Bryan, known as the “Great Commoner” won the votes of farmers in the South and West for supporting the use of silver to raise prices. Bankers and business owners claimed rising prices would ruin the economy. They backed Republican William McKinley and his gold- alone policy. McKinley won.

INDEPENDENT WORK 1.Read pages in the History textbook. 1.Take more detailed notes based on the “big idea” concepts just introduced.

HOMEWORK CONNECTION  Complete 13-3/13-4 Section Quiz  Write a detailed SUMMARY of the section and complete the UNANSWERED QUESTIONS section of your notes.  Choose two of the remaining Depth & Complexity ICONS in your notes and explain how they relate to this section.