Westward Expansion was a difficult time for some people and a convenient and good time for others. It was a time that changed America in so many different ways.

Westward Expansion started with the discovery of gold and silver in the west this brung many miners into the west. An event called the California gold rush brung hundreds of thousands of miners into Indian territory. Ranchers or farmers came into the west looking for new places to grow crops. All though the soil was rough and all they found was tall grass, rocks, and barley any trees the ranchers were still able to grow by using dry and wheat farming. They used dry farming by digging into the soil to find water then put the seeds in and packed it firmly so the water wouldn’t evaporate. The farmers got wheat farming from Russia and they informed everyone that wheat was able to farm on dry land even without water.

Homesteaders also moved west because of something called the Homestead Act. The Homestead Act was an act President Lincoln passed stating that for just $5 you could get 160 acres of land out in the west which brung homesteaders and exodusters (people who moved west).

The land in the Great Plains region was dry, treeless, and grassy, and in many parts, rocky. The Great Plains was nicknamed as “a treeless wasteland.” The people who wanted to live out there had to live in sod houses, barley had any food or water, and were surrounded by the hot, hot air in the west. The west was, although, very flat and barley hilly which made it easier for people to travel in wagons and also by foot.

The Great Plains wasn’t such a great place to be in the summer or winter time because of the harsh tornadoes, blizzards, thunderstorms, and droughts. It was a horrible, nightmarish place to be. Nobody wanted to live there but they had to adapt.

The Transcontinental Railroad was an easier way for people and things to get across the country to the east or to the west it was a specific means of transportation that America needed to have.

Many lives were lost while building the Transcontinental Railroad in blizzards, accidents, and explosions. Many Chinese, Irish, and American workers lost their lives working on the Transcontinental Railroad. When the railroad was done, there were many people at the stopping point in Promontory Point, Utah where a golden spike was driven into the final rail of the Transcontinental Railroad.

Inventions made in America like the steel plow, which helped us farm wheat faster, were very useful in the west because it helped farmers plow through fields faster. These were inventions that farmers needed especially in the west. A few other inventions like barbed wire helped keep cows/cattle from eating crops from fields. The windmill was made to pump water from the ground.

The people in the west had to adapt to survive kind of like an animal would when it is at a new place to live. The people in the west used sod to make sod houses. They also used dry farming for other crops besides wheat. They even used beef cattle for food they mainly ate cows or longhorns.

The conflict with americans and native americans was that the americans kept invading the indians’ territory because of the discovery of gold and silver. They also kept killing the buffalo their only source of life. The americans only used the buffalo for food then just let it rot there, the indians would use every part of the buffalo. The skin, the bones, the meat, etc.. So when war broke out between the indians and americans the indians kept loosing men and land, so they kept running around looking for free land so they wouldn’t be in reservations. Chief Joseph, a Nez Perce indian chief, gave a speech when he got caught by union soldiers on their way into Canada and said “I will no longer fight forever.” Another indian chief, Geronimo, had been chased after by the government for 5 years and then finally and that marked the end of the indian wars period.