MANIFEST DESTINY By: Danny Ryder, James Honaker, Malijah Castillo

SETTLERS MOVE WEST  It took over 250 years to turn 400 million acres of forest and prairies into flourishing farm land.  Federal policy and the completion of transcontinental railroad lines made this possible.  From the government granted grants to the railroads. 170 million acres worth half a billion dollars for laying track in the west.  There were two main train companies: Pacific Union and Central Pacific

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT FOR SETTLEMENT  The congress passed the “Homestead Act” offering 160 acres of land free to any citizen or intended citizen head of the house hold.  From 1862 to 1900 up to six hundred thousand families took advantage of the governments offer.  Cattleman fenced open lands while miners and wood cutters claimed national resources.

THE CLOSING OF THE FRONTIER  Henry D. Washburn and fellow explorer Nathaniel P. Langford asked the Congress to not let the settlement happen in the west.  In 1872 the government created the Yellow Stone National Park.  Seven years later, the department of the interior forced railroads to give up their claim to western land holders the were in equal area to New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia combined.  1880 Individual have bought 19 million acres of government owned land.

SETTLERS MEET CHALLENGES  The frontier settlers faced extreme hardships, droughts, floods, fires, blizzards, locust plagues, and occasional raids by outlaws and Native Americans.  Number of people living west of the Mississippi River grew from the 1% of the nations populations 1850 to almost 30% by the turn of the century.

CONTINUATIONS OF CHALLENGES  Dugouts and Soddies, many pioneers dug their homes in sides of ravines and hills, a stove pipe sticking up from the ground is the only sign of a dugout home.  Those who moved to the broad flat plains often mad free standing homes by stacking blocks of prairie turf like a dugout, a sod home or a soddie was warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION  The federal government supported farmers by financing agricultural education.  The “Moral Act of 1862 and 1890” gave federal land to the states to help finance agricultural colleges and the “Hatch Act of 1887” established agricultural experiment stations to inform farmers of new developments.

FARMERS IN DEBT  Machinery was expensive and farmers often had to borrow money to buy stuff.  When prices of wheat were high farmers could usually repay their loans, but when the wheat price fell they had to make more crops to repay.  Railroad companies and investors created bonanza farms- enormous single crop spreads of 15,000 to 50,000 acres.

WOMEN’S WORK  Often women had to work along side the men to get the work done like plowing, planting, and harvesting.  The sheared the sheep the sheep and carded wool to make clothes for their families.  They hauled water from wells, make soap, cook, and made candles.  They were very skilled in doctoring in snakebites, crushed limbs, gashes, and fevers.

Dugout Home Soddie Home Results of the droughts