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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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 ( )
Major Pull factor

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

15. Name two push and pull factors for going west!

16. 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

17. 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