1. Examine this painting. What ideas does it convey about “the West”?

2. Myths and Realities of the “Last Frontier”
Ideas of the West
Myths and Realities of the “Last Frontier”

3. Western Societies
What happened to Hispanic landowners in the West after the Mexican-American War?
Pushed out of positions of power
Fall to bottom of economic ladder

4. Western Societies
What roles did the Chinese play in the settlement of the West?
Prospecting, before prohibited by law
Service industries
Women and prostitution
Railroads
1882: Chinese Exclusion Act
Bans immigration
Prevents naturalization

5. Western Societies What drove white Easterners to settle the West?
Ore deposits: “get rich quick”
California; Colorado
Comstock Lode, Nevada 1858
Homestead Act of 1862
“Free” land if occupied and farmed
Often poor land not suited for Eastern style farming

6. Western Economy What were the most important industries in the West?
Mining
Ranching
“Cattle Kingdom”
Range Wars – competition for land use v. farmers
Cattle drives replaced by railroads by 1890s

7. What does this painting convey about “the West”?

8. The Idea of the West
Why was the West Idealized? How was the reality different from the fantasy?
Western Novels
The Virginian (1902) by Owen Wister
“Rocky Mountain School” – landscape painters
Albert Bierstadt
Thomas Moran

9. The Idea of the West
Why was the West Idealized? How was the reality different from the fantasy?
“Wild West” Shows
Buffalo Bill
The Frontier
Mark Twain
Frederick Remington
Frederick Jackson Turner – Frontier Thesis