Chapter 17 Notes, continued

Chapter 17, continued Notes

I. Cashing in the Western Frontier


A. The Mining frenzy
1. Beaked between the discovery of gold in California (1849) and the Canadian Klondike strike in 1896 which led to the settlement of Alaska
2. Other major gold and silver discoveries initiated the settlement of Nevada, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota
3. Towns would grow quickly then decline or be completely abandoned once the precious metal was exhausted
4. Mining towns tended to be ethnically diverse; however, men greatly outnumbered women
5. When there was still some “placer gold”, individual prospectors had a chance but, as this ran out, only large mining companies had the resources to build deep mines
6. Miners were paid reasonably well but the work was dangerous
7. Mining operations polluted rivers with excess dirt, mercury, arsenic and cyanide,
8. Millions of ounces of precious metal fueled the American economy and financed accelerated industrialization

B. Cowboy Reality and Legend
1. Driving cheap cattle from Texas to rail depots in Dodge City and Abilene, Kansas, became extremely lucrative in the late 1860s
2. These drives required many cowboys so cattle ranchers began to recruit using the media to glamorize the cowboy lifestyle
3. 35000-55000 poor young men were thus lured into a generally underpaid, boring, dirty and occasionally violent job
4. 1/5 of cowboys were Mexican or African-American
5. A few achieved fame and notoriety (Billy the Kid, Deadwood Dick, Wild Bill Hickcock, etc) giving rise to the cowboy hero of the dime novels (and eventually movies)
6. As more farmers moved in, disputes began to occur culminating in the range wars (farmers vs. cattle’s) Farmers emerged as more powerful politically because they were tied to the land and could vote.
7. The cattle bonanza ended in 1885 when 90% of cattle died as a result of an abnormally cold winter, coupled with a summer drought and an outbreak of Texas Fever (new railroad links also made cattle drives obsolete)

C. Bonanza Farms
1. During the Panic of 1873, many railroads sold off Western land
2. This land was often purchased in huge parcels by investors and converted it into vast bonanza farms
3. Wheat production skyrocketed in the northern plains while in California, there were major fruit operations which at first hurt small farmers and even the bonanza farms by the 1890’s
4. Fruit production, in turn, became more viable with the introduction of the refrigerated train car in 1900

D. Oklahoma: the final American frontier
1. With so much western land controlled but the railroads, cattle ranchers, bonanza farmers and speculators, homesteaders pressured the government to open federal land in Oklahoma to white settlement.
2. Reneging on agreements with the 5 Civilized Tribes, the government opened 2 million acres in central Oklahoma for settlement on a “first come first served” basis
3. On April 22, 1889, thousands of eager homesteaders rushed in to claim the land (some cheated and got there before- nicknamed “Sooners”)
4. This action together with the Dawes Act caused the 5 Civilized Tribes to lose control of their land
5. Poor land management and over-farming led to Oklahoma being the center of the dust bowl in the 1930’s (leading Mandy okes to move again)