Group presentation notes

• Railroads
o Brought new settlers to the plains: Irish, Russians, Germans, Chinese
o Helped in the war against the Indians
o Railroads became the largest landowners in the US
o Laid the bedrock for women’s suffrage

• Farming
o Dry Farming
• Farmers plow deep to keep moisture on plants
o New Tools
• Steel plow- allowed the farmers to plow the hard soil
• Windmills
• Barbed wire: keep cattle in and intruders out
• Mechanical Reaper
o Main Crops: wheat and corn
o Ranchers vs. Farmers
• Ranchers resented encroachment of farmers
• Ranchers “Cattle Kings” cut barbed wire fences so cattle could get in, would buy up land
• Farmers got laws passed that restricted mobility of Ranchers
o Weather conditions
• Very dry, required new plows or irrigation
• Often diverted streams or tapped wells
• Dry spell in the 1870’s- five year drought, many farmers left the region or went bankrupt
o The Great Plains
• 19 million bushels of wheat were produced in the Great Plains
• After climate shift, though, production dropped
• The type of farming was completely unsustainable

• Homesteading
• New Immigrants to the Great Plains
• Homesteading act: for $10, land out west
• 400,000 families took up on the act
• Much of the acreage actually went to railroads and state governments
• Transience vs. sticking it our
• Most of the people who stayed were Germans, because they tended to stick with communities
• Settlers vs. Speculators
• Settlers were mostly immigrants who bought land out west
• 160 acres was rarely enough
• Speculators worked for companies, buying up land and reselling it
• They abused the Homestead act by buying it

• Settlers
• Many poor people moved out there
• Bought desert land for cheaper
• Timber and Stone Act let Settlers buy more land
o How did the Homestead act affect the US
• Promoted people moving to the empty plains
• Bettered economy
• Most land went to speculators and railroads
o Becoming States
• Enabling act- let congress set up boundaries
• Writing state constitution, applying for admission
o Women in the Great Plains
• Short lives
• Few opportunities
• Lived along, often
• Had to work on the farms like the men
• Once they had stayed for a few years, they would decorate houses
o Cooperation
• More explorers
• Wagon trains- traveling together for safety and comfort
• Sometimes things went wrong, though- the Donner Party
• Once they had reached their land, they made provisional governments
o Refining Frontier Life
• Opera houses
• Schools
• Hotels
• Were viewed as provincial and backwards
• Masonic Lodges and other organizations
• Libraries


• The Southwest
o Architecture
• Spanish influence
• Adobe style= cool interior
• Often red-and-white
• Mexican and Spanish Revival movement
o Land
• Americans often kicked out Spanish speakers- forced to move to Barrios
• In NM & AZ, though, the Spanish were wealthier and held onto their land
o Mexicans in New Mexico
• Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ended war, but some Mexicans remained, so Grant annexed them
• Often, though, whites grabbed Mexican land
o California & Texas
• Californians were brought by gold rush, mixed with Mexicans
• But the Mexicans mostly formed their own communities
• Many worked in gold mines or for Railroad
• In Texas, there was some cooperation