Do Now: What do you associate with

“THE WEST”

The “Wild” West

Mining Madness– The discovery of Gold in 1849 spurs Western settlement– Prospectors from all over looked to strike it rich (placer)– The mining spurred economic growth in other industries

(Railroads, Saloons, Hotels, Stagecoaches, food, etc.)

– Boomtowns like Va/Carson City NV, Deadwood SD, Leadville CO, Tombstone/Tucson AZ, Silver City ID, etc. found everything from gold and silver to tin and copper

– Lawlessness & vigilante justice followed/ Going Bust

MiningPlacer- Shallow DepositsHydraulic- Wash Earth AwayQuartz- Deep Mine Shafts

Tools of the Trade

Where & WhatCalifornia, Montana, S. DakotaNevada, Arizona, & New MexicoColorado & Idaho*Became New States by 1912

GoldSilverGold & SilverCopper, Lead, Zinc, etc.

Mining ActMining laws of 1866 gave discoverers rights to stake claims to

extract gold, silver, cinnabar (mercury) and copper. The General Mining Act of 1872 changed the wording to "or other valuable deposits," giving greater scope of what they could mine for.

The 1872 Act also granted extra-lateral rights to lode claims and fixed the maximum size of lode claims as 1500 feet (457m) long and 600 feet (183m) wide.

The Act of 1872 set the price for land assumed under the act:-$5.00 per acre (vein/lode claim). -$2.50 for the reminder of the claim per acre.

Rowdy RanchingMeeting the Demand– East needs the meat & is willing to pay (post Civil War)– Use the Open Range to drive the cattle to the Railroads– Cowboys & Cow Towns are Wild (gambling, drinking, etc)– Big Business investment creates a surplus (neg. impact)– Extreme weather kills off cattle (1886-87)– Farmers/Ranchers use barbed wire (close off range)

Hispanic Americans• Spanish settled the Southwestern region (16th Century)• Priests & Private Citizens owned large haciendas• The US Mexican War & Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

(1848) gave the US control of the American Southwest• Mexican Americans saw properties taken away by white

US settlers (resisted & forced to work low jobs)• Vaqueros taught settlers how to ranch and handle cattle• Hispanics settled in ethnic neighborhoods (barrios)

The Real McCoy-Chicago Livestock trader Kansas & Pacific railroads were keen to

carry more freight. McCoy built a hotel, stockyard, office and bank in Abilene - first of the boom cattle towns.

Abilene was near the end of a trail that Jesse Chisholm established during the Civil War.

McCoy guaranteed big profits: 600 cows cost $5,400 in Texas & sold for $16,800.

Small & large ranches compete.

Trails to Rails• Rancher raise herds• Brand stock to ID owner• Hire cowboys to drive the

longhorns to rail-towns (Dodge & Ks City/Abilene)

• 5-10 times the Price• Teams were ethnically

diverse & got paid at the end of the long drive

• Spent earnings having FUN• Rawhide!

Free Farms!Homestead Act of 1862– Settlers get free land for registration fee (160 acres)– Over 500,000 settlers moved onto the Great Plains– Sodbusters move into Ks, Nebraska, the Dakotas (Wheat)– Water, wood, weather, insects, fires, tech. expenses, etc.– Companies buy land & build bonanza farms(man/mach.)– Over production caused prices to fall/ many lose farms– Morrill Act gave States land to sell to build Agr. Colleges

Railroads• Lifeline to settlement in the West• Pacific Railway Act gave land to railroad

companies for free to offset costs• Sold extra land to settlers around

stations (Advertisement)• Hired many workers (Irish, Chinese, etc.

to Survey, Build, Lay Track, Staff, Drive)• Transported people & goods from North,

South, East & West • Negative impact on Indians & Buffalo• “I’ve been working on the railroad!”

Native Americans– Lived a Nomadic lifestyle on the Plains (hunt buffalo)– Treaties with the US but were broken (Ft Laramie)– Conflicts against the Dakota Sioux, Lakota, Arapaho, Nez

Perce, & Cheyenne led to many deaths on both sides Sand Creek Massacre!/Little Big Horn!/Wounded Knee!

– US attempts to change policy towards Native Americans Dawes Act gives them farmland for free while others assimilation through education of Indian children. Both failed and most Indians remained on the reservations

Early Mining Codes1849- Miners and prospectors found themselves in a legal vacuum.

Although the US federal government had laws governing the leasing of mineral land, the United States had only recently acquired California and had little presence in the newly acquired territories.

Great Republic of Rough and Ready- Miners organized their own governments in each new mining camp and adopted the Mexican mining laws that gave the discoverer right to explore and mine gold and silver on public land. Miners moved from one camp to the next, and made the rules of all camps more or less the same (differing only in specifics such as maximum size of claims).

California miners- spread the concept all over the west with each new mining rush, and the practices spread to all the states and territories west of the Great Plains.

ReactionsEastern Congressmen- 1. Regard miners as squatters (robbing the public). 2. Proposed seizure of the western mines to pay the war debts. 3. In 1865, a bill was introduced to take the western mines from their

discoverers and sell them at public auction. Sending in the army if necessary“. 4. Advocated the federal government work the mines for the treasury.Western representatives- 5. Argued that western miners were performing valuable services by promoting

commerce and settling new territory. 6. Congress passed a law that instructed courts deciding questions of contested

“hard rock” mining rights to ignore federal ownership, and defer to the miners in actual possession of the ground. (Chaffee laws -July 26, 1866)

Congress extended similar rules to placer mining claims in the "placer law" signed into law on July 9, 1870.