Mining

• Placer mining – mining for the shallow ore at the earth’s surface. (Individuals)

• Quartz mining – corporate mining using heavy equipment to dig deep in the earth.

www.worldofrockhounds.com

The Rush for Gold

• Ever since the conquest of Mexico in 1521, people looked for their golden fortune.–Georgia 1828–California Gold Rush- one of the

largest migrations in the history of man.300,000 people migrated to California to enjoy the wealth.

Getting to California

First Miner’s

• Panned the Rivers – Individuality. Everyman for himself. Individual fortunes

The Comstock Lode

• 1859 Large silver strike in Nevada

• This strike financed the Civil War and the laying of the Transatlantic cable.

• At the peak, population 30,000. When mines petered out ghost towns

• “Boom and Bust”

Corporate Mining

• Quartz mining took mass amount of capital.

• Miners became wage earners rather than independent workers as the ore became deeper.

Comstock Mine

Other Mining Discoveries

• Over $1,000,000,000 ore (gold and silver) mined in Colorado during the 1870’s.

• Gold in the Black Hills of Dakota 1876

• Copper in Montana and Arizona

Worker Exploitation

• The Corporate owners set wages and hours for the miners.

• Safety was lax

• Benefits did not exist

• Formation of the Western Federation of Miners. Led to confrontations between miners and the states.

The Ranchers• Spanish and

Mexican heritage to run cattle on the open range.

• During the Gold Rushes, cattle drives began to move cattle from the plains of Texas to the camps.

http://www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com/cattle.html

Cattle Culture• Developed from

Hispanic heritage.

• Words such as lariat, lasso, stampede

• Old saying “American cattlemen walked to Texas in moccasins but left wearing boots on horseback”

Supply and Demand

• Industrialization of the North after the Civil War led to the cattle drives from the Texas.

• Cattle in Texas $3 a head; $10 - $40 a head in the North.

• No railroads in Texas connected to Northern markets.

The Era of Big Ranches

• The cattle prices led to corporate ranches being developed

• Examples: King Ranch and XIT Ranch in Texas; The TA and KC Ranches in Wyoming.

Replacement of American Cattle

• Land bought cheap and fenced off ending the open range.

• Market oversaturated with beef thus lowering the price of beef

• Blizzards

• European stock brought in to create new beefier breeds .

The Farmers• Farmers passed the

Great Plains area during the first westward movement.

• U.S. maps labeled the Great Plains as the “Great American Desert”.

• Oregon Territory was considered the land of opportunity.

http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/wwww/us/oregonterritorydef.htm

Homestead Act of 1862

• Passed to give the idea of the Yeoman farmer a chance to own land.

• Gave 160 acres of land to a person 21 years or older that would make improvements on the land and build a permanent house within 5 years.

• Why did it pass in 1862?

Morrill Act

• Sets up land grant colleges in the U.S. to teach agriculture and engineering courses.

• Military courses were mandatory. What two Texas colleges were land grant colleges? What other colleges in the U.S. do you think started this way?

The Great American Desert?

• Railroads moved West and received large land grants from the Federal government.

• Sold land to settlers for low prices and with extended credit.

• A wet decade produced lush grass on the plains during the 1870’s.

• People adapted to the area.

Hardship on the Plains

• Harsh summers and winters

• Water in deep aquifers

• Grass Fires

• Insect swarms (grasshoppers, locust)