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extinction of buffalo in 1800s
The American government was all for the slaughtering of the buffalo which the native americans relied on for food. It became such a common action that men on long train rides would shoot bison from the trains. The population was reduced from hundreds of millions to thousands. It went on from the early 1800s to 1890. -
Jesse James
Jesse James was a mobster kind of fellow. He robbed banks, robbed trains, was a gang leader, a murderer, and an American outlaw. Jesse James had the most active time of crime from about the end of the Civil War to about 1876. -
discoveries of large amounts of gold and silver
Gold was discovered in January of 1848 in California. When news spread 300,000 people were brought with the urge to find gold. -
Homestead Act of 1862
This was signed by president Abraham Lincoln. It was to promote westward expansion of the United States. It provieded each settler 160 acres of land to use however they would like. Almost 80 million acres of land was settled by 1900. -
shift from “long drive” to “cattle ranching”
Catlle drives were a major part in the early american west. Cattle could be driven as much as 25 miles in one day based on the speed. They wouldnt want to drive them to fast because they would lose weight and be hard to sell at the market. The switch helped earn more profit and the cattle have more meat. -
Transcontinential Railroad System
The last railroad spike was driven into the rail to connect the Union Pacific to the Central Pacific Railroad. The Transcontinential Railroad was the first railroad for the United States that connected the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. This was a faster and easier way to transport goods from one side of the country to the other -
Barbed Wire
Barbed wire was patented in 1873 by Henry M. Rose. He was experimenting with different materials on which would be the best for containing cattle and livestock. He found out that wooden posts with metal wire with a little sharp spike on the side of the wire to poke the animal without harming it to much. -
growth of new towns and cities to support cattle, mining, and farming industries
The growth of cities in the west was mainly from the mining of gold and silver. Around 1850 people rushed to the western part of the United States in hope for better life and riches. The farmers were looking for more open lands to plant crops and hope for the best in the plains. -
Wild West Shows
An example of a wild west show is Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. One of their most famous acts was the Wild West. There were many other shows like Native American shows, they would dress up and put all of the face paint on and dance for a crowd. -
Dawes Act of 1886
The Dawes Act is named after its author Henry Dawes. The law allowed the president to break up reservations into smaller portions of land that individual's could own. It was intended to protect the Indians by helping them incorparate themselves into the body of the nation. An area of 13 million acres of land was reduced down to about 86,000 acres of land for their reservations.
