Closing the Western Frontier

1/9/18

Building the Transcontinental Railroad was one of the most significant achievement of the

United States.

- Begun in 1863, in the midst of the Civil War

- Built in 6 years, almost entirely by hand

- Built largely by Chinese and Irish immigrants, some freed slaves and former soldiers

- 2 competing railroads:

o Central Pacific  went East to West

o Union Pacific  went West to East

- Relied heavily on government support

o Government gave land to railroad companies, and paid them per mile of track

that they laid

The Central Pacific had to dig tunnels through the Sierra Nevada Mountains and averaged 1 ft. per day.

The Union Pacific dealt with mainly flat terrain and laid about 8 miles of track per day.

The railroad had tremendous effect on American lifestyle.

- Foundation of time zones

- Quicker transportation

- New towns and settlement

- New ways of thinking about time and schedules

- Easier trade and travel

- Disappearance of the American frontier

- Celebration of American work ethic

The Great American Desert

- The Great Plains

- Originally “unfit for cultivation”

- Gold and Silver

- Ranching

o Cattle, sheep, wild horses

The Comstock Lode and the Mining Frontier

- Lode: vein of metal ore in the earth

- Henry Comstock had land, looked for gold, didn’t find any, and died.

- After he died, miners found on his land a huge Lode of silver in the form of clay that was almost

unrecognizable

- Became one of the most industrialized regions in the west

- Virginia City, Nevada was built on top of this lode

- By the 1870s, over $20 million produced by miners

o Financed the civil war

- Virginia City population began to decline by 1877, left with only a population of 500 by 1930

- Home to Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)  Roughing It

Homestead Act, 1862 was the governments way to encourage people to move west

- To encourage farmers to settle the Great Plains

- 160 acres at $1.25 per acre

- 1862-1900, 400,000 families

o 1/3 failed

- proved to be VERY difficult