Getting to California

1
Getting to California
Ch 8 Sec 1 Mining and Ranching

• Placer mining mining with simple equipment
• Quartz mining large scale corporation mining
  operations
• Vigilantly citizens that take the law into
  their own hands
• Open range large grasslands where cattle were
  raised by ranchers in the Great Plains of the
  U.S.
• Long drive cattle led by ranchers over long
  distances to get them to the railroads in the
  North for travel to market
• Chisholm Trail cattle drive from Texas to
  Kansas
• Barbed wire used by farmers to claim land lead
  to an end to the open range and long drives

2
Intro 2
Chapter Objectives
Section 1 Miners and Ranchers

• Trace the growth of the mining industry in the
  West. ?

• Describe the ways that new technology changed
  open-range ranching.

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Section 1-5
Growth of the Mining Industry

• The growing industries in the East needed the
  Wests rich deposits of gold, silver, and copper.
  ?

• These deposits brought settlers to the Wests
  mountain states. ?
• Prospectors used simple equipment like picks,
  shovels, and pans to mine the shallow deposits of
  ore by hand. ?
• This process is known as placer mining.

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Section 1-6

• Corporations dug deep beneath the surface to mine
  the deposits of ore in a process known as quartz
  mining.

• In 1859 prospector Henry Comstock staked a claim
  for a silver mine in Six-Mile Canyon, Nevada.
• This caused Virginia City, Nevada, to go from an
  outpost to a boomtown almost overnight.

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Section 1-7

• Several years later, the mines ran out of silver
  and the boomtown became a ghost town.

• The cycle of boom and bust was repeated
  throughout the mountainous West.
• During boom times, crime was a serious problem.
• Vigilance committees formed to track down and
  punish wrongdoers.

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Section 1-8

• Mining helped the growth of Colorado, the Dakota
  Territory, and Montana.

• Mining in Colorado spurred the building of
  railroads through the Rocky Mountains.
• Denver became the supply point for the mining
  areas and the second largest city in the West
  after San Francisco.

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Section 1-9
How did the mining industry affect towns and
cities in the West?
Mining caused a cycle of boom and bustfrom
boomtown to ghost town. During booms, crime was a
serious problem. Vigilance committees formed to
track down and punish wrongdoers. The mining
industry in Colorado led to the building of
railroads through the Rocky Mountains. Denver
became the supply point for the mining areas and
the second largest city in the West.
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8
Section 1-10
Ranching and Cattle Drives

• After the Civil War, many Americans began
  building large cattle ranches on the Great Plains.

• The Texas longhorn was a breed of cattle that
  could survive the harsh climate of the plains.
• The cattle ranching industry grew in part because
  of the open rangevast areas of grasslands owned
  by the federal government.
• Cattle raisers could graze their herds free of
  charge and without boundaries.

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Section 1-11
Ranching and Cattle Drives (cont.)

• During the Civil War, large numbers of eastern
  cattle were slaughtered to feed the Union and
  Confederate armies.

• After the war, beef prices soared.
• This made it worthwhile to round up the
  longhorns.
• The first long drive in 1866 across the Great
  Plains to the railroad in Sedalia, Missouri,
  proved that cattle could be driven north to the
  rail lines and sold for 10 times the price they
  could get in Texas.

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Section 1-12
Ranching and Cattle Drives (cont.)

• The major route for moving cattle was the
  Chisholm Trail that went from Texas to Abilene,
  Kansas.

• A long drive began with the spring roundup to
  collect cattle from the open range.
• The cattle were divided and branded.
• Then cowboys moved the herds of cattle along the
  trails to the rail lines.

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11
Cattle Culture
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
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Section 1-13
Ranching and Cattle Drives (cont.)

• Most cowboys were former Confederate army
  soldiers, a few were Hispanic, and many were
  African American.

• The long cattle drives ended, in part, when the
  open range was largely fenced off with barbed
  wire.
• Investors from the East and from Britain put
  money into the cattle business, causing an
  oversupply of animals on the market.

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Section 1-14
Ranching and Cattle Drives (cont.)

• Prices for cattle greatly dropped.

• Many ranchers went bankrupt.
• Also, the harsh winters of 18861887 killed many
  cattle.

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Section 1-16
Checking for Understanding
Define Match the terms on the right with their
definitions on the left.
E
__ 1. a stray calf with no identifying symbol __
2. method of extracting minerals involving
digging beneath the surface __ 3. method of
extracting mineral ore by hand using simple
tools, like picks, shovels, and pans __
4. driving cattle long distances to a railroad
depot for fast transport and great profit __
5. vast areas of grassland owned by the federal
government
A. placer mining B. quartz mining C. open
range D. long drive E. maverick
B
A
D
C
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15
Section 1-17
Checking for Understanding (cont.)
List the factors that contributed to the rise of
the cattle industry.
Factors include emergence of the longhorn breed,
higher beef prices, and railroad transportation.
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Section 1-18
Checking for Understanding (cont.)
Explain how cattle ranching shifted from open
range to an organized business operation.
Barbed wire eliminated long drives, and the
cowboy became a ranch hand.
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Section 1-19
Reviewing Themes
Economic Factors What two developments in the
late 1800s led to the decline of the cattle
business?
An oversupply of cattle drove down prices, and
the winter of 1886 to 1887 killed a large number
of cattle.
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18
Section 1-15
Ranching and Cattle Drives (cont.)
How did the invention and use of barbed wire
affect the cattle industry?
The long cattle drives and open grazing ended
when the open range was largely fenced off with
barbed wire.
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