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The Wild West: Miners, Ranchers, Farmers, Cowboys, and Workers

Explore the exciting history of the Western Frontier from 1860-1900, including the spread of mining, the rise of ranching, the boom in farming technologies, and the myths versus reality of the American cowboy. Discover the economic impacts, environmental destruction, and social dynamics that shaped this iconic era.

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The Wild West: Miners, Ranchers, Farmers, Cowboys, and Workers

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  1. Looking to the West (1860-1900) Miners, Ranchers, Farmers, Cowboys, Workers

  2. The Spread of Western Mining

  3. Mining • Young, single men • Desire to strike it rich • Cherry Creek, CO • Other CO places in the mountains • Helena, MT • Virginia City, NV • Black Hills (South Dakota)

  4. The Mining Frontier • Some small prospectors made fortunes • Most money made by large mining corporations. • Mining towns had high populations of foreigners. • Environmental destruction due to blasting, chemicals, and water pollution.

  5. Mining’s Economic Impacts • The added gold (and silver) • Boosted U.S. economy • Increased foreign investment • Stimulated U.S. involvement in global economy

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  10. Ranching • Fences • Large tracts of land • Huge herds of cattle • Rise of the Cattle Barons

  11. The Cattle Trails • Chisholm Trail- led cattle from ranches to railroad

  12. Texas Longhorn Cattle • Tough • Ornery • Good sense of smell - could locate sources of groundwater

  13. Longhorn Cattle

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  15. The American Cowboy • Romanticized • Mythologized • Lonely, rugged existence • Necessary for Cattle business

  16. The Cattle Drives • Romanticized, difficult • Spurred growth of RRs • Food “on the hoof” fed growing demand in Eastern Markets and for Miners • Depended on the Open Range

  17. Farming as Business • Improved farming technologies: • Mechanical Reaper (Early Combine) • Barbed wire • Dry farming • Steel Plow • Windmills • Hybridization • Seed drills • Led to Bonanza farms: • Specialized in a single cash crop • The rise of ‘agribusiness’.

  18. Reduced labor force needed for harvest. Allows farmers to maintain larger farms. Mechanized Reaper Keeps cattle from trampling crops and uses a minimal amount of lumber, which was scarce on the plains. Barbed Wire Allows cultivation of arid land by using drought-resistant crops and various techniques to minimize evaporation. Dry Farming Allows farmers to cut through dense, root-choked sod. Steel Plow Smoothes and levels ground for planting. Harrow Powers irrigation systems and pumps up ground water. Steel Windmill Cross-breeding of crop plants, which allows greater yields and uniformity. Hybridization Array of multiple drills used to carve small trenches in the ground and feed seed into the soil. Grain Drill Farms controlled by large businesses, managed by professionals, raised massive quantities of a single cash crop. Bonanza Farm New Technology Eases Farm Labor

  19. Farming Technologies and Innovations

  20. Bonanza Farms • 10,000 acre farms • Wheat boom of the 1880s • Population in Dakotas tripled • Overproduction, high investment costs, droughts, and reliance on one-crop agriculture brought an end to the boom • 1890 prices fell, some lost everything

  21. The Wild West • Gunfights • Outlaws (Billy the Kid) • Marshals and Sheriffs (Wyatt Earp) • Mythical • Dodge City, KS • Tombstone, AZ

  22. Myth Cowboys were romantic, self-sufficient, and virtuous All were white Ideal, garden of Eden Could make a fortune in the west Western towns were lawless Reality Cowboys were young, poorly paid, and did hard labor 20% were black or Mexican Harmonious race relations on the trail Harsh conditions Most made little, if any money There were police forces and order in the West Myth vs. Reality

  23. The Western Myth • Some (Roosevelt) saw social Darwinism in the west. • Perceived as the last chance to build a truly good society • Novels and accounts glossed over hard labor and ethnic strife. • Reality, western settlement depended more upon companies and railroads than individuals.

  24. The Frontier Myth • Still lives in the American imagination • Depicted in movies • TV shows (Frontier House, Little House on the Prairie, Gunsmoke, etc.)

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  26. Railroad Workers • Mostly immigrants • Chinese from the west • Irish from the east • Also veterans and African Americans • Worked on Transcontinental Railroad • Dangerous job; use dynamite to blast mountains

  27. Homestead Act • Passed in 1862 • Government gave 160 acre farm plots to anyone willing to live on the land for 5 years, dig a well, and build a road

  28. Exodusters • Former slaves that fled the South after Reconstruction • Took advantage of Homestead Act opportunities

  29. Problems on the Great Plains • Windstorms • Droughts • Plagues of locusts • Loneliness • No lumber

  30. “Soddies” • Sod houses • Pioneers cut sections of sod and stacked them like bricks

  31. The Best West Photo Ever

  32. Morrill Act- 1862 • Inventions created to make farming easier in the west • Still needed education • Morrill Act granted land to states to establish agricultural colleges

  33. 1890 • Frontier closes • Census concluded no square miles were left out west with no white inhabitants

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