CLASS 2

FARMING THE GREAT PLAINS

Name the place where gold was found in 1848:Sutter’s Mill

Describe the life of the prospector Describe the most important aspects of

the cowboy culture What was the social and economic

impact of the Gold Rush? ?

The California Gold Rush was positive Increased wealth, chance for an

improved or better life population growth

The California Gold Rush was negative dangerous rivalry, destruction of nature, overpopulated city, crime, prostitution, gambling

Legal basis: Homestead Act (1862) Head of the family, or 21 years old Can buy „unappropriated public land” 1.25 USD per acre Railroad companies transport settlers

Sod busters (pieces of earth and grass roots made into bricks)

Sod or hard to cultivate land broke ploughs

Lack of water, prairie fires, insect (locust) epidemics

Poor harvests due to droughts Isolation, loneliness Vulnerability, at the mercy of railroads Shovel, hoe,

Steel ploughs, mechanical reapers (McCormack)

Wind-powered water pumps Political action groups-Patrons of

Husbandry or Granges Catalogue shopping, (Montgomery

Ward) Rural Free Delivery by Post Service

Farmers v. cowboys Differing use of land Cowboys complain: farmers block cattle

trails Farmers complain:cattle destroys land Range wars

invented by Joseph Glidden Stronger than whiskey, lighter than air,

cheaper than dirt (John Bet-a-Million Gates) Impact: Farmers can plant crops, improved

breeding process, end of cowboy culture Wild West showdown, gunfights, Shoot out

at the O.K. Corral, 1880-1890, hanging judges

MYTH: Self-justifying intellectual product fusing falsehood with reality.

Frontier: Frontier thesis, crucible, Richard Slotkin: Regeneration and Violence

Hold the family together Shortage of basic necessities (wolf’s hair

clothes, buttons made from spoons) Religion as means of coping Evangelical protestantism: emotional

outlet, Intellectual stimulation, source of hope Preserving older values

Edna Ferber: Cimarron You can’t read the history of the U.S.

without learning the great story of these thousands of unnamed women, women in mud-caked boots and calico dresses and sunbonnets. Crossing the prairie, the desert, and the mountains…. And if the story of the West is ever told straight you know it is the sun-bonnet, and not the sombrero that settled the country

Villa Cather, My Antonia, life in Nebraska Hamlin Garland, deromanticizes the

frontier Painting: Charles Russell, Frederick

Remington

Careless wasteful use of natural resources

Farmers, miners, ranchers, lumberjacks ruin the land

Pollution from mines, factories Jon Muir, born in Scotland, first

conservationist 1872: Yellowstone, first national park 1916: National Park Service