Chapter 3 - Crossing the Continent

3. • No easy way to get from East Coast to
West Coast
– Railroads from East Coast to the Mississippi
River
– Continue by stagecoach to your destination
OR
– Sail to Central America, through the Panama
Canal, north to California
• Both were long, expensive, and dangerous
• 1860 – Pony Express

4. • It put the Pony Express
out of business
– Sent messages electrically
using wires in only minutes!
– Samuel Morse – developed a
way to send telegraphs
using a code called Morse
code
• He also built the first working
telegraph system and sent the
first message
• The 1st line was finished in
1861

5. • “trans” = across
• “continental” = continent
• Transcontinental Railroad – a railroad that stretches
across the continent
• 1862 – government told 2 companies to start building the
railroad
– The Union Pacific built from Omaha, Nebraska to the west
– The Central Pacific built from Sacramento, California to the
east

6. • Both companies were paid for every mile
of track they completed
– They raced to finish first so they would get
the most money and land – The Race to Utah
Union Pacific Central Pacific
Advantages – began building on
flat plains of Nebraska
Advantages – fast workers who
could lay 10 miles of track in a
day
Disadvantages – not enough
workers until after Civil War
and conflicts with Native
Americans
Disadvantages – began building in
Sierra Nevada mountains in
California and limited numbers
of workers
Immigrants – Irish Immigrants - Chinese

7. • The two railroads met
in the middle at
Promontory Point, Utah
Territory on May 10,
1869
– They made a special
golden railroad spike to
symbolize the success of
the project
• The president of the
Central Pacific tried to
hammer it in, but missed!
– It’s now on display at
Stanford University

9. • People didn’t think the Great Plains could ever
make good farmland
– U.S. Government wanted pioneers to settle
the land so Lincoln signed the Homestead Act
• Offered free land to people who were willing to
start new farms on the Great Plains
• You had to be a man over 20 or a woman who was
the head of her family
• They gave you 160 acres of land for about $10 and
once you farmed and lived on it for 5 years, it
was yours!
• People who settled the land were called
Homesteaders

10. • The grasses on the
plains were thick
with tangled roots, so
farmers had to break
up the sod before
planting crops
– This caused them to
be called “sodbusters”
– Most used the sod to
build their houses
afterward
– The soil was fertile!

11. • People from Europe wanted to move to the
Plains – called America Fever
– They came from all over Europe
– Brought valuable farming skills
• Russians brought wheat and the area became one of the
world’s most productive wheat-growing regions
• African Americans began settling the Great
Plains as well
– They called themselves exodusters
– Many started new communities, such as Nicodemus,
Kansas which was settled in 1877

12. • New technology
– Steel plows – iron wasn’t strong
enough for the tough sod and
thick soil
– Windmills – they pumped the
water out of the ground up to the
surface using the steady winds as a
power source
– Barbed wire – since wood wasn’t
easy to find, John Glidden created
barbed wire to make fences that
would protect the farmers and
their crops from animals
– Dry farming – they used moisture
from the soil instead of rain to
water their crops

13. • New railroad lines
brought thousands of
people to Washington,
Oregon, and California
– Seattle, Los Angeles, and
other towns grew quickly
into important cities
• Japanese immigrants began
arriving in California in
late 1800s to start farms
L.A. plans in 1894 and roads
in 2011

15. • Cattle was abundant in
Texas, but scarce in the
East
– Ranchers wanted to sell the
cattle to the East to make a
huge profit, but needed a
way to get the cattle across
the country
– Cattle drives – cowboys
guided herds of cattle north
to the new railroad lines
• Began in Texas and ended in
towns along the railroad
– 1/3 of all cowboys were
Mexican-American or
African-American

16. • Farmers and ranchers fought about the drives –
farmers didn’t want them running through their
land, so they put up barbed wire
• New railroad lines expanded into Texas and
eliminated the need for cattle drives
• Ranchers would ship the cattle to Chicago and
then to other parts of the country
• Railroads made Chicago, Illinois the nation’s
leading supplier of fresh meat

17. • 1849 – Gold had been
found in California!
• The gold rush
encouraged thousands
of people to go to
California to search
for gold
• It was also found in
Colorado
• Most people only
found small flakes or
“gold dust”

18. • Boomtowns – towns that
set up quickly because of
the gold rush
• Entrepreneurs, or people
who start new businesses,
created restaurants and
new inventions in
boomtowns
– Levi Strauss noticed miners
needed sturdy clothed, so
he created denim pants held
together by metal rivets –
blue jeans

19. • When the gold ran out,
many people left the
boomtowns and went
somewhere new to
search for gold
• The towns and buildings
remained, but were
empty and unused
– Called ghost towns
• Some mining towns
grew into large cities –
Denver and San
Francisco

21. • Settlers moving into the Plains caused
problems for the Native Americans
– Battles became more and more common
• The government wanted the land for
railroads and the settlers, so they
offered the Native Americans money and
goods, but it didn’t work
– Native Americans were moved forcefully
onto reservations

22. Sitting Bull – Chief of the
Lakota Native Americans
Crazy Horse – one of
Lakota’s most successful
war leaders

23. • Gold was found on the Great Lakota Reservation in
South Dakota, so the government tried to take the
land back, but the leaders of the Lakota tribe refused
– Colonel Custer of the Seventh Calvary attacked the
Lakota and Cheyenne
– Native Americans greatly outnumbered the soldiers
– It was called “Custer’s Last Stand” because Custer and all
of his soldiers died in the battle
– Important for 2 reasons
1. Biggest victory for Native Americans over U.S. Government
2. Led to the end of freedom for the Native Americans of
Great Plains – they were forced onto reservations

24. • 1877 the U.S. government decided to move
the Nez Perce from Oregon to Idaho
• Chief Joseph and the tribe refused to leave,
so the army chased the Nez Perce across
Oregon, Idaho, and Montana for over 1,600
miles
– They tried to escape to Sitting Bull’s camp in
Canada, but were surrounded by soldiers just 40
miles away. They were promised their land in
Oregon if they stopped fighting, but were taken
to a reservation in Oklahoma

25. • In the southwest, the Apache fought for
their land
• In 1890, some Lakota families tried to
leave the reservation, but were
surrounded by soldiers and 300 Lakota
were killed in Wounded Knee, South
Dakota
– This marked the end of the fighting between
Native Americans and the government
– Most had been moved onto reservations