The document discusses several key tensions and groups that shaped the closing of the American western frontier in the late 19th century, including Native Americans, cattlemen, railroads, miners, and the government. It also examines how the West has been romanticized in American culture through figures like cowboys, gunslingers, and the expansion of the railroads and mining and cattle industries. Minority groups that moved west, such as Black, Chinese, and Hispanic populations, faced significant challenges and discrimination as well.

1. Essential Questions What national issues emerged in the process of closing the western frontier? Why does the West hold such an important place in the American imagination? In what ways is the West romanticized in American culture?

2. Key Tensions Native Americans Buffalo Hunters Railroads U. S. Government Cattlemen Sheep Herders Ranchers Farmers

3. Key Tensions Ethnic Minorities Nativists Environmentalists Big Business Interests [mining, timber] Local Govt. Officials Farmers Buffalo Hunters Lawlessness of the Frontier “ Civilizing” Forces [The “Romance” of the West]

4. the Railroad builders

5. Railroad Construction

6. “ The Big Four” Railroad Magnates Charles Crocker Mark Hopkins Leland Stanford Collis Huntington

7. Promontory Point, UT (May 10, 1869)

8. the cowboys

9. The Bronc Buster Frederick Remington

10. Black Cowboys

11. the GUNSLINGERS

12. Colt .45 Revolver God didn’t make men equal. Colonel Colt did!

13. Legendary Gunslingers & Train Robbers Jesse James Billy the Kid

14. Dodge City Peace Commission, 1890

15. the MINERS

16. Prospecting

17. Mining Centers: 1900

18. Anaconda Copper Mining Co. (MT)

19. Mining (“Boom”) Towns-- Now Ghost Towns Calico, CA

20. The Cattlemen & the Sheep herders

21. The Cattle Trails

22. Land Use: 1880s

23. New Agricultural Technology “ Prairie Fan” Water Pump Steel Plow [“Sod Buster”]

24. Barbed Wire Joseph Glidden

25. The Range Wars Sheep Herders Cattle Ranchers

26. Minority groups in the West

27. Regional Population Distribution by Race: 1900

28. Regional Population Distribution by Race: 1900

29. Black “Exoduster” Homesteaders

30. Blacks Moving West

31. The Buffalo Soldiers on the Great Plains

32. A Romantic View

33. The Buffalo Soldiers & the Indian Wars

34. The “Chinese Question” Exclusion Act (1882) - Oriental Exclusion Act - Chinese Exclusion Act

35. The Tong Wars: 1850s-1920s Began in San Francisco in 1875.

36. African American & Chinese Populations: 1880-1900