Western Expansion 8.1-8.3 Flashcards
placer mining
process used simple equipment like picks and pans
quartz mining
dug deep beneath the surface
henery comstock
staked a claim in Six-mile Canyon that turned out to be nearly pure silver core
in mining the cycle of ____and_____ was repeated throughout the mountains
in mining the cycle of BOOM AND BUST was repeated throughout the mountains
What did volunteers form during booms
during booms, law enforcers were scarce and self-appointed volunteers sometimes formed villigance committies to track don and punish wrong doers
where did mining spur development?
Colorado, Dakota Territory and MOntana
where did other settlers began building vast cattle ranches after the civil war
Great plains
what was Leadville
one of the richest strikes in late 1870s.
Leadville was one of the most legendary boomtowns of the frotnier
what type of cattle couldnt surivive on the tough priaire grass, what type could
Cattle from the East couldnt survive on the tough grass, but longhorn cattle could easily survive the harsh climate of the plains
Open range
covered much of the great plains and provided land where cattle raisers could graze their herds free of charge
Hispanic herders
taught American cowhands ther trade and enriched the English vocab w/ words of Spanish origin.
where did ranchers drive about 260,000 cattle?
Sedalia, Missouri where they sold them for 10x’s the price they could get in texas
where did cowboys drive a lot of cattle?
between 1867 and 1871, cowboys drove nearly 1.5 million head of cattle up chisholm trail to Abilene Texas
Most of the cowboys in the early years were what kind of people?
Confederate Army Soliders escaping the harsh life in the South during reconstruction
Dime novels
exaggerated tales of cowboy daring and helped spread myths of the “Wild East” in Eastern towns and cities.
What was the geography of the great plains
- great plains region extends westward to the Rocky mountains from around the 100th meridian-an imaginary line running north and suth from the Central Dakotas through western texas
- For centuries this open country had been home to vast herds of buffalo that grazed on the praire grasses
Government Supported settlement in the great plains region by passing what act
Homestead act in 1862
Dry farming
method of planting seeds deep in the ground where there was enough moisture for them to grow
WHo lost their homesteads because of drought, wind erosion and overuse of sand
Sod busters
what became as important to the great plains as cotton was to the south
wheat
What did the Census of bureau report in 1890
frontier line was gone
