1. Daily Speak
Daily Speak
• Who won the Wacky
Olympics on Friday?

2. Section 1: Miners, Ranchers and
Railroads

3. Main idea
As more and more

people move west,
mining, ranching, and
railroads are going to
soon change the West

5. Western Growth

Move out there? No Way!

Many saw the west as a useless piece of land
much like the desert

Frontier- HUGE undeveloped area in Western
United States.

6. Mining Boom

In 1859 Comstock
Lode was discovered

Getting rich quick

Over the next 20 years
this site would produce
$500M in gold.

7. New Immigrants

Immigrants of all races and colors were racing
to the Western part of the U.S. to strike it rich!

8. New Towns

Boomtowns- towns that grow suddenly when
a mine was opened

9. Cattle Kingdom

Cattle ranching becomes popular in the
Midwest on the open range

This is the same land the Indians lived off of...
we will revisit this later this chapter!

10. End of the Open Range

Competition for land
ends the open range

People started marking
off their land with barbed
wire

11. Growing Communication

More people in the West = needs for
communication and transportation to the West

Pony Express= messengers on horseback
that delivered mail

Telegraphs put the Pony express out of
business

12. Transcontinental Railroad

Many Americans wanted a railroad to connect
the East Coast to the West Coast

Pacific Railway Act- the Government gave
loans and land to the railroad companies

The government land could be sold to help pay
for railroad
12

13. Transcontinental Railroad

It was hard dangerous work building the
railroad.

Two companies competed against each other

Union Pacific vs Central Pacific

Golden Spike pounded in at Promontory Utah,
the meeting point of the two railroads
13

14. Results of the Railroad

Helped economy

Helped businesses

Railroads becomes one of the largest industries
in America