1. CHAPTER 4.1
How Miners and
Ranchers helped
build
the American West

2. Reconstruction Ends…
Compromise of 1877
• The Presidential election of 1876 was Rutherford B. Hayes
(R) from Ohio vs. Samuel Tilden (D) from New York.
• On election day, 20 electoral votes were being disputed.
• An agreement was worked out in Congress that allowed
Hayes to become President.
• The agreement was that federal troops had to be removed
from the southern states ending Reconstruction.
• Who was going to protect the 13th (slavery), 14th
(citizenship), and 15th (voting) amendements for African
Americans in the South? Troops had done this before.

3. “Rutherfraud”

4. Growth of the Mining Industry…
• Remember the Gold Rush? 49ers?
• Large numbers of people were heading west
into unnamed territories in search of….
• Dolla dolla billz yalll!

5. The Comestock Lode
• In 1859 Henry Comstock staked a
claim in the Six-Mile Canyon in
Nevada.
• The sticky blue-gray mud was pure
silver ore.
• This discovery is referred to as the
“Comstock Lode”.
• By 1864 enough people moved
into Nevada to make it our 36th
state
• Comstock Lode made more than
$230 million and helped finance
the Civil War.

8. From Comstock….TO VIRGINIA CITY!
• In just a few months more than 30,000 people
arrived.

9. Boomtowns
• Boomtowns - cities that popped up in the west
when gold, silver, or other minerals were found
San Francisco, 1851

10. Black Hills, South Dakota
Spearfish
Deadwood

11. How Gold and Silver made the West
• Several Colorado boomtowns became populated
due to the growth of mining.
1. Leadville
2. Colorado Springs (Pikes Peak)
• Tombstone was a silver town in Arizona made
famous by Wyatt Earp.

12. Tombstone, Arizona
• Silver town made famous by Wyatt Earp and the
“Showdown the OK Corrall”

13. Boomtowns cont…
• Prospecting….Men always came first…
• Towns would pop up without police….vigilance
committees
• Next came women…laundarers, cooks, dancers, etc

14. Wooden jail in Wyoming territory

16. Eventually the minerals are gone…
• 1930 --- Virginia City has only 500 people
• “Ghost towns” begin to pop up in the west

18. Miners: Main Idea
• Miners Main Idea: Mining for gold and silver
brought incredible numbers of Americans into the
West.

20. Ranching and Cattle Drives
• Some Americans mined for gold and silver while
others invested in cattle.
• Cattle farming was a big business and so was cattle
driving.
• The cowboy was a professional cattle driver that
would take large numbers of cows from one
location to another.
• Cattle farming was a huge money market during the
Civil War due to the need to feed the soldiers from
both sides.

21. American Cowboy

22. Longhorn – from Spanish cattle breed allowed to
run wild and adapted to living on grass of Great Plains
and very little water

23. Cattle Drives
• Cows were left open range until it was time for the
drive – semi wild state
• Cattle Trails would start in Texas with 2,000 to 5,000
cows. Each cowboy need 3-4 horses per day.
• Balanced distance with food to sell cows for more.
• Cowboys would move the cows north into Kansas and
Nebraska.
• The animals would then be loaded onto train cars and
shipped east to be slaughtered.
• The most famous cattle trail was the Chisholm Trail
which started in San Antonio and ended in Abilene
Kansas.
• It is estimated that between 1867 and 1871 about 1.5
million longhorns took the Chisholm Trail to Abilene.

31. The Chuck Wagon

34. One more
cowboy picture.
You ready for my
favorite?

35. The Sultry Model Cowboy

37. Abilene
Sheriff—Wild Bill Hickock

38. Train Station in Abilene

39. Dodge City

40. Witchita

41. The End of the Cattle Drive?

42. Joseph Glidden
• Simple farmer wanting to isolate his land from
being grazed on during the long drives
• INVENTS BARBED WIRE…ENDS THE OPEN RANGE
• Became EXTREMELY rich