Explain how you think settlement of the Plains would have been different without these inventions

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Students will examine a variety of documents that reference reasons why Americans living in the East migrated west of the Mississippi immediately before, during, and right after the Civil War. Documents cover the mining industry, new inventions used on the Plains, the growth of the railroad, the Homestead Act, and the Cattle Kingdom.

Suggested Teaching Instructions

Objectives

Students will analyze primary sources to uncover reasons for expansion, and learn how motivations changed over time. For grades 7-12. Approximate time needed is 45 minutes.

Instructions

This activity can be used to introduce a unit on westward expansion. Alternatively, this activity can be completed gradually by a full class over the course of a unit, or used as a review at the end of a unit.

Begin by asking the class to hypothesize why Americans may have wanted to move west in the middle of the 19th century. Discuss general reasons that humans leave one place to move to another, as well as the particular cultural and political climate of the United States during this era. Ideas may be recorded for later reference.

Open the sequencing activity as a class. Look at a couple of the documents more closely. Ask students if anyone can identify and explain any of the documents they see without further examination. Ask for suggestions as to which documents are “earlier” and which are “later.” Students should be able to explain their presumptions. (To bolster students’ confidence and willingness to make informed guesses, remind them that at this point it is entirely appropriate to make a guess with scant evidence because they have not yet done any careful examination.)

Choose one of the documents used in this activity to model document analysis. Ask students to synthesize the information they have gathered and answer: “What can this document tell us about that time in history?” Remind students to replicate this close analysis of each document they open before they begin to move any of the documents. Ask them to work as a full class, in small groups, or individually for more advanced students, to put the documents in the correct chronological sequence according to their creation dates.

When students have placed all documents in the correct sequence, they should compile a list of possible reasons that Americans moved westward at this time:

• Gold rush and mining opportunities (silver in Nevada)
• The opportunity to work in the cattle industry; to be a “cowboy”
• Faster travel to the West by railroad; availability of supplies due to the railroad
• The opportunity to own land cheaply under the Homestead Act
• The discovery of wheat strains adapted to grow in the climate of the Plains.
• New inventions allowing them to adapt to life on the Plains, such as the windmill and barbed wire (students may need to speculate as to why homesteaders needed these)
• Adventure and the lure of the “Wild West”

Now ask students to determine which reasons pulled migrants to the West earlier and which influenced travelers later.

Students can continue their study of westward expansion by completing a companion activity contrasting the experience of Western settlers with the experience of Native Americans in the West.

For more information about the featured documents, follow the links below.

 STUDY GUIDE USII.2a -- Geography Themes
Land and Climate influence the Western Movement
(Adapting to the challenges of the Plains)

Physical features/climate of the Great Plains
� Flatlands that rise gradually from east to west
� Land eroded by wind and water -
� Low rainfall
� Frequent dust storms

1850-1890 - Before 1860, those who crossed the Mississippi generally traveled all the way to the west coast. Few settled on the Great Plains.
Living on the Great Plains presented many challenges. The winters were bitter cold. There were few rivers and streams for water, and few trees for wood. Low rainfall caused drought and dust storms. Fierce winds and frequent dust storms eroded and blew away the soil. The remaining tough soil was thought to be unsuitable for farming. Before the Civil War, the Great Plains were considered a "treeless wasteland".

 

Technological advancements allowed people to live in more challenging environments. Innovations and technologiesencouraged settlement of the Great Plains and help people adapt to the challenging environment:

� Railroads
1860-1890 The railroad network in the US grew fast. The Transcontinental Railroad, completed in 1869, was made of many different lines. It linked the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and opened the vast interior to people who wanted to settle there. The railroad made trade between different parts of the country easier, encouraging industrial and economic growth.

� Beef Cattle Raising
In the early 1800s, cattle ranches began appearing on the Great Plains, especially in Texas. Demand for beef was high, and as railroads developed, ranchers would drive their cattle north to meet up with the lines.

� Barbed wire
The invention of barbed wire allowed farmers to keep cattle from nearby ranches off their fields and away from their crops.

�

� Sod houses

Lacking trees and other materials, settlers on the Great Plains built their homes from sod, a sort of packed dirt held together by roots and cut

into squares.

CLICK on these photos to enlarge them

How did settlers change the Great Plains?

What was an important factor in promoting the settlement of the Great Plains?

Why did people's ideas about the Great Plains change?

Which technologies helped settlers establish farms on the Great Plains?