Question

(150-word min.)

How did the cattle, mining, railroad industries, as well as the Homesteading laws, affect westward expansion? (Please comment all of these points.)

Answer 1

• Where the prairie ended, beyond the reach of the Homestead Act, the wide open foothills of the Rocky Mountains served as home to scattered ranchers who grazed their cattle freely on the 'open range' where no homesteads or fences or property lines existed.
• Farming and ranching in the West was incredibly difficult, if not impossible. Homesteaders might have land, but they couldn't afford the steel plow needed to break it or an animal to pull it. Even if they had the equipment and animals, they often didn't have enough water to irrigate the crops or water the animals.
• Many homesteaders lived in terror of murderous raids by Native Americans, and ranchers feared cattle rustlers.
• The railroad eased life for many homesteaders, bringing more people, services, and opportunities. Farm goods could be sold and shipped much more easily to the East, and manufactured goods could be purchased and sent west to the eager farmers and their families. However, the railroad also brought in corporations that often managed to wrestle control of the best land, sources of water, and emerging local governments.
• The early attention paid to mining, focused on gold and silver discoveries. However, later, discoveries of industrial minerals like coal, copper, iron, oil and gas, stimulated new and continued growth of settlements in the west.
• However, the vast majority became laborers, working for poor wages in dangerous environments and living in desolate communities. Their glamorous and romantic images of mining, were more often dashed as they performed back-breaking work and experienced numerous mining accidents.