Moving West
Jan 12, 2016
Moving West
Travel by RailIn 1850, steam-powered ships still provided much of the
nation’s transportation. Over the following decades, however, improvements in train and track design, plus the construction of new rail lines, gave railroads a big boost. Travel west would be easier than ever.
The Transcontinental Railroad
• Project began in 1862– Pacific Railway Acts
• Land grants and gov’t loans given to two companies – Union Pacific, & Central Pacific
– Central Pacific• Began lying track
eastward out of Sacramento
– Union Pacific• Began lying track
westward from OmahaBoth hired Irish and Chinese
immigrants.
• May 10, 1869– Two groups met at
Promontory Summit in Utah. The Transcontinental RR was complete.
Brainstorming Push and Pull Factors
• Push Factors?– What is making me want to get out of here?
• Pull Factors?– What is making me want to go West?
Push Factors West• Civil War
– Southern Farmers• Plantations ruined by
Sherman’s March– Slaves
• “Exodusters”– Try to escape the
persecution of Southern Reconstruction policies.
• Costs– Land in the East was
increasingly costly.
• Ethnic and Religious Oppression– Mormons = Salt Lake City
• Others?
Pull Factors• Wealth– Gold?
• California - 1849– Land speculation
• People who bought up large sections of land with the goal of selling it later for a profit.
• Government Help– Pacific Railway Acts
• Large land grants were given to major RR companies.
– Work?– Morrill Land-Grant Act
• Granted state gov’ts millions of acres of western lands to sell. Profits were to be used for “Land-Grant” colleges specializing in agriculture and mechanical arts.
– University of Illinois, 1867.– Homestead Act
• Settlers were given 160 acres of land if they…– Were 21 years old– Built a house and lived there for 6 months a
year.– Farmed the land 5 years in a row
The Settlers…
• Three Groups Settled the “West”:– Miners
– Ranchers
– Farmers