Westward expansion: economic development

Completing the transcontinental railroad

In May 1869, the grueling task of connecting the Central Pacific, originating in Sacramento, and Union Pacific, originating in Omaha, railroad lines finally culminated in Utah, a process that began during the Civil War. The driving of the famous “golden spike” by Central Pacific director Leland Stanford was photographed and described by newspapers across the country as an indelible symbol of American ingenuity, resilience, and technological prowess; many writers also hailed the completion of the **transcontinental railroad **as tangible proof that Americans from all parts of the country had successfully put the violence, devastation and resentment of the Civil War behind them and were once again united in a common purpose of extending American cultural, economic, legal and political strength throughout the country.

Reverend Samuel Vinton, May 11, 1869

It will populate the vast territory and be the great highway of the nations; their merchants will cross it to trade with us. But there is another aspect which we view it as a blessing, and in connection with which we esteem of it still greater importance. It will preserve the Union of these great States.

While the completion of the transcontinental railroad served as a critical marker of expanded economic power and a greater physical linking of the country, declarations of greater American political unity were premature as you read about in previous lessons on Reconstruction. Furthermore, the enormous financial and physical tolls of completing the transcontinental railroad surfaced in tensions and violent confrontations between different groups of laborers, including formerly enslaved persons known as the freedmen, Chinese immigrants, former Confederate and Union soldiers, as well as between labor and railroad management. Additionally, construction of the transcontinental railroad involved the confiscation of Native American lands and, at times, violent confrontations between Native Americans and the railroad workers and the US calvary. Working under difficult and dangerous conditions in a variety of challenging environments, at least 1,000 Chinese workers died in the process of completing the transcontinental railroad and hundreds of other workers and Native Americans also died throughout the 6+ years required to join the Central Pacific and Union Pacific lines.

Mining

Settlement of the west was accelerated through, often exaggerated, discoveries of gold, silver, and other mineral precious metals and mineral deposits, beginning with the California gold rush of 1849, but also including similar gold rushes in the then Colorado, Dakota and Alaska territories in 1859, 1874, and 1896, respectively; there were also vital silver rushes in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho and Nevada during the 1850s through the 1890s, bringing settlers and workers to what had previously been remote areas of the Rocky Mountains. Mining generated enormous wealth, at least for a few prospectors and mine owners, during this time period, but most miners toiled in dangerous conditions without striking it rich. A number of boom towns developed, growing rapidly during periods of significant mineral extraction, with cities like Leadville, Colorado, long the highest incorporated town in the United States at over 10,000 feet elevation above sea level, building an incredible opera house and hosting famous European singers and writers; while Leadville and its opera house still stand, some boom towns quickly turned into ghost towns as people fled the area once the mines ran dry.

Homesteaders

One of the enduring images of the later parts of 19th century western settlement is that of hardy homesteaders drawn by promises of cheap land staking out their respective claims and working the land to provide for their families. While thousands of homesteaders ultimately settled in the west and on the plains, the promises of plentiful, cheap and fertile land were frequently undercut by harsh realities: much of the west is not suited for the same agriculture practiced in other parts of the country; Native Americans resented and frequently resisted these renewed incursions on their ancestral lands; and land companies often bought up and then subdivided plots of land, meaning that homesteaders frequently paid more than they expected for smaller plots than they believed had been promised through the Homestead and Morrill Land Grant Acts (1862). Amongst the most salient examples of both the promise and disillusionment for homesteaders occurred in the Oklahoma land rush of 1889 in which tens of thousands of hopeful settlers entered the recently created Oklahoma territory, carved out of portions of Indian Territory, only to discover that other would be settlers had entered “sooner” than they were supposed to, hence the origin of the official state nickname of Oklahoma as well as the name of its flagship public university sports teams.

Cattle kingdom

The rise of the cattle ranching industry in western states also profoundly reshaped the land and its culture. Cattle originally competed with bison for critical grazing lands and water resources in the west, but buffalo hunters, often paid bounties by railroad and land companies, nearly eliminated the western bison herds within a few decades; these buffalo hunters not only cleared the way for cattle ranching but they also deprived many indigenous societies of vital food and cultural artifacts. Increasing homesteading, unpredictable weather including droughts, freezes, and wildfires, and the fencing off of large areas of the west limited the chronological extent of the cattle kingdom to a generation or two, at most, but enduring images of cowboys and long-range cattle drives, like those portrayed in the 1985 novel Lonesome Dove, and western songs like “home on the range” remain imprinted in American culture.