The Cattle KingdomSection 3

Chapter 18

Focus QuestionsWhat led to the cattle boom?

What was life like for cowboys?

What caused the decline of the Cattle Kingdom?

The Cattle Boom The Spanish cattle mixed with English breeds and created

the Texas longhorn

The animals needed very little water and could survive harsh weather and were more suitable for the environment

After the Civil War the demand for beef increased in the East

Joseph McCoy came up with an idea to hold cattle in pins and ship them by railroad to the East

Ranchers began taking their cattle north to sell

Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Montana became known as the Cattle kingdom and the herds roamed the open range

The RanchesElizabeth Collins became known as the Cattle

Queen of Montana

She was one of the many ranchers who became wealthy during the cattle boom

Many ranchers concentrated on buying range rights (water rights to ponds and rivers)

The CowboysCowboys were the ones who took care of the

ranchers’ cattle and they borrowed many of their techniques from Mexican vaqueros

The vaqueros gave the cowboys lassos, chaps and the western saddle

Many cowboys were Mexican Americans or African Americans (Nat Love was a famous African American)

Some women worked along side the men

Gathering cattle together was known as a round-up (this when branding was done)

Cattle Drives and Cattle Towns

The Cattle Drive (moving the cattle north over several months) was the most important and dangerous duties

The Chisholm Trail was one of the most popular cattle drives (blazed by Jesse Chisholm in the late 1860s and ran from San Antonio, Texas to Abilene, Kansas)

Cowboys had to stand watch during the night to make sure cattle were not spooked and had to track them down if they were

Large cattle towns like Dodge City or Abilene lay at the end of the trail and small businesses sprang up to accomodate their needs

Towns became dependent on tired cowboys spending money in their towns

In cattle towns, disorderly behavior was common

Law men like Wyatt Earp became famous in these towns

The End of the Open Range

Refrigerator railroad cars (early 1880s) made it possible to carry meat from packing plants to the east

In 1874 Joseph Glidden patented barbed wire which allowed westerners to fence off large areas of land at a low cost

Range wars between large and small ranchers and farmers (Billy the Kid was part of a range war)

By the 1880s 7.5 million cattle roamed the Great Plains but because of low prices, harsh weather and great competition brought an end to the reign of the Cattle Kingdom

Focus QuestionsWhat led to the cattle boom?

What was life like for cowboys?

What caused the decline of the Cattle Kingdom?

Farming the Great Plains

Section 4Chapter 18

Focus QuestionsWhat groups settled the Great Plains, and what

were their reasons for moving there?

How did the environment of the Great Plains affect settlers’ farming methods?

What was life on the Great Plains like for settlers, and how did they adapt to the conditions?

New Lands for Settlement

The Homestead Act gave 160 acres of land to anyone who would live on it for five years and farm the land

The Morrill Act gave federal land to states that would use it build agriculture and engineering schools (Texas A&M)

In Oklahoma, Seminole land was offered to homesteaders (11 million acres of Indian land was given to settlers)

Settling the PlainsMany farmers moved because farm land where

they were from was too expensive

Exodusters were southern African Americans who moved to the plains for new land

Many were share croppers from the south

Western homesteads were attractive to immigrants (Germans, Dutch, Swedes, and others)

Mennonites (Russian Protestant Religious group) were the first to begin large-scale farming on the Plains

Farming on the Plains Plains settlers encountered a climate that was

extremely difficult

Midwest farmers were nicknamed sodbusters because they broke up the thick root-filled sod

Farmers in the 1890s starting using dry farming techniques which left some land unused and shifted from corn to red wheat which needed less water

Cyrus McCormick made his fortune designing, building and selling farm equipment

As farming technology improved the Great Plains became known as the breadbasket of the world

Daily Life on the PlainsMany people built their homes of bricks made

from sod (very little wood available)

Settlers had to make and mend their own clothes

Farmers had to build their own farm buildings and repair their own machinery

Farm families were often large and everyone had a chore

Communities on the Great Plains

Farmers formed communities so that they could assist one another in times of need

The first think the pioneer communities did was establish a local church and a school

Pioneer schools were small one-room buildings

Many children only went to school part of the time and spent the rest of the year helping on the farm

The efforts of these communities helped make the west more appealing to raise a family

Focus QuestionsWhat groups settled the Great Plains, and what

were their reasons for moving there?

How did the environment of the Great Plains affect settlers’ farming methods?

What was life on the Great Plains like for settlers, and how did they adapt to the conditions?