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In 1865 the frontier line generally followed the western limits
of the states bordering the Mississippi River, bulging outward to
include the eastern sections of Kansas and Nebraska. Beyond this
thin edge of pioneer farms lay the prairie and sagebrush lands
that stretched to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Then,
for nearly 1,600 kilometers, loomed the huge bulk of mountain
ranges, many rich in silver, gold and other metals. On the far
side, plains and deserts stretched to the wooded coastal
ranges and the Pacific Ocean. Apart from the settled districts
in California and scattered outposts, the vast inland region was
populated by Native Americans: among them the Great Plains
tribes -- Sioux and Blackfoot, Pawnee and Cheyenne -- and the
Indian cultures of the Southwest, including Apache, Navajo and
Hopi.
A mere quarter-century later, virtually all this country had been
carved into states and territories. Miners had ranged over the
whole of the mountain country, tunneling into the earth,
establishing little communities in Nevada, Montana and Colorado.
Cattle ranchers, taking advantage of the enormous grasslands, had
laid claim to the huge expanse stretching from Texas to the upper
Missouri River. Sheep herders had found their way to the valleys
and mountain slopes. Farmers sank their plows into the plains and
valleys and closed the gap between the East and West. By 1890 the
frontier had disappeared.
Settlement was spurred by the Homestead Act of 1862, which
granted free farms of 64 hectares to citizens who would occupy
and improve the land. Unfortunately for the would-be farmers, the
land itself was suited more for cattle ranching than farming, and
by 1880 nearly 22,400,000 hectares of "free" land was in the
hands of cattlemen or the railroads.
In 1862 Congress also voted a charter to the Union Pacific
Railroad, which pushed westward from Council Bluffs, Iowa, using
mostly the labor of ex-soldiers and Irish immigrants. At the same
time, the Central Pacific Railroad began to build eastward from
Sacramento, California, relying heavily on Chinese immigrant
labor. The whole country was stirred as the two lines steadily
approached each other, finally meeting on May 10, 1869, at
Promontory Point in Utah. The months of laborious travel hitherto
separating the two oceans was now cut to about six days. The
continental rail network grew steadily, and by 1884 four great
lines linked the central Mississippi Valley area with the
Pacific.
The first great rush of population to the Far West was drawn to
the mountainous regions, where gold was found in California in
1848, in Colorado and Nevada 10 years later, in Montana and
Wyoming in the 1860s, and in the Black Hills of the Dakota
country in the 1870s. Miners opened up the country, established
communities, and laid the foundations for more permanent
settlements. Yet even while digging in the hills, some settlers
perceived the region's farming and stock-raising possibilities.
Eventually, though a few communities continued to be devoted
almost exclusively to mining, the real wealth of Montana,
Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and California proved to be in the grass
and soil.
Cattle-raising, long an important industry in Texas, flourished
after the Civil War, when enterprising men began to drive their
Texas longhorn cattle north across the open public land. Feeding
as they went, the cattle arrived at railway shipping points in
Kansas, larger and fatter than when they started. Soon this "long
drive" became a regular event, and, for hundreds of kilometers,
trails were dotted with herds of cattle moving northward.
Cattle-raising spread into the trans-Missouri region, and immense
ranches appeared in Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Nebraska and the
Dakota territory. Western cities flourished as centers for the
slaughter and dressing of meat.
Ranching introduced a colorful mode of existence with the
picturesque cowboy as its central figure. Although the reality
of cowboy life, with its low pay and grueling work, was far from
romantic, its mythological hold on the American imagination has
remained strong, from the "dime" novels of the 1870s to the films
of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood in the late 20th century.
Altogether, between 1866 and 1888, some six million head of
cattle were driven up from Texas to winter on the high plains of
Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. The cattle boom reached its height
in 1885, when the range became too heavily pastured to support
the long drive, and was beginning to be crisscrossed by
railroads. Not far behind the rancher creaked the covered wagons
of the farmers bringing their families, their draft horses, cows
and pigs. Under the Homestead Act they staked their claims and
fenced them with a new invention, barbed wire. Ranchers were
ousted from lands they had roamed without legal title. Soon the
romantic "Wild West" had ceased to be.
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