Resettlement of the West

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the Pacific Railroad Act in 1862. This Act authorized the construction of a transcontinental railroad. Soon a six to eight-month journey could be accomplished in only a few days. The profound results may have been unseen at the time, but the transcontinental railroad may have been the most influential aspect of our nation’s history outside of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Civil War, ultimately hurling us into the position of the world’s leading economic, industrial and influential power. Unfortunately, the effects of this extensive railway system were not always glorious.

The Pacific Railroad Act not only authorized the construction of a new railway system, but also encouraged its growth through government subsidies and grants of land. Soon railroad companies would be the largest landholders in the West holding close to 170 million acres. In order to build the railways, labor was needed. Railway companies looked to Irish and Chinese immigrant’s as well as ...

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which had doubled from 1870 to 1900. Corn, wheat, cotton and other cash crops were grown as far as the eye could see across numerous bonanza farms. Millions of wild buffalo were hunted for their hides as millions of steer were marched from Texas to cattle-towns in Kansas. Minerals and precious metals encrusted in the earth created an ebb and flow of mining towns throughout Nevada, California, Colorado, Idaho and the Black Hills of South Dakota. As more and more settlers attempted to stake their claims in these developing industries, struggles began to set in. The agricultural industry began to suffer from rapid industrialization as wealthy investors began to control the trade. ...

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