Cattle Boom
• Reasons
Millions of cattle in U.S. after the war
Huge profit, $3-6 for a calf = $ 40-80 adult at market
New breeds of cattle
Opening of new lands
Extension of railroad west and south
Refrigerated boxcars cut costs
Americans diet switched from pork to beef , demand
was high
– Industrialization- millions of workers needed to be fed
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Cattle Ranching
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Cow Towns
• Developed along the
railroads to receive cattle
from long drives
• 8 million cattle moved
from 1867-1877
• Replaced when railroads
were extended
• Wild towns until farmers
settled and wanted law
abiding, respectable
people in the towns
•
Cattle Barons
• Like every other business
ranching became a big
business
• Wanted control of land ,
water rights and towns
• Most followed the law but
some didn’t and started
the range wars between
farmers and ranchers
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What factors led to the end of the
Cattle Boom?
• Over supply of cattle- 7 million, land couldn’t feed
that many
• 1886-87 – frigid winters and scorching summers
killed millions of cattle and destroyed grazing
land
• Competition from sheep farmers for grazing lands
• Demand for beef declined during the depression
• Farmers began fencing in crops, end of the open
range
Stereotypes about the Old West
• Place full of outlaws
• Indians and Indian
fighters were common
• Cowboys- adventurous
life
• Happy prosperous
farmers
• Issues of right and
wrong clearly defined
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What attracted farmers to settle the
Great Plains?
• Cheap land
– Pacific Railroad Acts – 180 million acres of land that
was sold cheaply or given away. Attractive to farmers
and businesses that wanted to build along the
tracks…. HUGE profit potential
– Morill Land Grants- states sold land to pay for Land
Grant Colleges( University of Minnesota)
– Homestead Act- 160 acres of land
• 21yrs old, U.S. citizen or applying, build 10 x 14 ft. house, live
on farm 6 months out of the year, 5 yrs. Farm land before
ownership…. Created 500,000 farms in U.S.
What made farming possible
• Technology
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Steel plow
Wells
Windmills
Mechanical reaper
Harrow
Threshing machine
Grain drill
Harvester
Hybridization
Dry farming
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Technology
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What made farming possible
• Industrializationgrowing population
needed to be fed
• Railroads- promoted
settlement and
shipped goods and
grain cheaply
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Farming
• Problems farmers
faced on the Great
Plains
– Setting up the
homestead- 1000
dollars, sod busting and
building a house
– Climate- very hot and
dry in the summer and
brutally cold in winter
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Problems
• Natural Forcestornadoes, fires,
drought, floods, dust
storms, grasshoppers,
locusts, boll weevils,
flies and mosquitoes
• Economic- needed
loans to get started25% interest
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