Westward Expansion - Shifting Demographics with Mining and Cattle Booms
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Shifting Demographics
Westward expansion created new economic opportunities, particularly in the fields of mining, railroad construction, farming, and ranching.
These opportunities drew large numbers of people to the West, both existing Americans and immigrants. The West became more and more culturally diverse as several distinct groups of western settlers emerged alongside growing White and African American populations:
Scandinavian immigrants
Chinese immigrants
Irish immigrants
Scandinavian immigrants came to the United States from Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland in large numbers during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Although most first entered the country through cities on the East Coast, many continued onward and eventually settled in the Midwest, the Great Lakes region, and the plains.
Many of the earliest Scandinavian immigrants to the United States were farmers in their home countries, so the open land available in the West appealed to them. As more Scandinavian immigrants began arriving later in the century, they tended to settle where earlier groups had already settled, contributing to the growth of the Scandinavian farming population.
Strong Scandinavian communities developed with their own newspapers, churches, and social organizations. But like other immigrant groups, Scandinavians on the Plains faced isolation on their vast farmlands. Norwegian American author O. E. Rolvaag explained the effects of these hardships on Scandinavians in his novel Giants in the Earth.
Because the farms were so large, Scandinavian immigrants often lived many miles away from their nearest neighbor, contributing to feelings of isolation.
As diversity increased in the West, social, political, and economic factors combined to bring cultural and ethnic groups into conflict with each other.
In many cases, cultural and ethnic minorities faced discrimination and conflict not only from White Americans, but also from members of other minority groups.
Conflicts Between Cultures
Buffalo Soldiers
Six African American Army regiments, which later came to be called Buffalo Soldiers, were formed in the 1860s specifically to fight against Native Americans on the frontier to protect settlers in the West. According to one estimate, Buffalo Soldiers made up 20% of the cavalry used in conflicts with Native Americans. Both Native Americans and African Americans faced government discrimination, and the government's creation of the Buffalo Soldier regiments pitted them against each other.
Chinese Immigrants
Large-scale Chinese immigration to the United States was influenced primarily by two industries: mining and the railroads. Chinese workers were particularly instrumental in the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. However, Chinese immigrants faced widespread discrimination. Fears about Chinese workers taking jobs away from Americans and from other immigrant groups eventually led to discriminatory legislation that restricted Chinese immigration.
Irish Immigrants
Irish immigration to the United States occurred throughout the 1800s as a result of famine and political conflict in Ireland. While many Irish immigrants stayed in eastern cities, some moved west, particularly with the expansion of the railroads. Irish workers made up a large percentage of Transcontinental Railroad builders. Irish workers were usually paid better than Chinese workers, and this disparate treatment by bosses contributed to antagonism between Chinese workers and Irish workers, who viewed them as threats to their jobs.
Native Americans
Although the West was viewed as a new frontier to be conquered by many Americans, it was not by any means empty or uninhabited. Western settlement encroached on land that Native Americans had lived on for hundreds of years. Settlers of multiple ethnic and cultural backgrounds came into conflict with Native Americans due in part to lack of cultural understanding on all sides, but primarily as a result of aggressive government policies that repeatedly stripped tribes of their land and attempted to force conformity.
Mormons
Beginning in 1847, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also called Mormons, began arriving in Utah’s Salt Lake Valley, which was relatively uninhabited by permanent Native American settlements. The people thought this would be a place where they could safely practice their religion. The Mormons had faced religious persecution in Illinois and Missouri, where many were driven out of their homes. In 1844, a mob had murdered their leader, Joseph Smith. Their new leader, Brigham Young, decided to lead his people west. As many as 70,000 people took the 1,000 mile journey.
Mining and Cattle Booms
The times of cowboys and the open range were part of the cattle boom in the 1860s to the 1890s. It was encouraged by expansion of railroads and refrigerated railroad cars.
Charles Goodnight is a well-known rancher from this era, owning ranches in several states and laying out major cattle trails. However, as ranching became big business, small family farms had difficulty competing with larger farms. The next big boom was the mining boom.
James W. Marshall is credited with starting the California Gold Rush after finding gold on January 24, 1848. At the time, he was building a sawmill along the American River. He saw something shiny in the water, which turned out to be flakes of gold.
By 1849, word of his discovery had spread. Many prospectors streamed to California, hoping to strike it rich. Mining was difficult work, though, and very few Forty Niners, as they came to be called, became wealthy.
Even Marshall himself barely profited from his discovery. In 1872, when Marshall was 62, he was awarded a pension of $200 per month in recognition of his place in history, but he died a poor man.
After Marshall's 1848 discovery, more gold was discovered in other places across the West into the 1870s. This became known as the mining boom.
Discoveries of gold were called gold strikes. Silver, copper, lead, and zinc were also discovered and mined. Large gold strikes, or bonanzas, resulted in towns being built up around them by the miners who flocked there with their families. These were called boomtowns. After mines were no longer fruitful, the boomtowns were abandoned, resulting in ghost towns. Mining was also destructive to the natural environments, and it was highly resented by Indigenous people for its alteration of resources.
Alaska was purchased from the Russian Empire after the Civil War in 1867, fully in line with Manifest Destiny and a desire to grow trade in the Pacific region. For many years, this expansion was seen as unimportant.
In 1896, gold was discovered in the Klondike region of northwestern Canada. Alaska was on two major routes to the region, as more than 100,000 prospectors attempted to come to the area. Skagway, Alaska, became a boomtown.
By 1898, the Klondike rush was over, as larger quantities of gold were discovered farther west. The slogan that attracted many fortune-seekers became "North to Alaska!"
Mining damaged local environments and created boomtowns, and when boomtowns were abandoned, they became ghost towns. The mining boom did not encourage cooperation between miners and farmers because they were at odds with each other in terms of environmental needs (mining destroyed land that farmers needed).