Contributions To The Great West Essay

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Contributions to the Great West There are many components to the West that helps in the settlement of it. Those components including mining, cattle raising, and farming. Mining was very popular at prior to during this time period. The 49ers of California and the 59ers of Nevada led to even more gold digging in the 1860’s. Nevada became a popular gold digging location after the Comstock Lode had been uncovered and 340 million dollars worth of gold and silver had been found. Small findings of gold occurred in parts of Montana, Idaho and other western states that led to huge groups of gold lusting men and women. This want for gold eventually led to numerous Boomtowns showing up all over the place. These Boomtowns grew very quickly with almost every few buildings being a saloon. After the “easy to find” gold was gone mining operations were set up all over the West. These miners dug deep into the ground and found more gold and silver. The mining industry brought two major continuations these Boomtowns gave was then right for women to vote. The states that had given women the right to vote were Wyoming in 1869, Utah 1870, Colorado 1893, and Idaho in 1896. The finding of all these metals was enough to help the United States recover financially from the Civil War, and set up more railroads. The silver miners also set up a…show more content…
Directly after the Civil War cattle were roaming all over the state of Texas. These cattle were usually killed only for their hide since there was no way to deliver the meat anywhere. Then the transcontinental railroad stepped in to help. First; White, Black and Mexican cowboys would drive cattle (usually between 1 and 10 thousand) from Texas, North to the nearest city. Next they would send the herd of cows to meat packing towns like Kansas City or Chicago. These towns would butcher the cows and then pack the meat. Lastly the meat would be sent to Eastern cities and would be sold in

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