The Great American DessertEssay Preview: The Great American DessertReport this essayDBQ EssayThe mass development of the West beyond the Mississippi did not occur until the 1860s in the middle of the Reconstruction Era. The environment helped shape this development and the lives of those who not only lived there but came to settle there as well. Both political and economical factors also helped for this expansion to occur. The settlement on these Great Plains, which came to be known as the “Great American Dessert” will leave large scars on the land as well on the inhabitants that once called it their home.
Stephen Long claimed that the area of the Semi-arid West (Doc. A) was uninhabitable and that with so little rainfall, agriculture could not thrive. However, his picture was thrown away when people began to be convinced that it really was a “Great American Dessert” where one could escape to from society and be in a beautiful new home. However, once they were there it was a completely different story. Even when a man named Levi Savage tried to convince the people it was not safe and smart to cross over to this new environment, people did not listen and all went wrong afterwards as L. R. Hafen wrote (Doc. C). Frederick Jackson Turner’s theory of each frontier having to start from scratch when it is being developed was proven when people would die of the journey there or having to accustom to it (Doc. E). Even when people came for the vast areas that were being offered from the Homestead Acts, they either couldn’t stand living there for the amount of time required or they wouldn’t get a good enough part of land because the best ones were given to the railroads. So the settlers reaching for a new, better home received the unexpected and most of the times cost them their lives.
The natives of the Great Plains were drastically affected by the environmental issues caused by the new settlers and railroads. Even though the natives were promised their land and that it wouldn’t be taken from them anymore, political authorities and business owners wanted more even after they got the Oregon Territory from Britain (Doc B). Realizing that there was so much empty land in between the Far West and the Mississippi River, they decided that it would be perfect for a trans-continental railroad to go through there for eastern shipment of cattle which were needed back east. This large railroad and Americans caused great involuntary problems for the natives, killing over half of their buffalos which provided them for food, clothing, and shelter. Even when the railroads weren’t the main aspects that harmed the natives, they still had problems
The settlers of the Oregon Territory in 1814 was a mixed group. The English settlers who settled in Maine and Pennsylvania were the most active and the most famous of the bunch. They could not live where there was a railroad, however the people in Maine were well liked and the people near Salem were very friendly. The settlers were the most intelligent, they had the best food and people and were also very brave enough to face down the most tough people that they encountered in their long history of dealing with a frontier rebellion. With the passage of the Dutch Treaty, they established their own railroad, known as the Oregon Railroad, to get to the Far West so they could get their cattle to Oregon and move to the Far East. They were successful and received the first patent for a wagon-driven boat from the French of Breslau near the Atlantic coast. They were also a major force in shaping the New England Railway of 1835.
The English settlers in Oregon decided they were better off doing what the British expected them to do. They built railroads from Maine to New York to Oregon to move their cattle and cattle out of the Far East to the Atlantic Pacific. There, the new settlers wanted the land to be taken from them so they could move to the West and settle next to the Hudson River. However, most of the settlers on either side of the river were too afraid for the other to try and get the land back. Also, the American Railroads were in danger right now, they lacked the manpower to go to Oregon and it was in desperate need of land.
The Portland and the Portland-Hudson Railway were both in the process of building on the railroad in Washington State which had been in the hands of the Washington State Railroad Company for a while. The Oregon and Maine Railroad were moving across the Pacific to help the French at that time build their railroad through Western Oregon. For a few years at that time there were some people in the vicinity but this was too late. Oregon and Maine Railroad was not a success and in 1889 the Portland and the Portland-Hudson Railway opened. While most of these trains carried freight and cargo across the Pacific, and for many years the Pacific Pacific Railway had just two: the Oregon Pacific and the Washington Pacific.
The Union Pacific of 1871 and the North Pacific of 1880 started to move towards the Far West. They merged to form the Pacific Pacific Railway. The Oregon Pacific and the Washington Pacific were the main railroad lines in the Great States at this time. Most of the trains in the US ran across the Pacific, sometimes by way of the Missouri and Ohio Rivers, and often by way of Alaska. The Oregon Pacific Railroads run all over the United States and all over Canada. The Americans ran the Oregon Coast’s major roads running from New York City to Montreal, Newfoundland and Labrador and across the Great Lakes.
The Northwest Pacific and the East Coast Railroad continued to operate for many years. Both of these systems were moving in their north with the East Coast at the time. This was probably due to the huge migration of the people from the Northwest and also due to the fact that more people migrated to the Southwest Coast then to the other side of the country.
The First and Second United States Railroads.
The First American railway for the Union Pacific at the time was built on this section. Between 1871 and 1888 it carried about 900,000