Chapter 3, Lesson 3Cowboys and Miners

5th Grade

Essential Question

How did cattle drives and a search for gold offer new opportunities and lead to changes in the U.S.?

Places

Dodge City, Kansas Chicago, Illinois Denver, Colorado Virginia City, Nevada

People

Charles Goodnight Nat Love Luzena Stanley Wilson Levi Strauss Mark Twain

Vocabulary

Cattle drive Gold Rush Entrepreneur

Cowboy Life Longhorn cattle sold for $4.00 in

Texas but $40.00 in the east. Cowboys began the cattle drive or

guiding herds of cattle north to the railroad.

The cattle drive began in Texas and ended in railroad town like Dodge City, Kansas.

The cattle was then placed on trains and sold in the east.

Cowboy Life

Ranchers like Charles Goodnight established cow trails.

Cowboy life was hard but offered adventure.

Cowboys had to care for the animals both cows and horses.

Freed slaves like Nat Love found a life as a cowboy.

The End of the Drives

Cattle drives came to an end in the late 1880’s

One reason was a conflict between farmers and ranchers.

Farmers used barbed wire to keep the cattle away from their crops and water.

Railroads in Texas also helped end the cattle drives.

The End of the Drives

Although the cattle drives were over the cattle business was still a big business.

The railroads made places like Chicago, Illinois important to ranchers.

The cattle was delivered to Chicago and from there fresh meat was delivered all over the country.

Dreams of Gold People who moved to the west

helped change the country. People like Luzena Stanley Wilson

moved her family to California to look for gold in 1849.

During the gold rush, thousands of people went to California to look for gold.

People felt that gold may be found in other parts of the country as well.

Dreams of Gold

In a small creek near Denver, Colorado, gold was also found.

People from all over began moving to all parts of the west.

Miners scooped sand from the bottom of streams looking for “gold dust.”

Boomtowns and Blue Jeans Miners were quick to rush to towns

were gold was found. As people rushed into towns it

created a boom or a period of quick economic gain. Boomtowns offered many opportunities.

Entrepreneurs began opening business in these boomtowns.

One such entrepreneur was Levi Strauss

Boomtowns and Blue Jeans

Levi Strauss found that miners wanted sturdy pants. He made pants out of blue denim and rivets to hold the pants together.

These were the first blue jeans. One of the biggest boomtowns was

Virginia City, Nevada when gold and silver was discovered there.

Boomtowns and Blue Jeans

A writer named Mark Twain arrived in 1862, years before he became famous.

The boomtowns did not last, creating a bust or a ghost town.

Review Questions

Why did ranchers decide to drive cattle from Texas to towns along the railroad?

What changes brought cattle drives to an end?