Building the West:Transportation and Manifest

Destiny

Gilcrease MuseumDr. Rich Loosbrock Tulsa, Oklahoma

Why This Topic

• My background: Grew up on Highway 20 in western Nebraska

• My research in western transportation• Besides imparting the stories of how

transportation transformed the West, I hope to convey how this history gets written

Arrival of the Horse and the Wheel

• The Horse does not appear until 1541 with Coronado and his expedition

• The wheel does not appear in many places until the 1830s; railroads come just a generation later, 1860s.

• Much of the human landscape of the west is the product of the railroads

Spread of the Horse Culture

Native Americans and the horse

• Expanded greatly the range of plains Indians and their pursuit os the buffalo

• Also greatly increased the trading networks of the West

• And conflict between tribes: Example of the Crow and Lakota

Trails West

Western Movement

The Oregon and Mormon Trails

The Covered Wagon

Animals

Oxen were the most common.

Mules were the second common.

Distance Traveled• People traveled about

12-15 miles in one day.

• They traveled 2,000 miles in total.

• The people traveled 6 months in total from their starting point to their destination.

• Oxen traveled 2 miles an hour.

The Trail Across Nebraska

Ft. Kearny

• Supplies and the• Trail• Role of army

Platte River Crossing

• Dangers of river crossings

Ash Hollow, Nebraska

• Importance of camping spots and watering holes

Courthouse and Jailhouse Rocks

Chimney Rock

• 90 meters high• Rises near Bayard,

Nebraska • Nearly half a million

emigrants saw Chimney Rock

• Most commented on feature of the trail

Scotts Bluff and Mitchell Pass, NE

The Trail Across Wyoming

Register Cliff, Wyoming

Ft. Laramie, Wyoming

Independence Rock

• Many emigrants arrived here on the fourth of July.

• Signature rock• 700 feet wide, 1900

feet long, maximum of 128 feet above the Sweetwater Valley floor

Devil’s Gate

• Just past Independence Rock

South Pass, Wyoming

Idaho Trail

Thousand Springs

• Along Snake River• Travel easier in

Idaho

Ft. Hall, Idaho

Three Islands Crossing, Idaho

Blue Mountains, Oregon

On to Oregon

To the Columbia at The Dalles, Oregon

Men and Women on the Oregon Trail

• Heavy immigration started in 1843• The peak year was 1852: about 50,000

made the journey• Overall, between 1840 and 1868 about

350,000 made the journey and about 68,000 on the Mormon trail

• The transcontinental railroad finished the trail

Men and Women on the Trail

• Gender dictated the experience• Work was segregated by sex• Men usually made the decision to go

Pony Express Route: A Fleeting Moment

Freighting and the Pony Express

• A major industry; wherever settlement went, so followed freighting close behind

• The Pony Express was the most colorful, but it was a financial failure.

• It lasted from April, 1860 to October, 1861.

Railroads: The First Big Business

• Railroads are both cause and effect of American industrialization:

• The are the product of industrial advances, but they also drive industrial development

• But they provide paradoxical developments:

• They provide massive economic development but create monopolies and the concentration of economic power

Origins

• Like most things of an industrial nature, they started in England.

• Railroads had many advantages over canals and roads:– They didn’t freeze in the winter, were much more

flexible and could go nearly anywhere.– The major advantage of railroads was (and is) that

they are low-friction, thus requiring relatively little energy to run.

Early Trains

Technical Obstacles

• Railroads had to figure out how to build reliable steam engines that were relatively light.

• They also had to figure out a good method of laying track; development of the ‘T’ rail was crucial.

• During the 1830s, these problems were largely overcome

The Tom Thumb

Early Railroads• Financing: Financing was always the major

obstacle. Most was private, but state assistance immediately became important. Early on, this was usually municipal.

• On the Baltimore and Ohio, 3/4s came from private funds, while Baltimore and the state of Maryland kicked in.

• The Fed. Government provided little direct assistance. Most was in surveys and technical information. Most engineers were military men, and many went from the military to railroad work.

Early Corporations

• Railroads pioneered the corporate system:• They operated over long distances• They had to handle a number of functions

such as building, track maintenance, rolling stock maintenance, accounting, passenger service, train operations.

• Early railroads such as the Pennsylvania RR developed the “line and staff” structure common in later businesses.

Early Railroads

• They pioneered financing schemes, especially in the use of stock.

• They pioneered advertising.• They pioneered food service and

passenger comfort.

Railroads and the Civil War

• By the war, the railroad was the dominant form of transportation. The Union effectively used them during the war.

• The war also brought about the victory of the Republicans and their program of business encouragement; laissez faire was never truly in effect.

Railroads and the West

• Many of the debates about railroads in the 1850s surrounded federal involvement and placement of a transcontinental line.

• With California entering in 1850, a line was needed and the Kansas-Nebraska Act became a huge spark for the Civil War.

• A critical theme in the history of the West: the “twin pillars” of western development: Big business, big government

Types of Development

• Railroad building decisions fell into two broad categories:

• Opportunistic, which took advantage of existing markets and often meant quick profits.

• Developmental, in which railroads built into undeveloped territories for potential, but distant, profits.

Land Grants

• Importance of a transcontinental line• Railroad caught in sectional debate of the

1850s• Pacific Railway Act, 1862 and 1864:• Granted loan money for the Central Pacific

and Union Pacific, and other railroads• Granted land in a checkerboard fashion

The Checkerboard

Land Grant Patterns

• Justification for the grants: they raised values on the land retained by the government.

• Often, railroads were given indemnity lands in exchange for land already claimed in the grant zone. Some limits applied.

• Example: Mt. St. Helens

Railroads and Settlement

• Railroads recognized that they would have to populate the land to make a profit.

• Railroads often provided education to farmers in the form of traveling exhibit trains.

• The CB&Q published a journal, the Corn Belt, and even paid for extension agents.

Results

• Railroads play a powerful role in the West, and often foster other corporate development.

• They are the landlords of the West.