Mining and Railroads
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ssahCH13book.book Page 452 Wednesday, February 23, 2005 4:00 PM SECTION Section 1 1 Standards-Based Instruction Mining and Railroads Standards at a Glance Prepare to Read H-SS 8.12.3 Explain how states and the federal government encouraged Reading Skill Vocabulary Builder Students have read how the four-year business expansion through tariffs, Use Definition Clues As you High-Use Words banking, land grants, and subsidies. struggle of the Civil War consumed the read about history, you will come immigrate, p. 455 resources and attention of the nation. H-SS 8.12.4 Discuss entrepreneurs, across unfamiliar words. In this manual, p. 455 Now they will focus on how the govern- industrialists, and bankers in politics, textbook, definitions for many commerce, and industry (e.g., unfamiliar words are included in ment encouraged settlers and railroads Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rock- Key Terms and People the text that surrounds the word. to develop the West. efeller, Leland Stanford). vigilante, p. 454 When you read a word that you do not know, look at nearby sen- subsidy, p. 454 Section Focus Question tences. Perhaps, the unfamiliar transcontinental railroad, p. 455 word is repeated and defined. How did mining and railroads E-LA Reading 8.1.3 draw people to the West? Before you begin the lesson for the day, write the Section Focus Question on the board. (Lesson focus: people seeking jobs and a Background Knowledge With the Civil War over, the chance to get rich flooded the West.) nation turned its attention to its western frontier. This stretched from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. The frontier had prairies, Prepare to Read mountains, and forests. Even though Americans thought of it as unsettled, it was the home of Mexican settlers and Native Americans. Build Background Moving west, settlers first crossed the Great Plains. Most of the Plains receives little rainfall and has few trees. Thinking that crops could Knowledge L2 not grow there, settlers called the area the Great American Desert. The section deals with how the West was In this section, you will learn how railroad builders and miners changed by rapid economic development. made the West a vital part of the nation’s economy. Tell students that the land west of the Mississippi was settled relatively quickly Main Idea Boom and Bust compared to the land east of the Missis- Settlement of the West often In many parts of the West, settlement came in a rush. This was sippi. Ask students to make a list of factors came in a rush, but many especially true in areas where prospectors found gold or silver. New boomtowns soon died out. that may have contributed to the rapid mining towns sprang up in a flash—but many did not last long. settlement of the West. Use the Idea Wave The Gold Rush of 1849 in California excited the nation. Before strategy (TE p. T38) to elicit responses. long, miners spread from California to the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains and to the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory. Set a Purpose L2 ■ Group students into pairs or groups of Use Definition Clues The Comstock Lode Just before the Civil War, prospectors four. Distribute the Reading Readiness What is a lode? Write the began searching for gold in the Sierra Nevada. In 1859, two Irish sentence that provides a prospectors found the gold they were looking for. However, a third Guide. Ask students to fill in the first definition. two columns of the chart. man, Henry Comstock, said the claim was on his land. The find became known as the Comstock Lode. A lode is a rich vein of ore. Teaching Resources, Unit 6, At the Comstock Lode, a blue-tinted sand stuck to all the equip- Reading Readiness Guide, p. 17 ment and made the gold hard to dig out. The blue mud turned out to ■ Use the Numbered Heads strategy (TE be loaded with silver. In fact, the silver was far more valuable than p. T38) to call on students to share one the gold. This was one of the richest silver mines in the world. piece of information they already know 452 Chapter 13 The West Transformed and one piece of information they want to know. The students will return to Universal Access these worksheets later. L3 Advanced Readers L3 Gifted and Talented Writing a Journal Entry Have each stu- dents have finished, suggest that they dent write a journal entry from the per- present their entries to the class by per- spective of a gold miner, a woman work- forming a dramatic reading. ing in a boomtown, or a railroad worker. Students’ entries must reflect relevant Answer information from the chapter. When stu- Use Definition Clues A lode is a rich vein of ore. 452 Chapter 13 ssahCH13book.book Page 453 Wednesday, February 23, 2005 4:00 PM In the next 20 years, the Comstock Lode produced $300 million worth of silver and made Nevada a center of mining. A tent city near Teach the mines grew into the boomtown of Virginia City, Nevada. The Boom Spreads After the Civil War, prospectors fanned Boom and Bust out over the West. They found valuable ores in Montana, Idaho, and H-SS 8.12.3, 8.12.4 Colorado. They made a gold strike in South Dakota’s Black Hills. In the 1890s, a gold find drew people from all over the world to Alaska. Instruction L2 Although each strike caused great excitement, few prospectors ■ Vocabulary Builder got rich. The ore was deep underground and expensive to extract. High-Use Words Before teaching this Comstock gave up and sold his mining rights for $11,000 and two section, preteach the high-use words mules. Many other prospectors sold their claims to large mining immigrate and manual using the strate- companies. By the 1880s, western mining had become a big business. gy on TE page 451. Boomtown Life Tent cities like Virginia City often arose Key Terms Following the instructions around the diggings. Soon hotels, stores, and other wood-frame on page 7, have students create a See It– buildings appeared. Mining camps quickly grew into boomtowns. Remember It chart for the Key Terms in Where prospectors went, others followed. Merchants brought this chapter. mule teams hauling tools, food, and clothing. Nothing was cheap in ■ To help the students better understand the boomtown stores. Sometimes, miners paid high prices for bottles the concept of migration, which is of pure drinking water. They did not want to drink from streams that might be polluted with chemicals, like arsenic, used in mining. important to the understanding of this Women who joined the mining boom could make a good living. chapter, use the Concept Lesson Migra- Some opened restaurants. Others washed clothes or took in boarders. tion. Distribute copies of the Concept One woman just baked pies. In a year, she became quite wealthy. Organizer. Nearly half the miners were foreign-born. The streets of the Teaching Resources, Unit 6, mining towns rang with Irish accents as well as Italian, German, Concept Lesson, p. 27; Concept Organizer, p. 7 Spanish, Chinese, and other languages. The foreign miners often faced hostility. For example, laws restricted Chinese miners to claims ■ Read Boom and Bust with students abandoned by others. Mobs often drove the Chinese from towns. using the Structured Silent Reading strategy (TE p. T37). ■ Ask students why most Americans Explore More Video moving west did not settle on the Great Plains. (It did not seem like good farmland.) Discovery School Video To learn more From Boomtown to Ghost Town In the 1870s, ■ about boomtowns and ghost towns, Ask: How did the discovery of gold Virginia City, Nevada, had close to 30,000 inhabitants. view the video. and silver affect the pattern of western When the Comstock Lode ran out, Virginia City became a ghost town. Today it is a thriving tourist settlement? (People looking for gold had attraction. Critical Thinking: Identify originally settled in California. From there, Economic Alternatives Why did Virginia they spread eastward, often drawn by City become a ghost town? How did reports of additional discoveries of gold and it later restore its economy? silver.) ■ Ask: Who was most likely to strike it rich in a boomtown? (business people who supplied the goods and services miners needed) Independent Practice Have students begin filling in the study guide for this section. Section 1 Mining and Railroads 453 Monitor Progress History Background As students fill in the Notetaking Study Guide, circulate to make sure individuals The Great American Desert When sur- understand the idea of the frontier and the veyor Stephen Long led his expedition Discovery School Video gold and silver rushes. west in 1820, he thought the region from View the video Boomtown to Ghost Town to the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains enhance student understanding of the rise and fall of mining towns. resembled the deserts of Siberia. In 1823, Answer Long created a map that labeled the area “The Great American Desert,” and the Identify Economic Alternatives After the name remained. Comstock Lode was depleted, people left Virginia City. Possible answer: It became a tourist attraction. Chapter 13 Section 1 453 ssahCH13book.book Page 454 Wednesday, February 23, 2005 4:00 PM Mining and Railroads in The Railroad Boom the West H-SS 8.12.3 Wherever prospectors 50°N CANADA discovered gold or silver, Instruction L2 Seattle mines sprang up and people WA Tacoma reat Nor ■ G thern R rior poured in. Railroads spread Have students read The Railroad Boom. .R. Duluth upe MT . S R.