Precious Metals

Lure of precious metals: Precious metals were a major pull factor for the west because everybody was looking for the opportunity to become wealthy individuals which was known as the American dream at that time. Gold and silver was the metals that every single person was looking for in the westward expansion, immigrants and citizens were willing to kill to get their hands on any gold or silver mine. The killing, weirdly enough, was mostly was the removal of Indians. The India wars: War was inedible situation at the time being. Settlers that wanted to move westward to settle in the land of the natives, and the only ways for this to happen was to remove them and make reservation somewhere else or kill them and remove them by force. Indians did
It began on May 20, 1862, the Homestead Act encouraged Western migration by providing settlers 160 acres of public land. In exchange, homesteaders paid a small filing fee and were required to complete five years of continuous residence before receiving ownership of the land. After six months of residency, homesteaders also had the option of purchasing the land from the government for $1.25 per acre. The Homestead Act led to the distribution of 80 million acres of public land by 1900. The Cattle Industry: the cattle industry was short lived in the west because the years hit a rough patch that the cattlemen could not recover. Since the recovery was almost impossible to overcome, the cattle industry fell and became less of a profitable industry Farming in the Great Plains: Life was difficult on the Plains because settlers had to face many challenges each day. Building a house was a big challenge for settlers because there was not much wood available. So many families used bricks of sod that were cut out of the ground to build their houses. Even though these houses were cheap to build, they were very small and often very uncomfortable. But the houses provided the shelter that they