at the moment the Union was most seriously threatened with dissolution,
the idea of binding the Great West more firmly to it seemed dictated by
a wise forecast, since, if remoteness were to be an element of weakness
to the nation, then the sooner that remoteness were done away with, the
better for its security.
Congress made liberal offers of moneys and lands, and work began both in
California (1862) and Nebraska[5] (1863). The route from the Missouri
first begun followed the old emigrant trail up the Platte Valley, thence
crossing the mountains into the Utah Basin, where the road from the west
was expected to join it. As the Platte Valley is nearly a dead level
from the Missouri to the mountains, the work went on rapidly over this
part of the line. Twelve thousand men were employed on it. In front
gangs of laborers shovelled up the loose earth to form the embankment;
after these came the tie-layers and track-layers; who were again closely
followed by the locomotive, with the cars in which the workmen slept
and ate since leaving the settlements behind them.
When the track neared the Black Hills, the Indians tried to stop its
farther progress. They looked upon its coming as destined to drive away
the buffalo from their old feeding-grounds, and so starve them out of
their country. In this belief they attacked the laborers, tore up the
tracks, and so harassed the builders that the work could only go on
under the protection of United States soldiers. Some well-meaning people
thought it wrong thus to invade the Indians' hunting-grounds for any
purpose whatsoever, and Wendell Phillips rejoiced that they had risen
in defence of them. Said he, "All hail and farewell to the Pacific
Railroad! Haunt that road with such dangers that none will dare use it!"
[Illustration: TRACK-LAYING, PACIFIC RAILROAD.]
The work, however, steadily went on. On the 10th of May, 1869, the
two ends came together at Promontory Point, Utah, and with impressive
ceremonies the Pacific Railway was opened to the traffic of the world.
The way to the Indies had been found. Senator Benton's prophecy was
fulfilled.
FOOTNOTES
[1] THE LOCOMOTIVE REACHED St. Joseph, Mo., over the
Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. The telegraph came up the
Missouri River from St. Louis. The telegraph crossed the
plains in advance of the railroad.
[2] PONY EXPRESS followed the old Platte route, _via_ Forts
Kearney, Laramie, the South Pass, Fort Bridger, to Salt Lake.
[3] BUTTERFIELD OVERLAND COMPANY'S route went through the
Indian Territory, Texas, and Arizona, with a branch line
coming from Memphis, Tenn., _via_ Fort Smith, Ark. The coaches
ran day and night, ordinarily making the trip in twenty-five
days.
[4] THE PACIFIC RAILWAY. A bill authorizing it was carried
through Congress in 1859. It provided for three great lines,
namely, the Northern, Southern, and Central, all of which
have been built. The coming on of civil war checked the
enterprise at this time. Government had already caused all
the practicable routes to be surveyed. As far back as 1846
Lieutenant Emory noted down the practicability of the route
up the Arkansas, down the Rio Grande and Gila to San Diego
or Los Angeles, while on the march for California. This is,
practically, the Southern Pacific route of to-day.
[5] CALIFORNIA AND NEBRASKA routes. That begun in California
is called the Central Pacific. The one leaving Omaha is
the Union Pacific. Both lines have many branches. On the
California side the first passenger train reached the top of
the Sierra, Nov. 30, 1867. The Union Pacific did not push its
work until the war was nearly over. By the autumn of 1866 it
was forty miles west of Fort Kearney. By the time the Central
Pacific was in the Truckee Valley (140 miles built), the Union
Pacific was at the Black Hills (500 miles built). Brigham
Young built a portion of the road in Utah.
KANSAS, NEVADA, NEBRASKA AND COLORADO ADMITTED.
Kansas came into the Union (1861) as the seceding States went out.
Though peaceful progress was arrested by the war, which kept most of
her able-bodied men in the field, she, the youngest State, did her part
bravely and well in that memorable conflict of arms, by the side of
the older ones. She kept the name of the nation which had dwelt along
her great river before the coming of the white men. With the cessation
of civil strife began an era of prosperity, hardly paralleled in the
history of the nation, and owing, chiefly, to the fertility of her soil,
which has raised her to the front rank of agricultural States.
NEVADA[1] may be said to have sprung from the side of California,
though originally forming part of Utah. For a time it was known only as
Washoe, from the Indians living about the east foot of the great Sierra.
A little surface gold was found here as early as 1850 by emigrants who
carried the news to California. Their report brought a number of eager
gold-seekers into the gulches around what has since grown up to be
Virginia City, and it was while searching for gold that rich silver ores
were discovered early in 1859, on Mount Davidson. Here on the eastern
slope of this mountain, near the newly discovered silver lode, the
town of Virginia began with a few log huts. In sixteen years it had a
population of twenty-five thousand. In 1864 Nevada was admitted to the
Union.
NEBRASKA[2] in soil and climate is quite like Kansas, though somewhat
less fertile. Though opened to settlement at the same time Kansas
was, emigration was mostly directed to the latter State by the slavery
excitement. In 1861 the area of Nebraska was much reduced by the forming
of Dakota, though it is still larger than all New England. Omaha,[3]
Plattsmouth, and Nebraska City grew up as outfitting points for the
commerce of the plains. All were villages in 1857. As the railway
system of Iowa unerringly directed itself toward the Platte, Omaha,
the capital, grew in importance; but when the terminus of the Pacific
Railway was fixed there, its future was assured. From this time onward
the progress of Nebraska was marked. In 1867 it came into the sisterhood
of States.
COLORADO was named for the great river which rises among its mountains.
It was formed (1861) of portions taken from New Mexico, Utah and Kansas.
Besides its mineral wealth, the raising of sheep and cattle has grown
to be a great industry. In 1876 Colorado was admitted to the Union.
FOOTNOTES
[1] NEVADA, Spanish for "snowy," is aptly called "The Desert
State." Except lead and silver it produces little or nothing.
Carson, the capital, is named for Fremont's old guide. Though
silver-mines were also opened in the Reese River District
(Austin) the chief mineral deposits were found about Virginia
City. A great rush set in there from California, where the
excitement about Washoe quite rivalled, for a time, that of
1849. Here are the great Comstock, Gould and Curry and other
rich silver lodes. This explains why population is chiefly
concentrated in one spot in the west of the State. California
is its natural outlet. In sixteen years the Comstock mines
yielded over two hundred million dollars in silver bullion.
[2] NEBRASKA. When I visited Nebraska (April, 1858), a few
settlements were begun on the Nemaha, Saline, Big Blue, and
Elkhorn, but all would not have made one good-sized town. The
great tide of western travel set through Independence, Kansas
City, Leavenworth and St. Joseph. In 1872 the London _Times_
openly discouraged emigration to Nebraska, urging the Red
River country instead. Western Nebraska is unfertile.
[3] OMAHA is six hundred miles from St. Louis by the
Missouri River, five hundred from Chicago, and 1,898 from San
Francisco. It has a charming site. In 1866 its population had
risen to eight thousand.
THE RECENT STATES.
It is at least worthy of notice, in following out the law governing
the movement of our people from east to west, that the great block of
wilderness country which Lewis and Clarke first explored should be the
last settled. The course their explorations took passes through Dakota,
Montana, Idaho and Washington to the Pacific Ocean.
The reason for this long pause between the first and last acts in the
story of the Great West is found in the fact that later exploration soon
determined in favor of the Platte Valley, as the one affording by far
the shortest way through the centre of the continent.
Therefore the new States, just named, are mostly an outgrowth of the
more central region in which the great body of emigration has first
settled. It may be further remarked, that in those Territories where
gold and silver occur, settlement was nearly simultaneous.
IDAHO,[1] like Nevada, grew up from the discovery of gold and silver
in her borders. The finding of these precious metals goes no farther
back than the summer of 1862. These were placer deposits. A year later
quartz lodes, rivalling in richness those of Colorado, were brought
to light. Soon the old Hudson's Bay post of Fort Boisé[2] was turned
into a thrifty town. The mineral find rapidly extended along the Salmon,
Boisé, and Clearwater Rivers. In the south, Idaho City sprung up on the
Boisé; in the north, Lewiston on the Clearwater was settled. In 1860
Idaho scarcely had any white people: in 1863 they were sufficiently
numerous to entitle them to have a Territorial government.
WASHINGTON[3] is another rib taken from the side of the older Oregon,
whose boundaries so fortunately gave us the magnificent harbors embraced
by Puget Sound. Here therefore is the natural terminus of the Northern
Pacific Railway,[4] which comes from Duluth and St. Paul, crosses the
tier of States now under consideration, and reaches Tacoma by way of
the Lower Columbia. Washington was made a State in 1889.
MONTANA.[5] About all known of this Territory in 1860 was that
it contained two important military posts: Fort Benton at the head
of navigation on the Missouri, and Fort Union near the mouth of the
Yellowstone. But in 1861 gold was found in a gulch lying at the head of
the Jefferson Fork of the Missouri. Population rushed in. Here Bannack
City was founded. As with Colorado and Nevada, so here the surface
diggings were quickly worked out. In 1862 Virginia City was founded
as the successor of Bannack; and in 1863 Helena as the successor of
Virginia, and supply-point for the mines of the Blackfeet country.
Montana was organized as a Territory in 1864. A year later there were
but four post-offices, at which tri-weekly mails were received, while
but one newspaper was printed in the Territory. Yet even at this
early day, when mining engrossed the attention of nine-tenths of the
population, it was seen that the agricultural resources of Montana were
very great, and since the building of the Northern Pacific Railway along
the Yellowstone, that valley has become to Montana what the Willamette
is to Oregon. Montana was admitted to the Union in 1889.
DAKOTA has signally demonstrated its capacity for supporting large
populations, either by raising grain crops or live stock, for which
the wild grasses of the plains furnish abundant pasturage. Divided by
the Missouri in the centre, and bounded on the east by the Red River of
the North, Dakota has come to be a great wheat-producing region in its
eastern half, and a cattle-growing one in its western. Made a Territory
in 1861, Dakota came into the Union as two States (North Dakota and
South Dakota) in 1889.
WYOMING contains in its north-western corner the wonderful Yellowstone
Park, which Congress with wise forecast has set apart for the benefit
and instruction of mankind. At no distant day this remarkable and
picturesque region bids fair to become the chosen playground of the
nation.
Thus the Great American Desert, which only to have crossed was once
thought a feat worthy of being handed down to posterity, whose length
and breadth were vividly portrayed as never meant to be inhabited by
man, is now everywhere supporting large and prosperous populations.
It is but just to add that the Mormons first disproved this popular
fallacy by making their homes in the heart of the desert, which
imperfect knowledge first led them to choose, and necessity afterward
forced to make trial of. These people have therefore done a work
as remarkable in its way as that performed by the early New-England
colonists.
It should further be added, that the occupation of these Territories,
notably Montana and Dakota, was productive of serious conflicts with
the Indians, who fought to the death for the preservation of their
last hunting-grounds. The Sioux war of 1876 was caused by the rush
of gold-seekers into the Black Hills, which the Sioux had reserved to
themselves. They attacked the whites, to whose aid soldiers were sent.
One band led by General Custer perished to a man on the Little Big-Horn,
in battle with confederate Indians, led by Sitting Bull, a Sioux chief.
FOOTNOTES
[1] IDAHO. Indian, said to signify "shining mountains," more
fully interpreted by some to mean "gem of the mountains."
Originally part of Oregon. The Territory contains the great
falls of the Shoshone, or Snake, or Lewis River. Fremont's
Peak is its great landmark on the east.
[2] BOISÉ (see p. 241) became a government post upon our
occupation of Oregon. The capital was first fixed at Lewiston,
then removed to Boisé.
[3] WASHINGTON. Besides the excellence of its harbors,
Washington is noted for its inexhaustible forests, thus making
it a great lumber-producing region. In the eastern part wheat
is grown, and there are good grazing lands.
[4] NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY unites the railway and water
systems of the Great Lakes and Upper Mississippi with the
Pacific. It is the route forecast by Jona. Carver in 1766.
(See p. 149.)
[5] MONTANA. The name is simply descriptive of a mountainous
region. Fort Benton was named for Thomas H. Benton. From
this point returning trappers or traders were in the habit of
floating down the river to St. Louis in canoes before the day
of steamboats. Fort Union was a trading-post established with
reference to the Yellowstone Valley route to the mountains.
THE WORK OF EIGHTY YEARS.
Our story closes with the national domain completed within limits
grander than even the sagacious Jefferson had hoped for. Though "peace
hath her victories," peaceful development, such as has followed the
settlement of grave political questions, affords fewer materials for
history than the stirring records of war, or the annals of political
strife.
The West shared with the East in the drain made upon its resources
by the Secession War. Its recovery from the effects of that war has,
however, been so marked that to-day all traces of it are nearly effaced
from its outward and inward life. National unity is no longer a thing of
territorial expansion, as with the statesmen of Jefferson's and Benton's
time, but now means a perfect union of the whole people in the cause of
progress, and for the welfare of mankind. In that peaceful conflict the
once hostile sections are now engaged with a praiseworthy emulation.
The child who was born when Lewis and Clarke set out for the Pacific,
may now be the living witness to what we have called the marvel of the
nineteenth century. It is true, much of the rapid progress of the Great
West is due to the development of its extraordinary mineral wealth,
by which masses of population have been suddenly moved upon particular
points, so forcing settlement beyond its legitimate growth.
There have been, however, other potent agencies at work to the same
end. Foremost among these, always keeping in mind the constantly
improving facilities for moving emigrants into the West, come the great
improvements made in mechanical arts. And first of all we should class
the reaping-machine, invented by Cyrus H. McCormick, which is thought
to have advanced the line of civilization westward many miles each year.
Without this invention, what was an uninhabited and unproductive region
forty years ago would hardly have been converted into the granary of the
continent, with its millions of people, its marvellous productiveness,
and its growing weight in the nation. In the East small farms are the
rule; in the West, the exception. The difference, at least, seems to be
largely owing to the grass-mower, and grain-reaping machines that were
unknown to agriculturists of a former generation, though allowance must
be made for the better conditions of soil, which more generally adapt
it for cultivation. Great bodies of fertile lands, such as exist in the
States of Kansas and Nebraska, are unknown in the East.
[Illustration: REAPING-MACHINE.]
Then the building of the Pacific railways has contributed greatly to
the rise of the West. Munificently endowed by Government with moneys and
lands, the sale of the latter to settlers became an instant and potent
means to the building-up of the unoccupied country. In its pre-emption
and homestead laws the Government has also offered unusual privileges
to all who wished to settle on the vacant public domain; thus putting
within the reach of men of small means, the most valuable and productive
farming lands in the world. In this respect no government has done so
much for its middle-class population as ours. And no population has more
quickly returned to the giver the benefits it has received.
One other active means to the making of the Great West should not be
overlooked. Passing by the explorers, whose names are familiar, we
come to a class of men whose work was no less important in its way.
Trained journalists like Horace Greeley, Samuel Bowles, Albert D.
Richardson, Henry Villard, Thomas W. Knox, and William Phillips, did
much to make the West known to the East in all its aspects, whether
political, social, or economical, so depicting its inside and outside
life to a multitude of readers, many of whom became actual emigrants in
consequence.
These combined agencies, all working together in harmony, have produced
extraordinary results. For instance, at the time we bought it all
Louisiana, counting from New Orleans to the Missouri, had only about
forty-five thousand people. In 1880, under not quite eighty years
of American rule, it had over eleven millions, or more than twice as
many as all the States had when Louisiana was ceded to us. The whole
population of French and Spanish Louisiana did not equal that of
Minneapolis, St. Paul, or Kansas City at the present time, neither of
which had a single settler at the date of cession.
Spain thought to control the continent with a few soldiers and
missionaries. Her civilization, barbaric in its origin, is mediæval
rather than modern. In America it could rise no higher than its source.
Mexico and Cuba, two of its earliest conquests, show what it has been
able to do in the New World in three hundred and fifty years of rule.
France frittered away her opportunities in schemes too vast for the
time or the means appointed for their accomplishment. It is the story of
force without forecast. Her explorers overran the country, but left few
substantial footmarks behind them. One reads French names everywhere,
but sees no cities founded. The policy of France, like that of Spain,
looked more to getting a revenue from America than colonizing it. Hence
every avenue of individual effort was made to lead back to the royal
exchequer.
Now let the man who is not yet fifty years old take down the geography
he studied when a schoolboy, and put his finger in the middle of the
State of Iowa. He will have touched the border of that Great American
Desert whose story we have been telling him.
INDEX.
Acoma visited and described by the Spaniards, 35, 39 (_note_);
further description, 42, 43;
mission church of, 52.
Adams, John Quincy, defends the right of petition, 248.
Alamo, The, 243, 246 (_note_).
Alaska, settlements in and purchase of, by the United States, 142
(_note_).
Aleutian Archipelago discovered, 141;
beginnings of the fur-trade at, 141;
settlements, 142 (and _note_).
Allouez, Fr. Claude, goes to Lake Superior, 77;
goes with Dablon to the Wisconsin River, 78.
American Fur Company organized, 212.
Apaches of New Mexico, 255.
Arizona, missions in, 38;
the name, 39 (_note_).
Arizona bought of Mexico, 288, 289.
Arkansas nation, Joliet and Marquette visit them, 89;
towns, 90, 92 (_note_);
called "handsome men," 91.
Arkansas Post in 1803, 178.
Arkansas River, settlement begun on, 127.
Arkansas Territory settlements (1819), 222, 223 (_note_).
Arkansas admitted to the Union, 227.
Ashburton treaty, 239, 241 (_note_).
Astor, John Jacob, plans an establishment on the Columbia, 212.
Astoria founded, 213;
sold, 214, 230, 233 (_note_).
Atchison, David R., 299 (_note_).
Atchison, Kan., founded, 296, 299 (_note_).
Austin, Stephen F., goes to Texas, 242.
Behring, Vitus, sails on a voyage of discovery, 140, 142
(_note_);
determines the separation of the continents, 140;
death, 141.
Bent, Charles, governor of New Mexico, 254.
Bent's Fort, 241 (_note_), 254, 256 (_note_).
Benton, Thomas H., 227;
sent to the Senate, 229;
identified with the Oregon question, 231;
meets Fremont, 234.
Bienville, 123, 130 (note);
made governor, 128;
founds New Orleans, 128.
Bison, The, first mentioned, 36, 39 (_note_).
Black Hills located, 185.
Boone, Daniel, leads emigrants to Kentucky, 165, 211 (_note_).
Bonneville, Benjamin L. E., visits Oregon, 232, 233 (_note_).
Boundary of the United States, rectified by the war with
Mexico, 263.
Brown, John, in Kansas, 304, 307 (_note_).
Butterfield Overland Stage Company, 317, 320 (_note_).
Button, Sir Thomas, in Hudson's Bay, 133.
Cabrillo's voyage, 65 (_note_).
Cache-à-la-Poudre River, 238, 241 (_note_).
California, the name, 55, 65 (_note_);
coast explored, 55-59;
missions founded, 59-63;
commercial policy under Spanish rule, 64, 65;
coveted by the United States, 256;
why, 257;
emigration to, 263 (_note_);
we fail to buy it, 258;
or separate it from Mexico, 288;
England suspected of coveting it, 258;
the American settlers seize the government, 261;
the flag raised at Monterey, 261;
conquered, 262;
in revolt again, 262;
subdued, 263;
Mexico cedes it to the United States, 263;
gold discovered, 272;
rush for the mines, 274;
newspapers of, in 1848, 274, 275 (_note_);
effect on the country, 278, 279 (_note_);
routes to, 280, 281, 282, 284 (_note_);
commerce opened with the interior, 283;
population in 1849, 284;
under military government, 285;
the interregnum, 285;
miners' courts, 286;
State government formed, 287;
struggle in Congress, 287;
admitted to the Union a free State, 287;
Pacific Railroad in, 318, 320 (_note_).
Calumet, The, 89;
virtue of, 92 (_note_).
Canada, conquest of, 146 (_note_).
Cape Flattery named, 144, 146 (_note_).
Cape Mendocino, 65 (_note_).
Carson, Christopher, 234;
stopped by Gen. Kearney, 256, 263 (_note_).
Carver, Jonathan, his idea, 149;
gets to the Mississippi, 150;
ascends the Minnesota, 151;
his "Travels," 152.
Cenis Indians, 116, 117 (_note_).
Champlain, Samuel de, founds Quebec, 69;
at Montreal, 71;
hears about the Great Lakes, 71, 72;
a prisoner, 74, 79 (_note_).
Charles V. (of Spain), events of his reign, 4-8;
last days of, 53, 54;
his character, 81.
Childs, J. B., on the way to Oregon, 237.
Chouteau, Peter, 198, 204 (_note_).
Cibola, Father Marco goes to, 32, 39 (_note_).
Clarke, William, explores Louisiana, 187, 191 (_note_). _See_
Lewis.
Clarke's River (Ore.) named, 197.
Clay, Henry, defeated on the Texas issue (1844), 245.
Colorado, gold in, 208;
discoveries on Cherry Creek, 309;
Denver City founded, 310;
great rush of gold-seekers, 310;
stage-route established from the Missouri, 311;
discoveries on Clear Creek, 312;
Gregory, 312;
other settlements, 313;
surface diggings give out, 314;
but gold quartz struck, 314;
a State, 322.
Colorado River explored, 33;
the name, 39 (_note_).
Colorado Desert crossed, 65.
Columbia River missed by Cook, 145;
and Vancouver, 146 (_note_);
discovered, 161, 162 (_note_), 191 (_note_);
a bone of contention, 230, 233 (_note_).
Columbia, the ship, 160, 161, 162 (_note_).
Columbus, Christopher, fails to find the way to India, 3;
result of his discoveries, 3;
his death, 4.