The Decline of the Wild West

"Go West young man..." were famous words said by Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune. When in 1862 Congress passed the Homestead Act, many people decided to take the government up on their offer of land, by making the land productive. By the end of the century, in 1890, Congress declared that there was no more West and that this great age of adventure had ceased. No more long cattle drives, no more stagecoach, no more daring explorations-what happened to this great age? In the 1880’s were many new developments that brought about the decline of the Wild West.

One of the first developments that brought about the decline of the West was the introduction of railroads. The railroad industry began before the Civil War, but the first transcontinental railroad was not completed until 1869. The railroad production greatly affected the West. "But it must be said that the western railroads had done much to hasten the settling and closing of America’s last frontier."1 On the other hand, the railroads in the beginning were beneficial, because, "The western railroads solved the problem of distance, bringing many settlers to the new lands and opening up eastern markets for western agricultural production."2 The railroad greatly enhanced the work of the cowboys but the railroads also destroyed it.

The Jupiter riding on the first transcontinental railway as Indians look on from the hill above.

The 1880’s were the peak of the railroads, because many of the railroad lines were finished during this decade. In September 1883 the last spike of the Northern Pacific was driven. The Northern Pacific went clear across the northern states, and greatly aided in the transportation across the continent. In 1883, a second Southern Pacific line across Texas and Louisiana from Sierra Blanca to New Orleans was built. This railroad line, connecting to the main Southern Pacific line, aided in the cattle industry production. The Canadian Pacific was also built in 1885, which gave more railroad lines to the Northern part of the country, connecting it to the Great Plains region.

Another development that aided in the decline of the West was the settling of farmers. When the farmers began moving west, it was due to the development of the railroads and new farm technology. With these new rail lines, many new farmers were able to go across the country to develop the land that had originally been for the cattle. This was partly due to the development of barbed wire by Joseph Glidden in 1874. Barbed wire "revolutionized land values and opened the Great Plains to homesteaders by providing a cheap means of fencing, which enabled farmers to stake out free homesteads."3 Farmers not only used barbed wire to stake out their land against other farmers, but also against the cattle that herded through the open range. Barbed wire helped cause the decline of the West. On the other hand, the ranchers who anticipated that barbed wire would ruin their ranching began to use it to their advantage when they quit the open-range method to one of settlement. Once the West had been settled, there was nothing else left but to grow each small town into a large one with production.

Another reason that the cattle business subsided was a hard
winter in 1886-1887. This winter wiped out many of the
rancher’s herds and caused them great discouragement by the
loss of their cattle. This became the worst recorded winter in
the Great Plains Canadian region. Along with barbed wire
and other new technology, this hard winter helped eradicate
the long-range cattle-drives of the West.

The development of railroads, farming, settling, and technology in the 1880’s caused the decline of the West. The settlement of the West has become an American National Pastime to reminisce about. Many books and movies have been written about this time, for the settlement of the West was a romantic idea to the American people. The settlement of the West was of great interest to the American people. For as Frederick Jackson Turner said, "Up to our own day American history has been in a large degree the history of the colonization of the Great West."4 This statement clearly portrays American sentiment towards the rise and fall of the Wild West.

1 John F. Stover, American Railroads (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,.1961), 103.
2 Ibid., 66.
3 Howard R. Lamar, The New Encyclopedia of the American West (New Haven, Conn.:
Yale University Press, 1998), 80.
4 Michael R. Lowman, George Thompson, and Kurt Grussendorf, United States History
in Christian Perspective: Heritage of Freedom, 2nd ed. (Pensacola, Fla.: A Beka Book
Publications, 1996), 330.
1 "The Cow Boy" c. 1887 in Sturgis, Dakota Territory Public Domain by John C. H. Grabill
2 The Jupiter riding on the first transcontinental railway Public Domain
3 Barbed Wire by mikecpeck (http://flickr.com/photos/49502991649@N01/268338)

Copyright © 2012 Joanna Corley & Dabble Magazine, LLC.