Houghton Mifflin Social Studies
Chapter 14, Lesson 1, A Time of Change (pp. 410-414)
I. Variety of the West
B. The Great Plains, between the Mississippi River and the
Rocky Mountains, is a region of climatic extremes, and was
once thought to be unfit for agriculture.
C. Much of the West lacks rivers that can be used for
transportation, which made early movement there difficult.
II. Railroads Arrive
B. Chinese immigrants worked from west to east, and European
immigrants worked from east to west, to link the two halves of
the transcontinental railroad.
C. By 1900, four other railroad lines linked the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
III. Mining Develops
B. Silver mining in Nevada, unlike surface gold mining, was deep
underground and was done by large companies that could afford heavy equipment.
C. Nevada's silver mining was so profitable that thousands of
people rushed to work the mines, creating boom towns that often
became ghost towns when the mining ended.
Lesson at a Glance Outline
A. The western United States contains many different
landforms -- prairies, mountains, deserts, valleys, and lakes.
A. In 1869, the first transcontinental railroad was completed.
A. In some areas, the railroads made existing mining easier, and
in others areas, railroads led to the creation of new mines.
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