Motivations for Movement West

Match the invention or adaptation to the problem it solved.

• steel plow

• difficult, slow travel

• windmill

• low rainfall, water underground

• few trees to build fences

• thick soil with dense roots

• railroad

• barbed wire

Match the following

• dry farming

• vast expanses of grasslands

• wheat farming

• too little rainfall for regular farming methods

• cattle ranching

• dry conditions for most crops

• sod houses

• too few trees to build houses

The Great Plains experienced low _______ and frequent _______ storms.

• rainfall; dust

• humidity; snow

• temperature; rain

• wind; hail

The land of the Great Plains was _______ by wind and water.

• eroded

• built

• painted

• covered

The Great Plains had _______ lands that rose gradually from _______ to _______.

• The Great Plains had flat lands that rose gradually from east to west.

• The Great Plains had mountainous lands that rose gradually from north to south.

• The Great Plains had hilly lands that rose gradually from west to east.

• The Great Plains had rugged lands that rose gradually from south to north.

Use the primary source to identify the motivation: 'I was born in Washington County Virginia, on the 4th of July, 1805, and am a relative of Pres. Polk. I attended the common schools of the day. When scarcely twenty years of age I became imbued with that restless spirit of adventure that has since been a marked characteristic of my life, and left my home for the then comparatively unknown West. St. Louis was at that time the center of the fur trade of the United States, and when I reached that city I engaged with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, to work in their warehouses.'

• Desire for adventure

• Desire for a new beginning for former enslaved African Americans

• Possibility to obtain wealth as a result of gold and silver

• Opportunities for land ownership

• Convenience due to technological advances

Use the primary source to identify the motivation: "And be it further enacted, That the person applying for the benefit of this act shall...make affidavit that he or she is the head of the family, or is twenty-one years or more of age, or shall have performed service in the Army or Navy of the United States, and that he has never borne arms against the Government of the United States or given aid and comfort to its enemies, and on payment of ten dollars, he or she shall thereupon be permitted to enter the quantity of land specified..."

• Desire for a new beginning for former enslaved African Americans

• Desire for adventure

• Opportunities for land ownership

• Possibility to obtain wealth as a result of gold and silver

• Convenience due to technological advances

Use the primary source to identify the motivation: "Be it enacted, That the Union Pacific Railroad Company...and the said corporation is hereby authorized and empowered to lay out, locate, construct, furnish, maintain and enjoy a continuous railroad and telegraph..."

• Opportunities for land ownership

• Desire for a new beginning for former enslaved African Americans

• Desire for adventure

• Convenience due to technological advances

• Possibility to obtain wealth as a result of gold and silver

Use the primary source to identify the motivation:

Q. What was the cause of your going out, and in the first place how did you happen to go there, or to send these people there?

A. Well, my people, for the want of land-we needed land for our children- and their disadvantages-that caused my heart to grieve and sorrow; pity for my race, sir, that was coming down instead of going up. I thought Southern Kansas was congenial to our nature, sir, and I formed a colony there, and bought about a thousand acres of ground..."

• Possibility to obtain wealth as a result of gold and silver

• Desire for a new beginning for former enslaved African Americans

• Opportunities for land ownership

• Convenience due to technological advances

• Desire for adventure

Use the primary source to identify the motivation: The streets of Virginia City, Gold Hill, Silver City, and Dayton, and if fact, every mining town, are literally paved with gold and silver dust. I have heard many old miners say they had no doubt anyone might make a good living by working the dust.

• Desire for a new beginning for former enslaved African Americans

• Desire for adventure

• Possibility to obtain wealth as a result of gold and silver

• Opportunities for land ownership

• Convenience due to technological advances