Issues Papers: Individual Assignments, 2005

 

Issues Paper #9: Urban West (April 20)

 

Catherine: Window Rock/Pine Ridge (or compare either of these to Washington reservations)

Katherine: Oklahoma City/Bakersfield (See Gregory, American Exodus)

Mike: Cheyenne/Green River

Robert M.: Los Angeles/Phoenix  (See, for instance, Davis, City of Quartz; and Luckingham, Phoenix)

Gail: Seattle/Vancouver (See Distant Neighbors)

Julie: Portland, Oregon  (See Abbott, Portland; for Anchorage, Alaska Geographic Society, Anchorage and Cook Islet Basin)

Joe: Santa Fe/ Sitka, Alaska  (See Noble, Santa Fe; for Sitka, Griffen, Early Views)

Jason: Albuquerque/El Paso.  (See Luckingham, Urban Southwest)

Corey: San Francisco/Omaha    (See Issel and Cherny, San Francisco; Larson, Gate City)

Mark: Rock Springs/Everett, Wash.  (For Everett, see Norman Clark, Mill Town)

Nathan: Richland, Wash./Jeffrey City  (For Jeffrey City, see John Egan, "Home on the Range No More" in Readings in Wyoming History; for Richland, see either Sanger, Working on the Bomb or Helvy and Finlay, Atomic West)

Aaron: Twin Falls, Idaho/ Grand Junction   (See Fiege, Irrigated Eden; and Underwood, Town Building on the Colorado Frontier)

Deena: Park City, Utah/Pinedale, Wyoming

Robert M.: Silverton/Durango, Colorado

Jacob: Jackson, Wyoming/Aspen, Colorado

Suzy: Denver/San Francisco  (See, for instance, Gunther Barth, Instant Cities)

 

 

Issues Paper #7: Water in the West (April 6)

Catherine: Indian water rights.  See John Shurts, Indian Reserved Water Rights: The Winters Doctrine and its Social and Legal Context, 1880s-1930s.

Kendra: Ogallala formation. See John Opie, Ogallala: Water for a Dry Land.

Drew: Nebraska water.  Opie (above) is one possible source, but a number of articles relating to the subject may be found in Nebraska History.

Mike: Colorado. See, for instance, Dan Tyler, Last Water Hole in the West.

Rory: Western water, generally, and technology. See Donald Worster, Rivers of Empire.

Cole: Montana (see Brian Shovers, “Diversions, Ditches and District Courts,” Montana: Magazine of Western History, Spring 2005).

Robert M.  New Mexico. Useful may be Jose Rivera, Acequia Culture: Water, Land, and Community in the Southwest.

Tina: Carey Act, with particular application to Wyoming.   See Robert Bonner, “Elwood Mead, Buffalo Bill Cody and the Carey Act in Wyoming,” Montana: Magazine of Western History, Spring 2005.

Julie: California, specifically Los Angeles.  See Margaret Leslie Davis, Rivers in the Desert: William Mulholland and the Inventing of Los Angeles.

Joe: John Wesley Powell.  See Donald Worster, River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell

Jason: Hawaii. See, for example, John Whitehead, “Hawaii: The First and Last Far West,” Western Historical Quarterly, May 1992).

Mark: Elwood Mead.  See James Kluger, Turning on Water with a Shovel: The Career of Elwood Mead.

Nathan: Los Angeles Aqueduct. See William Kahrl, Water and Power

Aaron: California. See Norris Hundley, The Great Thirst: Californians and Water.

Cindy: Wyoming. See various articles in Land and Water Law Review

 

Issues Paper #7: Economics of the West (March 30)

 

Drew: cattle trade economics 1870s-1880s 

Marty: banks and the cattle industry in the northern Rockies

Katherine: the Carson City mint

Mike:  Cheyenne merchants

John: Civil War era taxation in the West

Meghan: Western “stock exchanges”

Rory: western entrepreneurs (J. C. Penney)

Gail: sea otter trade

Mark: Western Federation of Miners

Martin: Western populism

Jacob: bimetalism—debates over “free silver”

Aaron: banking “regulation” in the Gilded Age

Sarah: Asian banking and trans-Pacific trade

Robert B.: businessmen and residents of Kansas "cattle towns"

 

Issues Paper #6: People in the West (March 23)

You will be assigned one ethnic group in a state/region of the West. Evaluate the 19th century history of the particular ethnic group in the West. Additionally, prepare a brief essay in which you discuss at least one monograph done in at least the past ten years on the particular group. Identify the major issues addressed, and the methodology employed. Give a personal assessment of the quality of the monograph and compare how the thesis and conclusion compares with the assessments in the common readings (above).

 

Catherine: Pacific Northwest Indians

Kendra: Eastern Europeans in Western mining

Drew: Nebraska immigrant ranchers

Mike: Mexican Americans, southeastern Wyoming

Tom: Germans from Russia, Nebraska
John: African-Americans, West Coast (Civil War period or before)

Meghan: Hutterites, Montana and the Dakotas

Rory: Chinese and Black interaction in the West

Deena: Scandinavians, Pacific Northwest timber industry

Tina: Chinese, British Columbia/Pacific Northwest

Gail: Mennonites, northern plains

Joe: Italians/Greeks, southwestern Wyoming

Jason:  Irish, Butte, Mont.

Clint: “Buffalo soldiers” (African-Americans in the frontier army)

Julie: African-Americans, Seattle

Darrin: Portuguese in the West

Corey:  Chinese in the Rocky Mountain West

Martin: Jews in the intermountain West

Jacob: Native American-African American relations in the 19th century West

Aaron: Mexican-Americans, Colorado

 

Issues Paper #5: The Land: Miners and Developers (March 9)

 

Read the Mining Act of 1872 with amendments. Based on the provisions, what conclusions can you draw as to the public policy rationale for the act? In what ways might the act address a 19th century "environmental ethic"?

Each person should concentrate on a different state or mining district in answering this question.  Some relevant books are noted, but you may need to consult the subject of “mining laws” for your respective state in the card catalog of Coe Library.  Also, read the following:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/specials/mining/26875_mine11.shtml

 

Catherine: also consider issues arising from Native Americans and mining.

Mike: South Pass City, Wyoming.  See Marion Huseas, Sweetwater Gold; also glance through Sweetwater Mines, newspaper on microfilm in State Archives or UW Library.

John: Pike’s Peak gold rush (specifically consider Civil War impact on Colorado mining). Also, look at microfilm newspapers, Daily Rocky Mountain News in Coe Library.

Meghan: Leadville, Colorado. See Duane Smith on Colorado mining.

Cole: Montana. See David Stiller, Wounding the West: Montana, Mining and the Environment. (Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2000).

Julie: Ludlow, Colorado. See Howard Gitelman, Legacy of the Ludlow Massacre. (1988). (also consider the issues arising from the incident noted in Colorado newspapers on microfilm in Coe Library).

Jason: Arizona copper.  See various secondary works on Phelps-Dodge, Bisbee, Arizona, etc.

Clint: Butte, Montana. See Michael Malone, The Battle for Butte. (also consider the labor questions)

Darrin: California. See Robert Kelley, Gold v. Grain: The Hydraulic Mining Controversy in California’s Sacramento Valley. (Arthur Clark, 1959).

Mark: Coal, generally. See James Whiteside, Regulating Danger: The Struggle for Coal Safety in the Rocky Mountain Coal Industry (Lincoln: Univ. of Nebr. Press, 1990); and Duane Smith, Mining America: The Industry and the Environment, 1800-1980. (1987) 

Nathan: Gold/silver generally. See Rodman Paul, Mining Frontiers of the Far West.

Jacob: Gold/silver mining generally. See Ronald C. Brown, Hard-Rock Miners: The Intermountain West (1979)

Aaron: Deadwood, S. D.  See: Watson Parker, The Deadwood: The Golden Years. (Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1981).

 

 

#1: Recitations on Feb. 9.

Mountain Men and the Fur Trade

Question: How valid is the commonly accepted stereotypical view of mountain men and fur trappers?

Issues Paper #1: Each student will be assigned a brief biography of a Western explorer/fur trapper/pioneer. One source for some will be the multi-volume series, Mountain Men and Fur Trappers of the Far West, edited by LeRoy Hafen. The set was reissued recently. From that reading, we will try to answer the above question. Be prepared to discuss the biography of your individual.

 

Drew: Jedediah Smith

Marty Leonard: James Beckwourth

Mike: Jacques LaRamee

Tom: David Jackson

Deena: B. L. E. Bonneville

Meaghan: William Sublette

John: Osborne Russell

Rory: John C. Fremont

Cole: William Bent

Robert Mills: Peter Skene Ogden

Kate: William Ashley

Bethany: Robert Campbell

Robert Bilotte: Antonio Montero (Mateo)

Cindy: Jim Bridger

Issues Paper #2: Overland Migration (Feb. 16)

Catherine: Pacific survey route (North route, the Stevens-McClellan survey)

Kendra: Coronado’s routes  (consult: Coronado Expedition to Tierra Nueva...)

Drew: Texas (cattle) Trail (consult: Teddy Blue Abbott, We Pointed Them North...)

Marty Leonard: Fremont’s routes (consult: Incidents of Travel and Adventure....)

Tom: Cheyenne-Black Hills/Sidney-Black Hills stage routes (consult: Spring, Cheyenne/Black Hills Stageline)

Meaghan:  Oregon Trail (consult: Unruh, Plains Across; Faragher, Women and Men on the Overland Trail)

Rory: Transcontinental railroad (survey and construction stages) (Consult: Maury Klein, The Union Pacific; Bain, Empire Express)

Deena: Pony Express route (consult Christopher Corbett, Orphans Preferred)

Bethany: Bozeman Trail (consult:  Susan Badger Doyle, ed., Journeys to the Land of Gold...)

Robert B.: California Trail (consult:  Holiday, The World Rushed In)

Tina: Cherokee (Overland) Trail (consult: Whiteley; Townley; and Erb, Brown & Hughes).

Gail: California Trail (western end) (consult: Donnor Party journal)

Julie: Santa Fe Trail (consult: Levander, Santa Fe Trail)

Jason: Oregon Trail (Wyoming segment only)  (consult  Munkres, Saleratus and Sagebrush; Mattes, Great Platte River Road)

Clint: Mormon Trail  (consult: Unruh, Plains Across; Faragher, Women and Men on the Overland Trail)

Corey: Pacific Railway surveys (Gunnison's route) (consult: Mumey, John Gunnison...)

John: Bridger Trail (consult: Jim Lowe, The Bridger Trail)

Martin: Chisholm Trail (consult Hubert Collins, Donald Worcester books on the trail)

Jacob: The Lander Cut-off (consult: various articles in Annals of Wyoming--check index for specifics)

Robert M.: Mormon trail.

 

Paper #3: Law and Order (for Feb. 23)

Drew:  Sparks’ orders to remove fences on public lands and the aftermath.

Marty:  Credit Mobilier and the surrounding legal proceedings. (One possible source is: Bain, Empire Express; another is Klein, Union Pacific. Also, take a look on microfilm at how newspapers at the time wrote about the case. It was big national news in the early 1870s, of course).

Tom:  Tom Horn case. (Consult contemporary newspapers, but also Krakel, Carlson).

John: Terry-Broderick duel of 1859 and Terry’s subsequent shooting by Stephan Field, then a sitting justice of the U. S. Supreme Court.  (One Terry bio is by A. Russell Buchanan, David S. Terry of California, Dueling Judge)

Rory: various Uinta County cases. (See Stone, Uinta County: It’s Place in History).

Deena:  Maxwell land grant cases. (See Montoya, Translating Property….)

Sara: In re Tiburcio Parrott, 1 F. 481 (C.C.D., Calif, 1880). (See: Charles McClain, In Search of Equality. UC Press, 1994).

Bethany: Spring Creek raid. (See John Davis, Vast Amount of Trouble. Univ Press of Colo, 1993),

Cole: analyze, for this section, the “posse comitatus” act. (See Stephen Young, Posse Comitatus Act of 1878….)

Robert: Ex parte Crow Dog, 109 U. S. 556 (1883). (See  Sidney L. Harring, Crow Dog’s Case….)

Gail: Butch Cassidy and the Wilcox train robbery (Consult contemporary news accounts)

Clint: lynching of Ella Watson, James Averell. (Consult contemporary newspapers on microfilm in Coe.  Another possible source: Hufsmith, Wyoming Lynching of Cattle Kate)

Darrin: Lynching of Big Nose George, Rawlins. (Consult contemporary newspapers on microfilm in Coe, and other sources).

Corey: U. S. v. Stanford, 69 F. 25 (N. D., Calif., 1895); 161 U. S. 412 (1896).  Not a criminal case, but relevant (perhaps) to this topic

Mark: Coal Land Act, 17 Stat. 607 (1873; and application in U. S. v. Sweet, 245 US 563 (1918)

Nathan: U. S. v. Greathouse, 26 F. 18 (1863) Confederate privateers off California coast.

Martin: Vigilantes in California.  (See Robert Senkewicz, Vigilantes in Gold Rush San Francisco. Stanford Press, 1985).

 

Issues Paper #4: The Land: Railroads, Farmers, Ranchers

http://www.nps.gov/home/Homestead%20Act%20of%201862.htm

 

Catherine: Western Washington

Kendra: Central Oregon: See Barbara Allen, Homesteading the High Desert (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1987

Drew: Eastern Oregon.   See Peter K. Simpson, Community of Cattlemen: A Social History of the Cattle Industry in Southeastern Oregon. (Moscow: University of Idaho Press, 1987).

Mike: Northeastern Colorado

John:. Nicodemus, Kansas.  (See NPS Special Resource Study, 1993)

Rory: Northeastern South Dakota

Deena: Eastern Colorado (along Kansas Pacific Railway route)

Bethany: Eastern Montana

Cole: Southeastern Idaho (Pocatello vicinity)

Robert Mills: Beatrice, Nebraska

Tina: Eastern Laramie County, Wyoming.

Darron: Huntley, Wyoming (Jewish colony).

Mark: Eden/Farson, Wyoming

Clint:  Southern Idaho (Twin Falls and vicinity)

Martin: Northern Nevada (railroad towns)

Aaron: Alaska (agricultural valleys)

Katherine B.: Wyoming/Montana Powder River Basin area