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Did Westerners Really Build It All by Themselves?

The myth of the American West goes something like this: In the mid-nineteenth century, torrents of gutsy pioneers began pouring into the vast empty space beyond the Mississippi. Abundant free land offered opportunity to anyone ambitious enough to claim it and tough enough to work it. Far from everything, entirely on his own, a man could rely only on his own will, grit, and muscle. In time, strong, self-reliant, can-do Americans made the harsh environment bloom and produce. The West offered limitless possibilities, as long as government kept out of the way.

While the myth is not wrong about the courage and endurance of the pioneer, it ignores a number of significant facts. The plains and prairies were not empty. Pioneer women were as important as men in conquering the West. And the celebration of self-reliance and individual responsibility ignores the heavy debt that pioneers owed the federal government for helping them settle and develop the West.

In countless ways, westerners depended on the government for access to the West’s bountiful resources—land, minerals, grass, timber, and water. Through purchases, treaties, annexations, and war, the federal government acquired the land that would become the American West. Washington oversaw the territorial governments that controlled most of the West, sometimes well into the twentieth century. Federally appointed governors and judges meant political dependence, but they also provided access to federal funds for development. Government business brought jobs, contracts, and subsidies. And the federal presence offered access to policymakers. When westerners decided that Asian laborers were undesirable, Congress passed the 1882 Exclusion Act suspending Chinese immigration. When citizens objected to Mormon marriage practices, a federal law banned polygamy. Territorial status gave the national government increased power in the West, but westerners found that dependency had its rewards.

Westerners cheered when the U.S. Army swept away the Indians and Anglo law dispossessed the Hispanic inhabitants of the region, clearing the way for land-seeking settlers. The U.S. Geological Survey explored and mapped the region, and the General Land Office surveyed, sold, and registered the property it laid out. The federal government maintained public order until Congress judged settlers ready to take over their own affairs. Congress passed hundreds of laws granting Americans easy access to the public domain. The 1862 Homestead Act, for example, helped 1.4 million homesteaders gain land titles. The federal government’s actions sometimes undercut its democratic land policy, but its open-handed distribution of public land drew countless numbers of settlers westward.

Farms without the means to transport crops to market were not worth much, and the second half of the nineteenth century became the great era of federal support for transportation. The federal government built roads, established stage and wagon lines, strung telegraph wires, and, most important, offered huge grants of public land to subsidize the construction of railroads. Federal initiatives built the communication and transportation networks that integrated the products of western farms into the markets of the nation and the world.

The mining industry also depended on the federal bounty. When the gold rush exploded in California in 1849, the federal government raced just to keep up. But by the time Comstock Lode was discovered in 1859, federal law took control and framed the western mining enterprise. Federal laws helped mining companies beat back miner unions and collective bargaining. Mine owners won their fierce struggle with mine workers when the courts enforced the notion of individual responsibility and let mining corporations escape liability for injured miners. In 1874, when gold was discovered in the Black Hills, Congress promptly repealed the 1868 treaty that had granted the land to the Sioux, thereby opening new gold country to American citizens. Like farmers, miners celebrated their independence from government oversight while simultaneously reaping the benefits of government intervention.

Cattle ranchers also owed a debt to the federal government. The prosperous western cattle industry depended on cattle grazing on public lands and being shipped east on federally subsidized railroads. When nasty disputes between cattle owners threatened to disrupt the industry, Congress established the Bureau of Animal Husbandry to keep the peace. To protect ranchers from competition, Congress passed laws that banned foreign land purchases in the West. To protect vulnerable cattle, the U.S. Biological Survey and the Forest Service waged war on wolves and mountain lions, and to guard grazing land they took aim at elk, antelope, and prairie dogs. By 1884, with the crucial support of the government, 20 million cattle grazed the American West.

The last of the western territories became states early in the twentieth century, but statehood did not end the West’s dependence on the federal government. Indeed, as the government undertook massive water projects, created subsidies for agriculture, opened scores of national parks, and increased its efforts to secure the nation’s borders, Uncle Sam continued to expand his footprint. Today, the government makes resources available for private appropriation, investment, and development, as it did in the nineteenth century, and farmers, ranchers, miners, and lumber producers continue to need help in solving their problems.

Questions for Analysis

Summarize the Argument: How did the federal government assist in the settlement and development of the West, and who were the major beneficiaries?

Analyze the Evidence: Does the evidence for federal assistance add up to a persuasive argument that the federal government played a crucial, even indispensable, role in the settlement and development of the West?

Consider the Context: What do you suppose were the origins of the myth of the American West? Can you identify other American beliefs and values that might have contributed to the myth? Why do you suppose the myth has been so persistent?