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https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/the-transcontinental-railroad-gallery/ken-burns-the-west/

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The Transcontinental Railroad | The West | PBS LearningMedia

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After the Civil War ended in 1865, reuniting the North and South, Americans were determined to unify the United States from East to West by rail. With government investment, two corporations, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific, engaged in a race to build the most track the fastest, one going East and one going West,and join the two lines together.

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Nineteenth-century Americans settled the western United States, but displaced Native Americans in the homesteading process. Tim and Moby look at the concept of Manifest Destiny.

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Nineteenth-century Americans settled the western United States, but displaced Native Americans in the homesteading process. Tim and Moby look at the concept of Manifest Destiny.

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History: Westward Expansion

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History : Westward Expansion

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Nineteenth-century Americans settled the western United States, but displaced Native Americans in the homesteading process. Tim and Moby look at the concept of Manifest Destiny.

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The Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail
 History: Oregon Trail
History: Oregon Trail
Kids learn about the Oregon Trail from the Old West. A roadway used by pioneers in covered wagons to travel west.
ducksters
The California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush
 History: California Gold Rush
History: California Gold Rush
Kids learn about the California Gold Rush from the Old West. Thousands of people move to the west to search for gold and strike it rich.
ducksters
Possible NF Writing Sub Topics:
Possible NF Writing Sub Topics:
-Pioneer Children
-Pioneer Life (day to day)
-Lewis & Clark
-Trail of Tears
-The Oregon Trail
-The Gold Rush
-The Pony Express
-Frontier Illness
-Covered Wagons (Prairie Schooners)
-Invading Native Territory
-Famous Explorers
The Pony Express
The Pony Express
 History: Pony Express
History: Pony Express
Kids learn about the Pony Express from the Old West. Riders would swap horses at stations to deliver the mail faster to and from California.
ducksters
Daily Life of the Frontier
Daily Life of the Frontier 
 History: Daily Life on the Frontier
History: Daily Life on the Frontier
The daily life of people living on the frontier was filled with hard work and difficulties. Once a farmer cleared the land, built a cabin and a barn, and planted his crops, he still had a lot of chores that needed to be done each day.
ducksters
Timeline of Western Expansion
Timeline of Western Expansion
 Westward Expansion
Westward Expansion
1767: Daniel Boone explores Kentucky for the first time. 1803: Louisiana Purchase - President Thomas Jefferson buys the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million. This doubles the size of the United States and provides a large area to the west of the country for expansion.
ducksters
Lewis & Clark
Lewis & Clark
 Lewis and Clark
Lewis and Clark
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark Occupation: Explorers Born: August 18, 1774 in Ivy, Virginia (Lewis)August 1, 1770 in Ladysmith, Virginia (Clark) Died: October 11, 1809 in Hohenwald, Tennessee (Lewis)September 1, 1838 in St. Louis, Missouri (Clark) Best known for: Explored the Louisiana Territory and Western North America Biography: Lewis and Clark were asked by President Thomas Jefferson to explore and map the wild west of North America.
ducksters
Log Cabins
Log Cabins
 History: The Log Cabin
History: The Log Cabin
Kids learn about the log cabin of the Old West. A single room home built from tree trunks and mud using no nails.
ducksters
History Helper
History Helper
 Westward Expansion/Pioneers
Westward Expansion/Pioneers
I Dream of Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair A popular song of the day composed by Stephen Foster in 1854.
historical helper
Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
 Trail of Tears - BrainPOP
Trail of Tears - BrainPOP
In this BrainPOP movie, Tim and Moby reveal one of the saddest episodes in U.S. history. Learn how white settlers' desire for new land threatened American Indians, entire tribes of whom were forced from their ancestral homelands to newly designated Indian Territory. Terrible suffering was endured by the Choctaw and the Cherokee as they marched westward.
brainpop
The Gold Rush
The Gold Rush
 Gold Rush - BrainPOP
Gold Rush - BrainPOP
In this BrainPOP movie, Tim and Moby introduce you to the history of the California Gold Rush! Discover what happened in 1848 to begin the Gold Rush, and why the people who left to go find gold in California were called '49ers. You'll learn where the gold was located and how people found it.
brainpop
Brainpop Video
Brainpop Video 
 Westward Expansion - BrainPOP
Westward Expansion - BrainPOP
In this educational animated movie about Social Studies learn about the Oregon Trail, California, West, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Washington, Mormons, settlers, wagons, and pioneers.
brainpop
 add

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Westward Expansion

Go here to watch a video about the Oregon Trail.

History >> Westward Expansion

The Oregon Trail was a major route that people took when migrating to the western part of the United States. Between 1841 and 1869, hundreds of thousands of people traveled westward on the trail. Many of them traveled in large wagon trains using covered wagons to carry their belongings.

The Route

The Oregon Trail began in Independence, Missouri and ended in Oregon City, Oregon. It stretched for around 2,000 miles and through six different states including Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon. Along the way, travelers had to cross all sorts of rough terrain such as the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Oregon Trail Route by Unknown
Click picture for larger view

Covered Wagons
The main vehicle used to carry the pioneer's belongings was the covered wagon. Sometimes these wagons were called "Prairie Schooners", because they were like boats going over the vast prairies of the west. The wagons were made of wood with iron around the wheels like tires. The covers were made from waterproofed cotton or linen canvas. The typical covered wagon was about 10 feet long and four feet wide.

Most of the settlers used oxen to pull their wagons. The oxen were slow, but steady. Sometimes mules were used as well. A fully loaded wagon could weigh as much as 2,500 pounds. A lot of the time the pioneers walked alongside the wagons. Traveling wasn't too bad with the wagons on the flat terrain of the prairies, but once the settlers reached the Rocky Mountains, getting the wagons up and down steep trails was very difficult.

Dangers

Traveling the Oregon Trail in the 1800s was a dangerous journey. However, the danger wasn't from Native Americans as you might think. As a matter of fact, many records show that Native Americans helped many of the travelers along the way. The real danger was from a disease called cholera that killed many settlers. Other dangers included bad weather and accidents while trying to move their heavy wagons over the mountains.

Conestoga wagon on Oregon Trail
from the National Archives

Supplies
The pioneers were able to bring very little with them. When they left their homes in the east, they had to leave most of their belongings. The covered wagon was mostly filled with food. It took over a 1,000 pounds of food to feed a family of four on the trip out west. They took preserved foods such as hard tack, coffee, bacon, rice, beans, and flour. They also took a few basic cooking utensils such as a coffee pot, some buckets, and an iron skillet.

The pioneers didn't have room for a lot of fancy items. They only had room to pack two or three sets of tough clothing. They packed candles for lighting and a rifle to hunt with along the way. Other items included tents, bedding, and basic tools such as an axe and a shovel.

Other Trails

Although the Oregon Trail was the most used wagon trail, there were other trails that led out west. Some of them branched off the Oregon Trail like the California Trail which left the Oregon Trail in Idaho and headed south to California. There was also the Mormon Trail which went from Council Bluffs, Iowa to Salt Lake City, Utah.

Interesting Facts about the Oregon Trail

In 1849, a guide was published describing the overland journey to California.

There were reports of the trail being littered with items that people cast off along the way. These included books, stoves, trunks and other heavy items.

It took about five months for a wagon train to make the journey.

The first major migration took place in 1843 when a single large wagon train of 120 wagons and 500 people made the trip.

The trail was popular until the transcontinental railroad connected the east to the west in 1869.

In 1978, the U.S. Congress officially named the trail the Oregon National Historic Trail. Although much of the trail has been built over through the years, around 300 miles of it has been preserved and you can still see the ruts made from the wagon wheels.

Activities

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Go here to watch a video about the Oregon Trail.
Works Cited
History >> Westward Expansion

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Learn about the Oregon Trail from the Old West. A roadway used by pioneers in covered wagons to travel west.

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Westward Expansion

History >> Westward Expansion
The California Gold Rush took place between 1848 and 1855. During this time gold was discovered in California. Over 300,000 people rushed to California to find gold and "strike it rich".

Gold Is Found in California

Gold was first discovered in California by James Marshall at Sutter's Mill near the city of Coloma. James was building a sawmill for John Sutter when he found shiny flakes of gold in the river. He told John Sutter about the discovery and they tried to keep it secret. However, soon word got out and prospectors were rushing to California to find gold.

Sutter's Mill
from the California Department of
Parks and Recreation

The Forty-niners
Before the gold rush, there were only around 14,000 non-Native Americans living in California. This soon changed. Around 6,000 people arrived in 1848 and in 1849 around 90,000 people arrived to hunt for gold. These people were called the Forty-niners. They came from all around the world. Some were Americans, but many came from places like China, Mexico, Europe, and Australia.

Digging for Gold

Many of the first prospectors did make a lot of money. They often made ten times in a day what they could working a normal job. The original miners would pan for gold. Later, more complex methods were used to allow multiple miners to work together and search larger amounts of gravel for gold.

What is "panning for gold"?

One method miners used to separate gold from dirt and gravel was called panning. When panning for gold, miners put gravel and water into a pan and then shook the pan back and forth. Because gold is heavy it will eventually work its way to the bottom of the pan. After shaking the pan for a while, the gold will be on the bottom of the pan and the worthless material will be at the top. Then the miner can extract the gold and set it aside.

Panning on the Mokelumne
from Harper's Weekly

Supplies
All these thousands of miners needed supplies. Typical supplies for a miner included a mining pan, a shovel, and a pick for mining. They also needed food and living supplies such as coffee, bacon, sugar, beans, flour, bedding, a tent, lamp, and a kettle.

The store and business owners who sold supplies to the miners often became wealthier than the miners. They were able to sell items at very high prices and the miners were willing to pay.

Boomtowns

Whenever gold was discovered in a new place, miners would move in and make a mining camp. Sometimes these camps would rapidly grow into towns called boomtowns. The cities of San Francisco and Columbia are two examples of boomtowns during the gold rush.

Ghost Towns

A lot of boomtowns eventually turned into abandoned ghost towns. When the gold ran out in an area, the miners would leave to find the next gold strike. The businesses would leave too and soon the town would be empty and abandoned. One example of a gold rush ghost town is Bodie, California. Today it is a popular tourist attraction.

Interesting Facts about the Gold Rush

San Francisco was a small town of around 1,000 people when gold was discovered. A few years later it had over 30,000 residents.

California was admitted as the 31st state of the United States in 1850 during the gold rush.

Sometimes groups of miners used "rockers" or "cradles" to mine. They could mine a lot more gravel and dirt this way than with just a pan.

There have been other gold rushes in the United States including the Pike's Peak gold rush in Colorado and the Klondike gold rush in Alaska.

Historians estimate that around 12 million ounces of gold was mined during the gold rush. That would be worth around $20 billion using 2012 prices.

Activities

Take a ten question quiz about this page.

Go here to read more about the history of California.

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Works Cited
History >> Westward Expansion

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Kids learn about the California Gold Rush from the Old West. Thousands of people move to the west to search for gold and strike it rich.

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-Pioneer Children
-Pioneer Life (day to day)
-Lewis & Clark
-Trail of Tears
-The Oregon Trail
-The Gold Rush
-The Pony Express
-Frontier Illness
-Covered Wagons (Prairie Schooners)
-Invading Native Territory
-Famous Explorers

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Westward Expansion

Pony Express Rider
by Frank E. Webner

History >> Westward Expansion
The Pony Express was a mail delivery service that ran between Missouri and California. Using the Pony Express, mail could arrive in California in as few as 9 days rather than the weeks it took to arrive when sent by horse carriage.

How did it work?

The Pony Express used a planned out route with a number of stations along the way. Riders would carry the mail from station to station, switching to fresh horses at each station. Every hundred or so miles the rider would be replaced. This allowed the mail to be constantly moving at a good speed.

The Route

The route used by the Pony Express went from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California. There were 184 stations along the 1,900 mile route. It followed the Oregon Trail for a ways, and then used the Mormon Trail to Salt Lake City. The trail traveled over the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and finally to California.

Pony Express Route
from the National Park Service

The Riders
The riders of the Pony Express made $100 a month, which was pretty good money for the time. They worked hard, riding in bad weather, rough terrain, and in dangerous situations. In order to keep the weight down that the horses had to carry, the riders had to weigh less than 125 pounds. A lot of the riders were young, tough, skinny, teenagers who were willing to face the dangers of the ride for the excitement of the job and the money they could earn.

When did the Pony Express run?

The Pony Express was a business. Despite its place in American history, it didn't stay open very long. It opened on April 3, 1860 and closed on October 24, 1861. At the height of its business it had over 400 horses and around 180 riders.

Pony Express Poster
by Unknown

Why did it end?

The Pony Express was forced to close after the opening of the transcontinental telegraph. Telegraphs could be sent much faster and with less expense. In the end, the business venture that was the Pony Express lost a lot of money and became outdated fairly quickly.

Interesting Facts about the Pony Express

The first riders left from Sacramento and St. Joseph on April 3, 1860. They each arrived around 10 days later.

In the winter, the trip generally took around two days longer than in the summer.

The most famous of the Pony Express riders was Buffalo Bill who earned fame putting on Wild West shows.

The initial cost to send a ½ ounce letter was $5. That was a lot of money back in 1860. Prices were lowered to $1 for a ½ ounce letter by the end of the Pony Express.

Only one rider and one shipment of mail were lost during the running of the Pony Express.

Riders would travel 75 to 100 miles a day, switching horses every 10 to 12 miles.

The fastest delivery in the history of the Pony Express was seven days and seventeen hours. It was to deliver President Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address.

The Pony Express was started by William H. Russell, William B. Waddell, and Alexander Majors.

Activities

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Works Cited
History >> Westward Expansion

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Kids learn about the Pony Express from the Old West. Riders would swap horses at stations to deliver the mail faster to and from California.

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Westward Expansion

History >> Westward Expansion
The daily life of people living on the frontier was filled with hard work and difficulties. Once a farmer cleared the land, built a cabin and a barn, and planted his crops, he still had a lot of chores that needed to be done each day. In order to survive, the entire family needed to work. Each day, the settlers would wake up with the sunlight and work until sundown.

Homesteader NE 1866 by Unknown

Hard Work
One of the first things a farmer needed to do was to build a barn and a cabin. The barn was important to keep the animals safe from wolves and other predators and also to store farming tools and grain. Typically the barn and the cabin were made from logs in a fashion that didn't need any nails.

Planting the seed on a big farm took a lot of work. First the farmer would need to plow up the field with a large plow pulled by a horse or oxen. Next, he would scatter the seed throughout the field, and finally he would use the oxen to drag dirt over the tops of the seeds.

Frontier Women

Women had their jobs and worked hard too. In many cases they helped the farmer in the fields during planting and harvesting times. Other tasks often included:

Making soap from lye, water, and ashes from the fireplace

Spinning wool into yarn or flax into thread

Tending a garden so the family had a variety of vegetables

Sewing and repairing the family's clothes

Children's Chores
As soon as the children could help, they were put to work, even children as young as four or five years old. They helped by getting water from the nearby stream, watching the fire to make sure it didn't go out, keeping the chickens and the cows from eating the crops, milking the dairy cow in the morning, and churning cream into butter.

When children grew older they took on more difficult tasks. Older boys often worked the farm or chopped wood. Older daughters often helped to care for their younger siblings.

Education

Some settler children went to a local one-room schoolhouse. Usually they had only one teacher that taught all of the grades. They learned the basics such as reading, writing, math, spelling, and history. When writing, they used slates instead of paper. Slates were like small chalkboards they could hold in their hands.

The children usually went to school in the winter and summer, but stayed home to help on the farm during the planting and harvesting seasons of spring and autumn.

Entertainment

Although the pioneers worked most of the time, they would occasionally get together for a dance or a picnic. Sometimes people would gather together to help with a big job such as building a neighbor's barn. Once the barn was finished they would have a dance. They played fiddles and accordions for music.

Children had fun playing games outdoors and swimming. They didn't get a lot of store bought toys so they had to make their own. Girls would learn to practice their sewing by making their own dolls to play with.

Bad Weather

The life of a pioneer was heavily dependent upon the weather. A drought could kill the crops and wipe out an entire year's worth of work. Wildfires could be even worse as they could destroy everything including the settler's crops, barn, and home. As if that wasn't enough, settlers had to worry about insects eating their crops and tornados destroying their homes. It wasn't an easy life.

Interesting Facts about Daily Life on the Frontier

In 1837, John Deere invented the steel plow. This plow could cut right through thick soil without the dirt sticking to it. It made life much easier on pioneer farmers.

Native Americans often helped the settlers, teaching them how to plant crops and about the local herbs they could use for medicine.

Settlers didn't have running water or bathrooms. They had outhouses where they used leaves or dried cornhusks for toilet paper.

In the southwest, many settlers made homes from adobe bricks like the Native Americans. In areas of the Great Plains where trees were scarce, they made sod homes from blocks of dirt and grass.

Activities

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Works Cited
History >> Westward Expansion

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Kids learna about the daily life on the frontier of the Old West. How pioneers and settlers lived.

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Timeline

History >> Westward Expansion
1767: Daniel Boone explores Kentucky for the first time.

1803: Louisiana Purchase - President Thomas Jefferson buys the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million. This doubles the size of the United States and provides a large area to the west of the country for expansion.

1805: Lewis and Clark reach the Pacific Ocean - Explorers Lewis and Clark map out areas of the Louisiana Purchase and eventually reach the Pacific Ocean.

1830: Indian Removal Act - Congress passes a law to move Native Americans from the Southeast to the west of the Mississippi River.

1836: Battle of the Alamo - Mexican troops attack the Alamo Mission killing all but two Texans. This spurs the Texans on in the Texas Revolution.

1838: Trail of Tears - The Cherokee Nation is forced to march from the east coast to Oklahoma. Many thousands die along the way.

1841: Oregon Trail - People begin to travel west in wagon trains on the Oregon Trail. Around 300,000 people would take the trail over the next 20 years.

1845: Manifest Destiny - Journalist John O'Sullivan first uses the term "Manifest Destiny" to describe the westward expansion of the United States.

1845: Texas becomes a U.S. State - The United States officially claims Texas as a state, eventually leading to the Mexican-American War.

1846: Brigham Young leads 5,000 Mormons to Utah - After experiencing religious persecution, the Mormons move to Salt Lake City, Utah.

1846-1848: The Mexican-American War - A war fought over the rights to Texas. After the war, the United States paid Mexico $15 million for land that would later become California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and parts of several other states.

1846: Oregon Treaty - England signs the Oregon Treaty handing over the Oregon Territory to the United States.

1848: Gold Rush begins - James Marshall discovers gold at Sutter's Mill. Soon word is out and people rush to California to strike it rich.

1849: Around 90,000 "Forty-niners" move to California to find gold.

1860: The Pony Express begins to deliver mail.

1861: The First Transcontinental Telegraph line is finished. The Pony Express shuts down.

1862: Pacific Railroad Act - The United States government agrees to help fund a railroad from California to Missouri.

1862: Homestead Act - The U.S. government offers up free land to farmers who agree to live on the land for five years and make improvements to the land. Many people rush to places like Oklahoma to claim their land.

1869: The Transcontinental Railroad is completed - The Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroads meet at Promontory, Utah and the railroad is completed.

1872: Yellowstone National Park is dedicated as the nation's first national park by President Ulysses S. Grant.

1874: Black Hills Gold - Gold is discovered in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

1874: Barbed wire invented - Ranchers can now use barbed wire fences to keep their cattle from ranging free.

1876: Wild Bill Hickok is shot and killed while playing poker in Deadwood, South Dakota.

1876: Battle of Little Bighorn - An American Indian army composed of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapahoe defeat General Custer and the 7th Calvary.

1890: The U.S. Government announces that the Western lands have been explored.
Works Cited
History >> Westward Expansion

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Kids learn the timeline of Westward Expansion of the United States. Pioneers and settlers moved west of the Mississippi all the way to California.

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Biography

Go here to watch a video about Lewis and Clark.

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
by Unknown

Biography for Kids >> Explorers for Kids

Occupation: Explorers

Born: August 18, 1774 in Ivy, Virginia (Lewis)
August 1, 1770 in Ladysmith, Virginia (Clark)

Died: October 11, 1809 in Hohenwald, Tennessee (Lewis)
September 1, 1838 in St. Louis, Missouri (Clark)

Best known for: Explored the Louisiana Territory and Western North America

Biography:
Lewis and Clark were asked by President Thomas Jefferson to explore and map the wild west of North America. They traveled across the country to the Pacific Ocean and back again.

Who were Lewis and Clark?

Captain Meriwether Lewis (1774 - 1809) was President Thomas Jefferson's private secretary. He was in charge of the expedition to explore the newly purchased Louisiana Territory. He asked his friend William Clark to help.

Lieutenant William Clark (1770 - 1838) served in the United States Army. In preparing for the expedition Clark was responsible for hiring and training the men, while Lewis gathered the equipment and supplies they would need.

Detail of "Lewis & Clark at Three Forks"
by Edgar Samuel Paxson

Setting off to explore
Lewis and Clark, together with their team of over 40 men, began their expedition at the city of St. Louis on May 14, 1804. They packed lots of equipment for their trip including rifles, food, and warm clothing. They even brought lots of glass beads and trinkets so they could trade with Indians along the way.

They started out traveling up the Missouri River. They had one large boat called a barge and two smaller boats called pirogues. They were traveling against the current, so they had to use long poles to push the boats or even ropes to pull the boats from the banks.

Sacagawea and the Native Americans

Lewis and Clark met many Native American tribes along the way. Although there were some tense moments, they made friends and traded with many different tribes. They even spent the first winter with the Mandan nation. There they met a fur trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau and his Shoshone wife, Sacagawea.

Sacagawea joined the expedition as an interpreter. She helped the expedition in many ways as they traveled, including showing them edible plants and helping to keep peace and trade with different tribes.

Without help from the Native American tribes as well as Sacagawea, the expedition would have surely failed.

The Great Falls and the Rockies

As the expedition continued up the Missouri River into what is today the state of Montana, they ran into the Great Falls. It took the men nearly a month to carry their boats for miles around the Great Falls.

Next, Lewis and Clark came to the Rocky Mountains. These mountains were much more difficult to traverse than they first expected. When they finally made it across the Rockies, they met the Nez Perce people, who helped them with food and shelter.

Route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition by Victor van Werkhooven
Click to see larger picture

The Pacific Ocean

It was in November in 1805, around a year and a half after leaving St. Louis, that they finally reached the Pacific Ocean. They stayed that winter near the ocean and started home again in March of 1806. It only took them around six months for the return journey.

Fun Facts about Lewis and Clark

Many animals were new to Lewis and Clark including the grizzly bear and the prairie dog.

After the expedition, Lewis was appointed the governor of the Louisiana Territory, however, Lewis died a few years later. Clark became governor of the Missouri Territory as well as Superintendent of Indian Affairs.

The men on the journey were called the Corps of Discovery.

The total journey was over 7,000 miles.

Only one member of the group died during the trip. It was Sergeant Charles Floyd who died of a burst appendix.

Activities
Take a ten question quiz about this page.

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Go here to watch a video about Lewis and Clark.

More Explorers:

Roald Amundsen

Neil Armstrong

Daniel Boone

Christopher Columbus

Captain James Cook

Hernan Cortes

Vasco da Gama

Sir Francis Drake

Edmund Hillary

Henry Hudson

Lewis and Clark

Ferdinand Magellan

Francisco Pizarro

Marco Polo

Juan Ponce de Leon

Sacagawea

Spanish Conquistadores

Zheng He

Works Cited
Biography for Kids >> Explorers for Kids

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Kids learn about the biography and life of explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. They explored the wild west of America.

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Westward Expansion

History >> Westward Expansion
When the pioneers first arrived at their new land, one of the first things they needed to do was build a house where the family could live. In areas where there were plenty of trees, they would build log cabins.

Log cabins required few building resources, just trees and an axe or saw. They didn't need metal nails or spikes to hold them together and they could be built fairly quickly, too. Most log cabins were simple one room buildings where the entire family would live. Once the farm was up and running, settlers often built bigger homes or added on to the existing log cabin.

Lockhart Ranch Homestead Cabin
from the National Park Service

Clearing the Land
One of the first things that the pioneers had to do was clear a plot of land where the house could be built. They would also want some space around the home where they could plant a garden, build a barn, and keep some animals like chickens. Sometimes they had to cut down trees and remove stumps to clear the land. Of course, then the trees could be used to build their log cabin.

Cutting the Logs

After clearing the land, the pioneers would need to cut down trees to get all the logs they needed. They had to find trees with straight trunks that would make good logs for building. Once they cut the logs to the right length, they would cut notches at each end where the logs would fit together at the corners of the building. They would also strip the bark off of the logs as the bark would rot over time.

Building the Walls

All four walls were built up a log at a time. Notches were cut into the logs at each end to allow the logs to fit snuggly together. If only one man was building the cabin, then it was usually only 6 or 7 feet tall. This is because he could only lift a log so high. If he had help, then the walls could be a bit taller. Each side of the log cabin was typically between 12 and 16 feet long.

Once the walls and the roof were finished, the pioneers would seal the cracks between the logs with mud or clay. This was called "daubing" or "chinking" the walls.

Bryce Cabin circa 1881
by Grant, George A.

Finishing Touches

A stone fireplace was built at one end of the log cabin. This would keep the family warm during the winter and give them fire for cooking. There were usually one or two windows to let in light, but the pioneers seldom had glass. A lot of the time greased paper was used to cover the window. The floors were generally packed earth, but sometimes they used split logs for the floors.

Furniture

The settlers didn't have a lot of furniture, especially when they first moved in. They might have a small table, a bed, and a chair or two. A lot of times they would have a chest that they brought with them from their homeland. This might have some decorations like a rug or candlesticks that the pioneers would use to make the log cabin feel like home.

Interesting Facts about the Log Cabin

The first log cabins in the Americas were built by emigrants from Sweden and Finland. Log cabins had been built in these countries for thousands of years.

One man working alone could build a small log cabin in a few weeks. It went much faster if he had help.

If the roof was high enough, the pioneers often built a loft where someone could sleep.

A flat stone was often placed at each corner of the log cabin to give the cabin a firm foundation.

The doors to log cabins were usually built facing the south. This allowed the sun to shine into the cabin during the day.

Activities

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Works Cited
History >> Westward Expansion

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Kids learn about the log cabin of the Old West. A single room home built from tree trunks and mud using no nails.

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Pictures

This painting (circa 1872) by John Gast called American Progress, is an allegorical representation of the modernization of the new west.

by Jane Yolen and David Small
by Deborah Hopkinson and Nancy Carpenter
by Scott Russell Sanders and Helen Cogancherry

Nonfiction Books

by Teresa Domnauer
by Joseph Bruchac and Diana Magnuson

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This painting (circa 1872) by John Gast called American Progress, is an allegorical representation of the modernization of the new west. by Jane Yolen and David Smallby Deborah Hopkinson and Nancy Carpenterby Scott Russell Sanders and Helen Cogancherry by Teresa Domnauerby Joseph Bruchac and Diana Magnuson

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Nineteenth-century Americans settled the western United States, but displaced Native Americans in the homesteading process. Tim and Moby look at the concept of Manifest Destiny.