Of the new towns that were being set up, many were done so solely to mine gold. The sheer amount of Americans that were travelling west to become rich by finding the gold that was promised to them was almost incomprehensible; by 1849 alone there was 90,000 men digging for gold, but they would soon discover that getting their fortune would be a hard, and very slow process, needing a lot of planning, far from the idea that ‘the streets would be paved with gold’ as some believed. The gold miners soon became known as the ‘forty-niners’. One serious problem was that there was a clear lack of law and order in these towns, with people going about things as they please. Gambling was a problem that occurred from this, as men would bet away shocking amounts of money in a very short space of time. The lack of sufficient policing was appealing to criminals, who would commit serious crimes, and very rarely get caught. This brought about a debatably worse problem. Citizens of the towns would decide that it was up to them to protect their city from these outlaws, and would go about it in a way which was very uncivilised, and not always a correct judgement. These ‘vigilantes’ would search for who they believed to be a criminal, and upon finding they would unlawfully lynch them from the nearest tree. This means of lynch law was in no way a solution to the problems that the mining towns faced, as it would not be such a rare occasion that an innocent person was hanged. But, without any form of trial or proper sentence, they unlucky victim of this atrocity was already succumbed to their fate. One major mining town was Bannack. The following quotation is an extract from ‘Dark Days in Bannack’ by Granville Stuart. ‘These were dark days in Bannack; there was no safety for life or property only so far as each individual could, with his trusty rifle, protect his own.’ This helps us to understand just how much fear each respectful citizen of these towns would go through, and also shows how dependant these towns were on their guns. Other famous mining towns include Virginia City, Nevada city and Johnson, all of which encountered these problems.
Another serious problem in the gold mining towns was that people would often have prejudice opinions of other people, particularly of those who were of a different race to them. This unnecessary racial hatred was something which the foreign miners (Although it was debatable that they were just as foreign as the white Americans, who originated in Britain) would have to cope with, even though it was the U.S government who wanted them to come in the first place, to contribute to jobs such as building the railroads, for a lesser fee. This also enticed racism, as Americans feared that the foreigners were going to take all of their jobs. Racism was also a big problem in that some of the vigilantes would have racist opinions, and so many Chinese and black miners would be unfairly hanged, solely because of their ethnicity. Another problem in gold mining towns was that the men outnumbered the women on a large scale. In fact, there were about 4 times as many men as there were women in most towns. This was because it was mainly the men who would come to work in the mines, being physically stronger. This would encourage intense rivalry between men over the women, often ending in shootouts, and the demise of many.
The Mormons, or the ‘Jesus Christ Church of Latter Day Saints’ was a religion in the American west which was set up by Joseph Smith in 1830. Smith claimed that he was confused by all of the different religions, but one night in 1823 an angel came to him, called Moroni. The angel told him that it would help him find some golden plates with scripture on them written by Mormon. Smith found the plates, and translated them, and created the book of Mormon. It tells the tale of Old Testament tribes moving from Israel to America after Mormon rose from the dead. Whether or not Smith actually encountered this vision, and If his statements were true is very sceptical, especially since he only allowed 11 people to see the book of Mormon, most being family and close friends. Nonetheless, Smiths new religion proved very popular, and by 1831 he had thousands of people by his side. He sent Missionaries out to convert as many people as possible, and claimed it was his dream to build a holy city for the Mormons, called Zion.
Although Joseph smith had thousands of followers, he and his religion were hated by non-Mormons, for various reasons. Firstly, the accused non-Mormons of theft, racing and gambling, and were very sympathetic to the Indians. They claimed that they were ‘chosen people’ and better than all others. The Mormons also wanted there own laws, which made them appear different to everyone else. They also had a secret army, known as the ‘Danites’. This made the non-Mormons very scared of them, as they did not know how strong they were. One of the main reasons that secluded them from the non-Mormons, and made them all the more hated was that they practiced polygamy; the act of having more than one wife. This was completely hated by all other religions, and all other members of American society. As if all of this wasn’t enough to make them completely despised, Joseph smith ran a bank which collapsed, causing many non-Mormons to lose lots of money. All of this hatred towards Mormons made a lot of problems for them.
To segregate themselves from the non-Mormons, they set up ‘Salt Lake City’ in 1847. This was not the end to their problems though. They still faced the fact that they were very badly equipped for things such as education. For example, children were only allowed to go to school for 3 months a year, as the rest of the time they were need to help there families at work. They didn’t have enough money, or workers to keep there city running at a functional level. The bad name that the Mormons had built for themselves was completely maximised, when the infamous ‘mountain meadow massacre’ took place. The Mormons were provoked into attacking immigrants by receiving taunts from them. They then decided that they all must be killed to prevent anybody finding out. But, of course they did. Just as they were starting to settle into their own lifestyle, the city was taken from them by the U.S after they defeated Mexico.
A lot of newly set up towns were being set up to accommodate the rising number of cattle which was being transported through various parts of the west of the USA. This of course, meant that they would also need to accommodate the cowboys which transported them. These cowboys had been working for weeks on end, and when they arrived at the cow towns at the end of their long, laborious work, all that they wanted to do was enjoy themselves, and usually with plenty of money that they had made from the transportation of the buffalo. The cowboys would spend their money lavishly in saloons, at gambling tables and at brothels. The cow towns gave them every means to do these things, with many licensed gambling bars, and a plentiful supply of women unfortunate enough to have to be a prostitute.
Joseph G. McCoy, a cattle buyer from Illinois, was instrumental in extending the Chisholm Trail from present day Wichita to Abilene, Kansas, to promote and establish cattle market for thousands of longhorn cattle from Texas. In 1867, McCoy built stockyards that he advertised throughout Texas. Abilene, one of the first of Kansas' railroad cow towns, was typical of these frontier communities in its beginning, civic development, and transition. It began as a station on the Overland stage lines and reached its zenith as one of a succession of northern railroad terminals and shipping points on Texas cattle trails, over which millions of longhorn cattle were driven in search of a market between 1866 and 1889. As the railroads extended westward Ellsworth, Hays City, Newton, Wichita, Dodge City, and other towns south and west became cattle shipping points, and Abilene was left to develop as an agricultural community.
Approximately 35,000 cattle followed the Chisholm Trail during the first season to Abilene in 1867. Through efforts, Abilene became a prosperous and famous cow town from 1867 to 1870, and in the five years from 1867 to 1872, more than three million head of cattle were driven up the Chisholm Trail from Texas to Abilene. By 1871 as many as 5,000 cowboys were often paid off during a single day. This however, was not as entirely beneficial to the city as it might seem. Abilene had already become known as a very rough town in the Old West, and these vast numbers of cowboys made the problems of violence, drunkenness and gambling far more prolific. The amounts of cowboys coming into Abilene, just like in the gold-mining towns ensured that the amount of men far outnumbered the women. This led to violent conflicts between men over the women, often resulting in deadly shootouts.
The newly set up towns in the west had many problems which they would need to overcome if they hoped to become functional towns of the likes of the towns in the east, all of which made it extremely hard to live in the newly set up towns that the West had to offer. From the mass amounts of people travelling to them, to the sheer unruliness of the people in the towns, the government would have to quell the problems for good if they truly wanted to become a great nation. This was something that homesteaders and immigrants had to take into account before making the decision move to America, as the images sent back to the east through propaganda and the government were usually of a far more positive nature than the hard labour that was there to greet the immigrants after their travels. Possibly, if the travellers had been informed of this, then a lot of the problems of living in a newly set up town in the west could have been avoided.