America: The Story of Us (Part 6: Heartland)

The United States of America was built on hardship, sacrifice, and discovery. In 2010, the history channel have created this 12-part docu-series where it talks about many of those hardships, sacrifices, and discoveries.

This is part 6 of this 12-part wiki series about the History Channel's docu-series. In this part we will talk about how some pioneers settled in the Midwest, and how America further progressed after the Civil War.

## Heartland

### Trans Continental Railroad

The episode begins somewhere in the Midwest where a huge railroad project was being built.

Railroad workers in the Midwest are in the middle of a huge railroad project, a railroad that spans through the entire country, there would be 2 ends one that starts in Nebraska, and another that begins in California. Their goal is to meet somewhere in Utah.

The Episode now goes to California where the central Pacific line would face a daring challenge; the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

The Sierra Nevada mountains are the real obstacle for this continental railroad, nevertheless they'll try to go through it for this monumental project to come true.

Chinese immigrants were brought in to do the hard work to dig (and blast) through the mountain range. They would also use Nitro Glycerin which is 3 times as powerful as Gunpowder, but also 3 times as unstable and 3 times as dangerous to use. Nevertheless, they use this dangerous compound to move rocks and dirt out from the mountain for the railroad to pass through. Eventually, the 2 sides reach Utah and drive in the Golden Spike to signify the project is finally finished.

### Life in the Heartland

The episode goes back to the Midwest to talk about how early life was in the nation's heartland.

Some of the early settlers that decided to stay in the Midwest have made Sod Houses since there were little to no trees and thus no wood to make log cabins, the only amount of wood they had was their wagons which they used to make doors and windows. These houses were vulnerable to invading insects and snakes.

But it wasn't just insects and snakes that they had to worry about. Because the Midwest was flat with almost no forests, it was especially vulnerable to the weather. In the spring and the summer, strong thunderstorms would roll through the Midwest and also the common Tornado would also rip through the Midwest destroying some of those Sod Houses and even their crops and livestock.

In 1875, the Midwest witnessed an invasion of what was called the Rock Mountain Locust as from 3 to 13 Trillion of these invasive insects have destroyed over a billion dollars of crops. The concentration of Locusts were so thick, they block out the sun.

Pretty soon, Sod Houses weren't enough, wood was needed to make better houses in the Midwest, so loggers went to states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota for lumber. But cutting down lumber (especially by a river) can be a very dangerous job, especially when there's a log jam that is clogging the river because the lumber can explode which can be potentially deadly.

The Midwest was where the Buffalo roam, and when the White settlers came in, they made an effort to hunt the Buffalo, and almost near to extinction.

This creates competition with the Native Americans that live in the Midwest as they rely on the Buffalo for their own source of food and shelter. But the Native Americans in the Midwest were also forced onto reservations by the White Americans, meaning the Buffalo was the White Americans for the taking.

### The rise of the Cowboy

The episode now goes to Texas to talk about some of the most iconic of Western Americans; the Cowboy.

Around the 1880s, the Cowboys roamed the west as they would round up their herd of Cattle, some also came to the west because of their disgust views for the law or to come seek a fortune. Because the law had little influence in the frontier west, these Cowboys knew that they had to fend for themselves.

One of their lines of defense was the Colt .45 which was the iconic weapon of the Cowboy. The other was the Winchester rifle to protect their homes and livestock.

Though, for the next few decades the Cowboys would have free reign over their open ranges, but one man from Illinois would change that, Joseph Glidden would invent a cheap but effective way to fence in livestock; Barbed Wire, the price of fencing would drop dramatically after the introduction of Barbed Wire, and soon the open range would close. But disputes on land in the west would continue well into the 20th century.

### At war with the Native Americans

The episode now goes to Montana where one of the big battles between White Americans and Native Americans would take place.

A force of Cavalrymen led by Civil War veteran George Custer found a Native American establishment near the Little Bighorn river, his orders were to decimate the establishment, but it turned out to be a massacre for the Cavalry as nearly 270 men were killed, including Custer. In 1890, another Cavalry regiment came to South Dakota to a place called Wounded Knee where the Cavalry were supposed to disarm the Native Americans, but brutally slaughtered them once they have disarmed them, in the end 300 Lakota Native Americans lost their lives.

### Becoming a global power

With industrialization in full bloom in America, it soon rivaled Great Britain in industrial power. Railroads were become more popular and thus time zones were standardized in 1883. One man would also being America to the consumerist age, Richard Sears as be bought several pocket watches, and he sells them for a profit, this would bring on the beginning of the Sears-Roebuck Company and the beginning of mail order products.

That'll do it for this part, in the next part, we will talk about the episode "Cities" where it talks about the rise of the Modern City in America. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.