For my research topic I have chosen to concentrate on the development of massive river projects during the late 1800s and early 1900s  along the Colorado River and it’s influence on the Southwestern United States.  I will go along by doing this by first asking what projects and legislation in the west helped facilitate the buliding of large daming projects and how the local areas reacted to such changes.  Also, I will probe into why the southwest area felt the need for such large expensive projects.  “The American West” by Hine & Faragher referred to the massive river projects specifically around the Colorado River, which I will mainly be focusing on.  The Hoover Dam and other main water and energy projects helped the west boom and rival the east coast.  The workers and the lobbyists for these projects influenced how the west was viewed at this time of an industrial boom. 

I have found numerous sources for my reasearch topic.  Of the many primary sources most have come from GMU online databases and the National Archives site.  Many come from the early 1900s and are newspaper articles from the area (i.e. Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Diego etc.).    I found also many first hand accounts of these building projects in online databases, some describing what was going on in construction or even the plans that outlined the uses of these projects for large masses of areas in the southwest.  I am still in the process of finding more sources and will travel beyond my previous spectrum of research capabilitities to clarify the scale of such projects on the Colorado River.  But the overall point and topic to be “clarified” will be the how the projects along the Colorado River in their grand scale influenced and changed the southwest U.S. 

Comments are welcomed.

Research Topic: Water development on the Colorado River

The top photo is of a worker in 1900 who is starting to divert water in the Hoover Dam area.  The bottom photo is of Colorado river development during the 1900s.  These two primary sources provided by UNLV can be useful sources of info in giving a visual of what people were wearing and doing and tools they were working with.

Two online primary sources:

http://mutex.gmu.edu:2068/pqdweb?index=2&did=328684372&SrchMode=1&sid=2&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=1202859222&clientId=31810

This first link is titled “Colorado River Plan Up Again.”  It is from a 1922 edition of the LA Times and it discusses how Secretary of Commerce Hoover is finalizing the go-ahead plans of the the Colorado River development in Boulder Canyon.

http://mutex.gmu.edu:2068/pqdweb?index=7&did=465115822&SrchMode=1&sid=2&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=1202859222&clientId=31810

This is another article from the LA Times  documenting Hoover’s struggle to get everyone on board the project to bring the largest amount of energy the west has ever seen to the area.

Blog#2

In week two in chapters 8-16 in which we read the first subject of interest for me was explored in chapter 10. “Open Range” documents how early settlers from the Spanish to the English dealt with the push west. The term wild west was very true in its description in chapter 10. The introduction of cattle and the horse turned the western landscape into a never before seen free for all. Staple American icons were developed in this period. The “cow boy,” American beef, rodeo, and the ranch will forever be in our terminology. In chapter 10 it was also mentioned how difficult the life of such a person(cow hand) could be. The strenuous work could put a most people into a depression. A second subject I found of interest was in chapter 12. This chapter deals with the search for community. A more focused subject is in the 1860s and the journeys of the Mormons. Comprised of mostly people from England who wanted the most serene and private land to establish their strict beliefs the Mormons made it all the way to Utah(can be disputed on how they picked their spot to settle since in Mormon faith it was picked by a supreme being). But needless to say thr Mormon faith is one of the most famous example of the type of refuge that could be gained in such an area like the west. With the lack of people and resources the faith followed the lay of the land and become very simple and to this day is very prominent in the west.

Sample research questions:

1. How significant was the introduction of the horse to the western United States?

2. What was the progression in herding technology from the Spanish west to the English west?

3. How significant were the actual cowboys to the safety and success of the old west ranches?

4. Was the Mormon excursion more part of a religious journey or a move of isolation?

5. What was the Mormons daily life based on in the 1860 west?

Blog #1

In our first week readings from American West I found many subjects very relevant and important to my understanding of the broad and loose theme of the American west. In chapter three the subject of the relations between the first colonists and the Natives was of interest to me as I knew little of how each other interacted. The Eastern Indians were very loosely connected to the new European settlers due to the independence of both cultures. The cultural interaction stemmed from the relation of how both groups of people were in the same situation and were farmers and planters. The early habitations of these Indian people was said to resemble an early frontier cabin. Even further explained in chapter three is that such a fusion of culture can be worded as a lingua franca in the the early European settlers from Scandinavia and the Algonquian created a pigeon language to serve for better understanding. A second subject I found of interest in my readings was in chapter five which was focused on the fur trade in the Louisiana Purchase. From the reading in chapter five I understood that the Natives heavily relied on this trade with the European settlers and that the two groups signed many treaties France who set up the best and plentiful trading outposts soon lost out to the English and Natives. This documentation and treaties that were set up also many times faulted the Natives in that they were not familiar with that sort of business transaction. So in many ways if writing a research paper these two subjects are in relation. Five questions in which could get a research paper started are:

1. Did the early interactions between the Natives and the European settlers help create a more diverse community or did it set up many loosely organized independent groups?

2. Did farming for the Natives contribute to greater economic interactions among the early European settlers?

3. How did the language barrier among these two diverse cultures lead to developing more complex languages both cultures would understand?

4. Was the interaction among the settlers and the Natives during fur trades more beneficial to either side or neither side?

5. How did the treaties for both fur and land effect the rapid growth of the new “American Empire?”