KEY DATES

• 1836


  Oregon Trail begins
• 1840


  Permanent Indian Frontier is finalised
• 1845


  Manifest Destiny (written about by John Sullivan)
• 1846


  Donner Party's disastrous attempt to head West
• 1847


  Mormons successfully reach the Great Salt Lake
• 1849


  The Gold Rush begins
• 1851 (2)


  First Fort Laramie Treaty

  Indians Appropriation Act
• 1861-65


  American Civil War
• 1862 (3)


  Homestead Act is set up

  Pacific Railway Act is set up

  Little Crow's War
• 1864


  Sand Creek Massacre
• 1866


  Goodnight-Loving Trail reaches Fort Sumner
• 1866-1868


  Red Cloud's War
• 1867


  Abilene is set up by Joseph McCoy

  Medicine Lodge Treaty
• 1868 (3)


  Second Fort Laramie Treaty

  President Grant's Peace Policy

  Battle of Washita in the Cheyenne Wars
• 1869


  Completion of the first Transcontinental Railroad
• 1873


  Timber Culture Act
• 1874 (3)


  Barbed Wire mass produced

  Turkey Red Wheat introduced

  Gold discovered in the Black Hills
• 1876


  The Battle of the Little Big Horn
• 1867-85


  Beef Bonanza
• 1879


  Exoduster Movement
• 1885 (2)


  End of the open range

  Destruction of the buffalo
• 1886 (2)


  The last great drive

  Impact of a series of droughts meant there was less grass
• 1886-7


  Very harsh winter
• 1887


  Dawes Act
• 1889


  Closure of the Indian Frontier
• 1890


  Wounded Knee Massacre
• 1892


  Johnson County War
• 1893


  Oklahoma Land Rush
• 1858


  Colorado Gold Rush
• 1862


  Rocky Mountain Gold Rush
• 1842


  Pre Emption Act
• 1848


  Gold discovered in California