SUGGESTIONS INTENDED TO HELP THE PUPIL
The Leading Facts. 1. Gold seekers reached the Pacific coast by three routes: by ship around Cape Horn; across the Isthmus at Panama; and over trails across the mountains. 2. With new discoveries of gold and the increasing population on the Pacific coast, means of rapid communication were urgently needed. 3. In 1869 the Union Pacific Railway was completed. 4. Settlers in large numbers entered the new West; agriculture on the great plains developed rapidly. 5. Farmers crowded on the dry slopes and plateaus and irrigation projects were aided by the government. 6. In California, when free deposits of gold became hard to find, the gold seekers became farmers. 7. First a leading wheat state, California then became the leading fruit-growing state. 8. Great cities grew up along the coast.
9. The Spanish-American War brought home to Americans the urgent necessity for a short route by water between the east and the west coasts. 10. The United States took up the work of building a canal at Panama, buying the rights of a French company which had started the work and had failed. 11. George Washington Goethals given position of chief engineer. 12. Educated at West Point, Goethals served as chief of engineers in the Spanish-American War. 13. The Canal was completed in 1914 and Goethals was appointed first governor of the Canal Zone, a strip of land ten miles wide along the course of the Canal. 14. The Panama-Pacific International Exposition was held at San Francisco in 1915 to celebrate the opening of the Canal.
Study Questions. 1. How did the gold seekers reach the Pacific Coast? 2. What demand did the increasing population in the West bring? 3. What was the name of the first railway across the mountains to the Pacific coast? 4. How many railways cross the mountains to-day? 5. What did the railways bring about? 6. How did this affect the Indians? 7. How did the government aid the farmers in the dry areas? 8. What happened in California when the free gold deposits gave out? 9. What great cities grew up along the Pacific coast? 10. What was happening in the plains east of the Rockies? 11. What first brought home to Americans the urgent need of a canal across the Isthmus? 12. Who began a canal at Panama? 13. Why did the French not succeed? 14. Who was put in charge of the work of the Americans? 15. Where did Goethals study engineering? 16. In what war did he serve? 17. When was the Canal completed? 18. How was the event celebrated?
Suggested Readings. Wright, Children's Stories of American Progress, 268-298; Brooks, The Story of Cotton and The Story of Corn; Nida, Panama and Its "Bridge of Water," 63-187.