Five Industries That Settled the American Mountain West

The settlement of the Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada, and Cascades was driven by five extractive and agricultural industries:

1. Mining – Gold, silver, copper, lead (Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Idaho). Boomtowns → permanent towns (Denver, Leadville, Butte, Virginia City).
2. Lumbering – Timber for mines, railroads, construction (Pacific NW, Rockies). Logging camps, mill towns.
3. Cattle Ranching – Open range grazing (Wyoming, Montana, Colorado). Texas longhorns driven north; barbed wire ended open range.
4. Sheep Herding – Wool/mutton for Eastern markets; Basque/Scottish herders; range wars with cattlemen.
5. Farming – Irrigated valleys (Mormon settlements in Utah/Idaho, Hispanic acequias in NM/CO, Homestead Act dryland farming).

Interdependence

Miners needed food (farming), timber (lumbering), meat (ranching). Railroads connected all to markets. Towns supplied services. Native displacement and environmental transformation accompanied each.

These industries wrote the economic, demographic, and ecological history of the Mountain West.