How the West Wasn't Won

A skeleton timeline of western history. The period covered is from the discovery of gold in California until the last of the western territories attained statehood in 1912. Entries on this list are intended to be representative of the history rather than by a comprehensive explanation of the events. If nothing else, something here may spark curiosity and lead to a deeper investigation in the period.

1848 Gold discovered at Sutter’s Mill, California.

1859 Magnificent silver deposits discovered at Comstock Lode, Nevada.

1860 Abraham Lincoln elected president; Pony Express begins operation; gold discovered at Leadville, Colorado; Cochise leads Apache Indians from stronghold in Chiricahua Mountains against advancing settlers for 11years; Confederate States attempt secession, Civil War erupts.

1861 First transcontinental telegraph line completed; Pony Express ceases operation1863 Gold mining makes Wickenburg, Arizona, one of the wildest towns in the West.

1865 President Abraham Lincoln assassinated: Confederacy surrenders, Civil War ends.

1866 Red Cloud’s War- 4,000 Sioux under Red Cloud “besiege” Fort Phil Kearny and Fort C.F. Smith (in modern Wyoming); 81 soldiers killed in Fetter man massacre (December 21); Satanta leads Kiowa raids into Texas.

1867 Nebraska becomes a state; U.S. purchases Alaska from Russia; Hayfield Fight and Wagon box Fight (August 1and 2) keep Red Cloud’s War in the news; first cattle drives to Abilene, Kansas, signals the heyday of the cowboy.

1868 President Johnson impeached but acquitted; Uysses S. Grant elected president; Beecher Island Fight (September 17); Red Cloud signs peace terms, moves to reservation in South Dakota (November 6); General Sheridan launches winter campaign against plains Indian’s; Chief Black Kettle killed at Battle of the Washita; Arapaho, Kiowa, Cheyenne, and Commanche agree to move onto reservations; more Kiowa raids in Texas.

1869 Transcontinental Railroad completed at Promontory, Utah (May 10); Battle of Summit Springs (July 11) breaks up Tall Bull’s Cheyenne Dog Soldiers; Satanta captured.

1871 Camp Grant Massacre sets off 15 more years of Apache warfare; nine men killed in saloon shootout in Newton, Kansas; Wild Bill Hickock hired as Marshall of Abilene.

1872 Ulysses S. Grant re-elected to second term; U.S. General Amnesty Act pardons ex confederates; Modoc Warin southern Oregon.

1873 Satanta paroled.

1874 General Custer’s expedition into the Black Hills discovers gold; Satanta again leads Kiowa and Commanche raids into Texas; Battle of Adobe Walls; Satanta surrenders.

1875 Lead discovered at Leadville, Colorado; copper mines opened at Morenci Field, Arizona; Quanah Parker, Commanche war chief, surrenders; Mason County War, Texas; Isaac Charles Parker, “the Hanging Judge,” assumes office at Fort Smith, Arkansas, with jurisdiction over the Indian Territory.

1876 Presidential elections between Tilden and Hayes deadlocked with 20 electoral votes in dispute; Colorado becomes a state; The Plains War against Sitting Bull’s Sioux; Battle of the Rosebud (June 17); General Custer and 263 troopers of the 7th Cavalry killed at Battle of the Little Big Horn (June 25); Dodge City begins 10-year reign as the biggest cattle town.

1877 A second presidential election held, Rutherford B. Hayes elected; Sitting Bull escapes to Canada; Crazy Horse surrenders (May); Nez Perce War in and around Bitterroot Mountains (June to October).

1878 Gold discovered at Tombstone, Arizona; Bannock War in Idaho (May to July); Cheyenne abandon Indian Territory reservations and retreat across Kansas and Nebraska; Lincoln County War, New Mexico, seals Billy the Kid’s reputation.

1880 J. A. Garfield elected president; Geronimo rises to prominence as Apache war chief.

1881 President Garfield assassinated in September, succeeded by Vice President Chester Arthur; gunfight at the O K Corral.

1882 U.S. bans Chinese immigration for 10 years.

1883 Fence Cutters’ War, Texas.

1884 Grover Cleveland elected president.

1886 Geronimo surrenders and is relocated to Florida; Pleasant Valley Feud begins in Arizona, lasting until 1904.

1888 Benjamin Harrison elected president.

1889 North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington become states; Oklahoma opened to non-indian settlement.

1890 Idaho and Wyoming become states; Spirit Dancer movement culminates in Battle of Wounded Knee.

1891 Gold discovered at Cripple Creek, Colorado.

1892 Grover Cleveland elected president; Johnson County War, Wyoming.

1896 William McKinley elected president; Utah becomes a state.

1898 Spanish-American War, U.S. acquires Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and Philippines.

1900 William McKinley re-elected president.

1901 Queen Victoria dies; President McKinley assassinated, succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt.

1903 Gold discovered at Goldfield, Nevada; first transcontinental automobile trip; Wright brothers make first manned flight.

1904 Theodore Roosevelt elected president.

1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire kills 700.

1907 Oklahoma becomes a state 1908 William Howard Taft elected president.

1911 First transcontinental airplane flight.

1912 Woodrow Wilson elected president; Arizona and New Mexico become states, thus closing the frontier