to the west we go

Towards the end of the civil war people started to move west. This was a long hard trip. They had many obstacles that they had to overcome. Some of the obstacles were weather, lack of water, lack of food, and mountains. There were many mountain ranges that they had to cross or go around. Most families chose to go around because it was safer.
There were many reasons people moved west. One of the reasons was money. This included land acts such as the Homestead Act and Merrill land grant act. Agribusiness was another big role in moving west. They would irrigate the hot dry land, they also made technical improvements. Gold and silver also played a big part. There were many gold rushes in the west. Some of them were in California, Colorado, and Alaska. But very few of them actually produced a good amount of useable gold.
Religion was another reason that people moved west. Most people that moved west were either Methodist or Mormons. The ones that were Methodist usually went to Oregon. The Mormons had other things that determined them. Mormons practiced prosecution in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. Mormons also liked to practice polygamy. (How they had more then one wife I will never know).
The biggest reason they moved west though was for personal and political freedoms. In the west women and African Americans got more freedom then in the east. African Americans didn’t get freedoms in all states in the west though. Some states that gave African Americans rights were Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, and Colorado.
If you were to ask me I would say that I think people moved west were pretty smart. They got a lot more rights. And they had better opportunities for money. And better religious opportunities.