post civil war

When the Civil War came to an end, the frontier line was still wavering westward. A long fringe of settlement ran roughly north through central Texas and on to the Canadian border. Between this serrated line and the settled areas on the Pacific slope, there were virtually no white people. The few exceptions were the islands of Mormons in Utah, occasional trading posts and gold camps, and several scattered Spanish-Mexican settlements throughout the Southwest. Sprawling …

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