University:
Felician University
Course:
HIST-110 | World Geography and Culture
Academic year:

2023
Views:

96

Pages:

11
Author:

StellarStrategist

The southwestern border of the U.S. was completed five years later with the Gadsden Purchase. By 1853, through purchase, annexation, treaty, and war, the United States had completed its Manifest Destiny. The $10 million Gadsden Purchase was to be the route of a transcontinental railroad that would have passed through the Civilized Tribes’ lands. Westward expansion meant more Americans would be coming into Indian Territory. A new expedition led by Captain Benjamin Bonneville explored the eastern end of the South Canadian River. Unfortunately, Bonneville was inexperienced. When Bonneville observed the thick forests on the river banks, he reported “I saw no place where I believe a settlement could be made.” He was impressed by a 65-ft.-tall stone in the middle of the river, but Standing Rock was submerged when Lake Eufaula was created in the 1960s. Dr. Josiah Gregg contradicted Bonneville when he wrote about Indian Territory in his book The Commerce of the Prairies. He had traveled regularly from Ft. Smith to Santa Fe. He described the eastern half of Indian Territory as an “unbroken succession of grassy plains and fertile glades.” Lieutenant James Abert and Lieutenant William Peck led an 1845 expedition that explored Indian Territory to report on natural resources. At the beginning of their journey, they struggled to survive a prairie fire. They saw the destruction caused by a tornado near the present-day city of Holdenville. Abert wrote: “Because of the amazing force of the whirling winds, the noblest trees had fallen from their high estates, and lay mouldering upon the ground in contorted piles." Abert also wrote of large numbers of feral hogs in the Creek Nation that could be used as food until cattle herds were established. Ultimately, they reported an abundance of wildlife, as well as supplies of wood, water, and grasslands. Settlement by non-Indians was just a matter of time.