Worksheet
Rails or River? A Prairie Town Decides, 1851
Grade 8 geography practice: an Illinois town debates a railroad in 1851; students use a described map and travel data to explain how transportation linked U.S. regions.
Grade 8Social StudiesInteractive · Printable
Aligned toGEO.8.1
What’s included
- Single worksheet
- Auto-graded online
- 1 C3 Framework standard
- Printable answer key
- 10 questions
- Classroom-ready
Details
- Format
- Interactive · Printable
- Grade
- Grade 8
- Subject
- Social Studies
- Question types
- Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Matching, Sorting, Short answer
About this worksheet
What students practice
- Students use a described map and data to explain how canals, railroads and the telegraph connected U.S. regions.
- Students compare the strengths and limits of water routes and railroads in the mid-1800s.
- Students sort evidence by speaker and argue a claim about a town's transportation choice.
How to use
Sketch the described map on the board as a class, then have two students read the council speeches aloud before everyone answers on their own.
Curriculum
C3 Framework standard covered
Use maps and data to explain how canals, railroads and the telegraph connected the regions of the United States.
Preview
OwlSheets.com
Rails or River? A Prairie Town Decides, 1851
Weigh both sides of a council debate and use a described map and data on canals, railroads and the telegraph.
The map and the data
Read the map description and the table. Then answer the questions.
1. Willow Ford sits on the Illinois River, about 30 miles downriver (southwest) of LaSalle.
2. LaSalle is where the Illinois and Michigan Canal, opened in 1848, meets the Illinois River.
3. The canal runs about 100 miles northeast from LaSalle to Chicago, on Lake Michigan. From Chicago, ships sail the Great Lakes east toward New York.
4. Below Willow Ford, the Illinois River flows southwest into the Mississippi River above St. Louis, Missouri.
5. A railroad company plans a line from Willow Ford east across the prairie to join the new Illinois Central Railroad, which will connect to Chicago.
| Year | U.S. railroad miles | New York City to Chicago |
|---|---|---|
| 1830 | about 23 | about 3 weeks |
| 1840 | about 2,800 | — |
| 1850 | about 9,000 | — |
| 1857 | — | about 2 days |
| 1860 | about 30,000 | — |
- A. Down the Mississippi to New Orleans, then north
- B. Up the Illinois River to LaSalle, then by canal
- C. Down the Illinois River to St. Louis, then by lake
- D. East on the new railroad line across the prairie
The 1857 trip from New York City to Chicago took about fewer days than the 1830 trip.
- A. The three decades added about the same
- B. 1850 to 1860
- C. 1830 to 1840
- D. 1840 to 1850
- Illinois and Michigan Canal
- Railroad
- Telegraph
- A. Joined the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River system
- B. Brought prices from distant cities the same day
- C. Carried freight all year, even far from rivers
The council debates
Read the council minutes. The meeting and the speakers are invented, but the facts about canals, railroads and the telegraph are real.
Minutes of the Willow Ford Town Council, October 1851
1In 1850, Congress gave Illinois a large grant of public land to help build the Illinois Central Railroad. Towns across the prairie now argued over whether to pay to bring a line to their own streets. At Willow Ford, the railroad company offered to lay track to the town if the town bought $40,000 of the company's stock. The council met to decide.
2Councilman Amos Treadwell spoke first. "The river and the canal have served us well, but only for part of the year. From about December to March the canal freezes, and our wheat sits in barns while prices in Chicago rise and fall without us. A train runs in January as well as July. By rail, our wheat could reach Chicago in less than a day. By boat and canal it takes the better part of a week."
3"Think also of the farmers on the prairie east of town, twenty miles from any river," Treadwell went on. "They haul wheat to our landing by wagon over roads that turn to mud each spring, or they do not grow wheat to sell at all. The new line would run right past their fields. And the telegraph company will string its wire beside the track. Today we learn Chicago and New York grain prices days late from the newspapers. With a telegraph office here, we would know them the same morning."
4Councilman Ezra Lindqvist answered. "I do not doubt that trains are fast. But forty thousand dollars is more than this town collects in taxes in many years. A canal boat carries a ton of grain for much less than a railroad charges today. The river and the canal already join us to Chicago and the Great Lakes to the north, and to St. Louis and New Orleans to the south. Why pay for what we have?"
5"And who says the company will finish?" Lindqvist asked. "Railroad companies have gone bankrupt and left half-built track rotting on the prairie, and the towns that bought their stock lost their money. If we wait, perhaps a richer company will build the line for nothing."
6After two hours of debate, the council voted 5 to 2 to buy the stock. The track and the telegraph wire reached Willow Ford in 1855.
| Treadwell (for the railroad) | Lindqvist (against paying) |
|---|---|
- A. He could learn city grain prices quickly and pick when to sell.
- B. He could keep the canal open during the winter months.
- C. He could ship his wheat by wire instead of by boat.
- D. He could stop paying taxes for the railroad stock.
- A. Its cold winters, which froze the canal
- B. Its distance of twenty miles from the nearest river
- C. Its place on a river already joined to lake and Gulf routes
- D. Its flat prairie, which made track cheap to lay
Weigh the decision
Use the map, the table and the minutes.
- A. He sold his wheat in St. Louis instead of Chicago.
- B. He had to haul his wheat to the river landing by wagon.
- C. He could ship wheat in summer but not in winter.
- D. He could grow wheat to sell and ship it in any season.
- A. Many places chose, as Willow Ford did, to link to rail lines.
- B. Railroads were built mostly in places with no rivers.
- C. Most towns voted against railroads and kept to canals.
- D. The telegraph replaced the need for new track.
