Sequoia High School - Yearbook (Visalia, CA)

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I'?7li!7 UL! THE FIRST 200 YE RS A knowledge of American history is an invitation to experience the ac- complishment, drama, tragedy and hope of an infant nation struggling to grow up. Sturdy, determined pioneers hacked away at the edges of a raw continent and, with blunders and achievements alike, modeled a country with a spirited nature and a united commitment to individual liberty for every one of its citizens. Americans, great and not so great, have given us a heritage to carry on and improve upon. Farmers and soldiers, industri- alists and merchants, dreamers and leaders, are all there in two centuries of progress. But the maturing isn't finished. You'll find the boundaries of growth as endless today as whenour forefathers first envisioned them. You can seek out your own destiny with the wisdom and judgement which comes with re-creation of the past. Your knowledge, dreams and industry will carry on through many more centuries of living history.

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Lou sxana Purchase tApr I 30. 18033 Q -,s ,- vin 470171. f f 0 0 I x ,0 'ulz,u,mlommN ff U lst Transtont nental Ra I nad Il869I 9lIUllng1hu,. um, nf ,oo 'A wx X 1 -AH Gold D scovered n Coloma. CahIorn'a Uan. , 1847 Z The Alamo, San Anton o Texas C'Iexas Independence day March 2. I836l Orig nal 13 Cotonnes THE CHANG NG ATIO HAWAII 150th stalej ALASKA 149th state! Admitted tothe Union in 1959 Ownership of land had been just a dream to most of the colonists from feudal England. With the great expanse of cheap land opening up in the West, the dream became reality. The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 opened the first sizable frontier in the Midwest, but the nation was not ready for it yet. lt took a growing market in the East, where land was getting high-priced and scarce, and develop- ment of good transportation, to really start the frontier movement. The Cold Rush caused hordes of settlers to take various routes to the Pacific Coast and its yellow riches. The railroads brought farmers and ranchers, along with the miners, who decided to stop all along the routes and build their homes. Railroads were instrumental in the quick civilization of the West, bringing people in num- bers so large that the resentful Indians were finally pushed back into unwanted and infertile areas. America became a haven for immigrants from every na- tion as freedom beckoned them to the teeming cities of the East, the plains, and the rich west coast farmlands. Sick of the Civil War and with their own lands divided up and lost, many Southerners set out to begin again in the virgin territories. Westering soon became the national tradition as North and South moved together toward a new life. Americanism was advanced socially, by the hard-working, bare-fisted types who settled the frontiers.