Tantasqua Regional High School - Tantasquan Yearbook (Sturbridge, MA)

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S Cumberland Gap in thi e Daniel Boone leads pioneers through th painting by George Bingham q a=) So rT, 0 = = os a oO

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RAT! ON} Nearly 100 years of struggling for civil liberties were realized when President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. The Act outlawed segregation in any form. | The steel industry geared up for the revival while rumors were whispered in the Roosevelt administration of another impending war. The nation’s leaders scoffed: until December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor! es ae decuie Eolleye automo- | we and gee all the rage The seventies shed light on a new trouble for | the nation as it approached its 200th birthday i The world’s energy sources and natural re- sources were being used up faster than they could be replenished. Americans once again waded into a new frontier. The ‘energy crisis and ‘ecology were prominent words in the language. Ways to save nature from the neglect of mankind and ways of preserving precious fuel without damaging that balance of nature were the objectives of Americans across the country. industrial ee ducuee ee a peak during the war yeats. Upon their return from four years of battle, the veterans forged ahead with an eye on a ‘better life for everyone.’ Several mod- | erate recessions in the 50's and 60s. reminded cautious citizens of past decades. nee aes aa oe : A carefree ae ae . Tish bulbs, ue eee er tape machines, phono- th of inventions from the fer- Huge strides were being taken in the scientific field. Television became a part of every family s 'Tife. National events were household topics — while they happened — thanks to the new medi- | um. Individuals and groups were seen ‘on the tube’ as they advocated new social reform, or justice, or special causes of their own. TV gave individuals and political systems power greater than ever before. Audio- visual journalism had } made its impact. Faiths § crises spurred Americans into further pioneering. This time... outer space. Ameri- can astronauts were the first on the surface of the moon and the U.S. was first to build a “sky- lab’ for more scientific study. Black faa. Oc ber 24, 929, saw He American stock m rash to the lowest level in history. Panic set in as the unemployment level skyrocketed. The country was in its worst | economic crisis. Slowly, but surely, the wounds | of the ‘crash,’ the “dust bowl,’ and poverty | — healed. ie American is still learning and growing after a mere 200-year infancy. The original determina- tion of our forefathers was told again in the words of Neil Armstrong as he made the first step on the moon -.. ‘a small step for man, but a giant step for mankind.

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Louisiana Purchase (April 30, 1803) ul ) AY ’ %,, ae Mate, yavntseoes Ist Transcontinental Railroad (1869) : 4 “The Alamo, San Antonio Texas cee (Te pendence day March 2, 1836) THE CHANGING NATION Admitted to the 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. It 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 Gold 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 Original 13 Colonies AWAIL (50th state) ALASKA (49th state) Admitted to the Union in 1959 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.