Cram, George Franklin. Cram's township and railroad map of Washington. 1888–1891. Map. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/98688568/.
This primary source is a map from 1880 of the railroads in Washington State. Begin this lesson by asking students to brainstorm why cities became cities, suburbs became suburbs, and why some places have stayed rural. This discussion could be a Think-Pair-Share or even a Gallery Walk. Depending on the background knowledge of the students, you might have them read and discuss some additional resources before beginning. National Geographic has a lot of information about human geography, beginning with Indigenous people and discussing a variety of influences that impact where and how people choose to live where they do. Additionally, students who don’t have a lot of background knowledge of railroads in the United States, the LOC has classroom resources about the history of railroads.
Before 1880, few people filed homestead claims in Oregon and Washington compared to states like Minnesota and Nebraska, largely due to limited railroad access. By 1880, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington had a combined population of just 283,000. However, after transcontinental railroads arrived in the 1880s, the population grew rapidly—surpassing 2 million by 1910—driven by increased settlement, investment, economic opportunity, and improved access to national and global markets. The placement of the railroads had a lasting impact on where people choose to live and the geographic locations of cities and rural communities.
- What do you notice about the railroad placements in Washington State?
- What do you wonder about these placements?
- How might railroad placements have impacted where cities were built? Why?
- What about places not served by a railroad? What may have happened in these places? Why?
ELA Standard
ELA.RI.9-10.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Social Studies Standard
G1.9-10.4. Explain relationships between the locations of
places and regions, and their political, cultural, and economic dynamics, using maps, satellite images, photographs, and other representations.
Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
- Questions to focus on while teaching this lesson: What can we infer from a map from 1880 about where population centers were located?
- What are some of the factors that influenced where people chose to live and develop towns and cities?
- How does a decision made in 1880 about railroad placement still impact communities today?
- Why are some communities rural and some urban?
- Extension Question: What are some other factors that influenced where rural and urban centers are now located? How do we know?
- Begin by giving students a quickwrite prompt: How did railroads impact human geography in the United States? Why?
- Students share quickwrites, Pair-Share, or group discussion.
- Arrange students in groups and have each group examine Cram’s map. Have groups generate answers to the following questions:
- What do you notice about the railroad placements in Washington State?
- What do you wonder about these placements?
- How might railroad placements have impacted where cities were built? Why?
- What about places not served by a railroad? What may have happened in these places? Why?
- Provide groups with Washington State Department of Health’s census map. Have them compare the maps and answer the following questions:
- What do you notice about rural versus urban centers in Washington State?
- What do you wonder about these?
- Look at the rural areas. How many of these are served by railroads, according to Cram’s map?
- Groups discuss their findings, sharing their answers. This could be completed as a large-group discussion, presentation, Gallery Walk, etc.
- Extension Activity: Students research other influences on the development of urban, suburban, and rural centers in the United States. Groups could choose a specific region or rural area and discuss why that area continues to be rural today. Another possibility is to have students research “ghost towns” or other places that were “urban” areas at one time and are now rural. What were the influences that made that shift happen?
Storey, George, and Effie Cowan. Mr. George W. Storey. 1941. Manuscript. Library of Congress Manuscript Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh002264/.