The single biggest factor that contributed most to increased settlement of the Great Plains was the expansion of the railroad network, especially the new transcontinental and feeder lines after the Civil War.

Why the railroads mattered most

  • Railroads made travel to the Great Plains faster, cheaper, and far less dangerous than months-long wagon journeys, turning a risky trek into a realistic option for ordinary families.
  • Railroad companies, given huge land grants by the U.S. government, actively advertised the Plains, sold land on easy terms, and offered low-cost fares to attract settlers.
  • Once people arrived, railroads provided a lifeline: shipping crops and cattle to eastern markets and bringing back tools, lumber, food, and household goods, which made farm life on the Plains economically viable.

Other important contributors (but secondary)

  • Homestead laws: The Homestead Act of 1862 offered 160 acres of “free” land to settlers who would live on and improve it, creating a powerful pull to move west, especially when combined with easy rail access.
  • New farming technologies: Barbed wire, steel plows, windmills, and better harvest machines helped people actually survive and farm in the dry, tough environment, but they mattered most after railroads and land policies brought people there.
  • Economic and social “push” factors: Crowded eastern cities, expensive land in older states, and poverty or persecution in parts of Europe and the post–Civil War South pushed migrants toward the cheap land the railroads were promoting on the Plains.

Mini narrative example

Imagine a young farmer in the 1870s, priced out of land in the East. He sees a railroad company poster promising cheap land in Kansas and discounted train fares. He rides west in days instead of walking for months, buys former grant land from the railroad on credit, files for a homestead, fences his claim with barbed wire, and ships his wheat back east by rail. That entire story only works because the railroad exists to carry him, his supplies, and his harvest.

So when you see the question “what contributed most to increased settlement of the Great Plains,” the best single answer is: the growth of the railroad system, backed by generous land grants and homestead policies, which turned the Great Plains from distant frontier into a reachable, market-connected farming region.

TL;DR: Railroads were the main driver of increased settlement of the Great Plains, with homestead laws and new farm technology playing strong supporting roles.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.