Vocabulary 1
early settlers
Pioneer
A railroad that stretches across the country/continent
Transcontinental Railroad
How did railroads help the cattle industry
They transported cattle quicker to the Eastern meat-packing plants.
What made it difficult to farm on the prairie
Severe weather
Why were Chinese immigrants important in the building of the Transcontinental Railroad
good with explosives, were not afraid to do dangerous work
The idea that the U.S. had a right to add territory until it reached the Pacific Ocean
Manifest Destiny
The movement of people to a place where gold has been discovered
Gold Rush
Why did people go to California?
to find gold
What did pioneers do to adapt to droughts
Irrigation and dry farming
Where did the railroads join?
state?
daily double - specific place
Utah
Promontory Point
the movement by cowboys of large herds of cattle from one place to another
cattle drive
a law passed in 1862 where settlers were promised 160 acres of land in the West for $18
Homestead Act
Provide two of the four reasons why people moved out west (seeking gold is not one of these answers)
eastern cities crowded, resources, raw materials, farmland
Pioneers used this in the Great Plains to build their homes
sod
What did settlers have to do in order to keep their land according to the Homestead Act? (2)
Have a home built in 6 months and live on the land for 5 years
a person who migrated tot he west to take advantage of the Homestead Act
Homesteader
A long period of little or no rain
drought
People in the west provided this for eastern factories
raw materials
name two inventions used in the Great Plains
iron plows, barbed wire, mechanical reaper
Who built the steel plow
John Deere
the use of technology to get water to crops
Irrigation
a method of crop production in which moisture is conserved in the soil
dry farming
name two of the three impacts the railroads had on the U.S. (cattle industry does not count).
Changed economy, travel easier, developed west
Why did people rush to Oklahoma?
free land
Cyrus McCormick invented what?
Mechanical Reaper