People
The 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. Also oversaw a large westward expansion of the United States.
James K. Polk
An American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was 24, he published the Book of Mormon.
Joseph Smith
This trail stretched for about 2,000 miles (3,200 km), and flourished as the main means for hundreds of thousands of emigrants to reach the Northwest from the early 1840s through the 1860s.
Oregon Trail
A community that undergoes sudden and rapid population and economic growth, or that is started from scratch
Boomtown
Collis' favorite band. Hit songs like Rockstar and Photograph. Also considered one of the worst bands of all time.
Nickelback
Led the Mormons to Utah, and colonized and governed the territory that served as their homeland. Also, has a university named after him.
Brigham Young
An American explorer, politician, and soldier. Through his explorations in the West, he stimulated the American desire to own that region. He was the first presidential candidate of the Republican party.
John Fremont
An unrecognized breakaway state from Mexico, that for 25 days in 1846 militarily controlled an area north of San Francisco, in and around what is now Sonoma County in California.
Bear Flag Republic
Arriving in covered wagons, clipper ships, and on horseback, some 300,000 migrants, known these, staked claims to spots of land around the river, where they used pans to extract gold from silt deposits. Also a football team.
49ers
Collis's favorite two students
Jack and Drew
Served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two individuals to represent Texas in the United States Senate. A major Texas city is also named after him.
Sam Houston
An American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. He is commonly referred to in popular culture by the epithet "King of the Wild Frontier". He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives and served in the Texas Revolution.
Davy Crockett
A war between Texas settlers and Mexico from 1835-1836 resulted in the formation of this Republic. (Present-day Texas)
Lone Star Republic
This treaty brought an official end to the Mexican-American War and was signed on February 2, 1848.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Collis grew up in this Bergen County town
Bogota
Known as the "Father of Texas". Successfully colonized the territory, bringing over 300 families.
Steven Austin
An American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850.
Zachary Taylor
A passageway used regularly after 1821 by merchant traders from Missouri who took manufactured goods to the southwest to exchange for furs and other items available there.
Santa Fe Trail
A rebellion of colonists from the United States and Tejanos in putting up armed resistance to the centralist government of Mexico
Texas Revolution
Before teaching, Collis was a...
Realtor
An American columnist and editor who used the term "manifest destiny" in 1845 to promote the annexation of Texas and the Oregon Country to the United States.
John O'Sullivan
U.S. Army officer who conquered New Mexico and helped win California during the Mexican War
Colonel Kearny
The 1,300-mile-long route from Illinois to Utah that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints traveled for 3 months
Mormon Migration/Trail
Roughly 30,000 square-mile region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that was acquired by the United States in a treaty signed on December 30, 1853.
Gadsden Purchase
Collis coaches what three sports?
Basketball, Tennis, and Softball