Vocabulary
Locations
Physical Features
History of the Region
Life West of the Mississippi
100

Means "connected to"

What is contiguous?

100

This extended from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian boarder. It was purchased in 1803.

What is the Louisiana Purchase? 

100

This river divides the United States into two parts.

What is the Mississippi River?

100

A law that made public land in the western states free to farmers.

What is the Homestead Act?

100

An area where a severe drought dried the southern Great Plains so much that crops died. Strong winds carried dry soil away, covering areas in dust. 

What is the Dust Bowl?

200

A region of parallel mountain chains.

What is a cordillera?

200

This river runs north to south and goes through New Mexico. 

What is the Rio Grande? 

200

This range runs along the California-Nevada border

What is the Sierra Nevada range?

200

Silver and copper mines, lumber and fish canneries are examples of this.

What are primary industries?

200

These attracted many Americans to the western states. 

What are land and resources?

300

People who are always on the move. 

What is nomadic people? 

300
This is the center of the wheat industry with eight of the nation's top wheat-producing states. 

What are the Great Plains? 

300

The reason why the Great Salt Lake is salty

What is because it does not have an outlet?

300

This is what some called the purchase of Alaska.

What is "Seward's Folly" or "Seward's Icebox"?

300

A trade agreement between Canada, Mexico, and the USA that pledged to remove all barriers to trade among themselves.

What is the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)?

400

One means "towns" or "villages" in Spanish. The other means a church based community led by Catholic priests that were used to house Native people. 

What is the different between Pueblos and Missions?

400

This river stretches from the Mississippi through western Montana. 

What is the Missouri River? 
400

This is another name for Mount McKinley

What is Denali?

400

This caused the war with Mexico (the United States won)

What is wanting California and other land that were part of Mexico?

400

 City not by a seaport or on a navigable part of a river. Some examples are Denver, CO, Austin, TX, Las Vagas, and Phoenix, AZ. 

What are interior cities? 

500

Firms that rely on machines, advanced technology, and mass-production methods to farm large areas. 

What are agribusinesses? 

500

The Continental Divide (an imaginary line separating rivers flowing in opposite directions) is located here. 

What are the Rocky Mountains?

500

This state gets nearly a quarter of its electricity from wind power

What is South Dakota?

500

This group of people placed settlements along the Mississippi River. New Orleans, example.

Who are the French?

500

This problem has prompted scientists to develop ways to remove salt from seawater to make it usable for drinking and farming. 

What is limited water resources?