Mining
a rich vein of gold or silver
What is a lode?
the railroad connecting the east and west coasts
What is the Transcontinental Railroad?
the rounding up of herds of longhorns and pushing them hundreds of miles to railroad lines
What are cattle drives?
This invention allowed farmers to block cattle from crossing their land.
What is barbed wire?
What is 160 acres?
self-appointed law enforcers who tracked down outlaws and punished them
What are vigilantes?
This railroad was constructed to run from Sacramento, CA eastward.
What is the Central Pacific Railroad?
Mexican cowboys who taught American cowhands about riding, roping, and branding cattle
What are vaqueros?
another name for Plains farmers
What are sodbusters?
this group of people were the only ones excluded from participating in the Homestead Act.
What are former Confederates?
What are boomtowns?
This railroad was built from Omaha, NE westward.
What is the Union Pacific Railroad?
towns where cattle drives ended that sprung up along railroad lines
What are cow towns?
the invention developed to cut through the sod of the Great Plains
What is a plow?
This is the name given to African Americans who moved west after the Civil War; named after a book from the Bible
What is the Exodusters?
Boomtowns became these when mines no longer produced gold or silver.
What are ghost towns?
Immigrants from this country were the primary workers to build the Central Pacific Railroad.
What is China?
Name the state where most cattle drives ended.
What is Kansas?
Explain the main conflict between farmers and cow hands.
What is... farmers fenced their land, which prevented cattle drives from crossing the land on their way to cow towns?
a race to stake a claim of land; one was done in Oklahoma in 1889
What is a land rush?
the name of the mine that two prospectors found, but was claimed by a third man
the Comstock Lode
Name two effects of the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad.
What are:
people and supplies could be transported more easily, and railroad towns sprang up along the tracks, creating new settlement in the West
Name three dangers cowhands faced while they herded cattle across the Plains.
What are prairie dog holes, rattlesnakes, thunderstorms, cattle drowning in rivers, grass fires, thieves, or stampedes?
List three struggles farmers encountered on the Plains.
What are... grasshoppers, drought, grass fires, deep snow
Homesteaders had to have done this after five years in order to keep their claim.
What is improve their land and facilities?