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Westward Expansion
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| California Gold Rush | Period where thousands of people went west to search for gold |
| Cattle Drive | when cowboys guided huge herds of cattle North to new railroad lines extending across The Great Plains |
| Pony Express | business that delivered mail from Missouri to California in just ten days |
| Telegraph | invention that sent messages along wires using electricity |
| Samuel B. Morse | developed a way to send telegraph messages |
| Transcontinental Railroad | a railroad across the continent linking the Eastern United States to the Western United States |
| Union Pacific | began building train track west from Omaha, Most workers were Irish Immigrants |
| Central Pacific | began building train track east from Sacramento, California. Most workers were Chinese immigrants. |
| Promontory Point | place in Utah where the Union Pacific met the Central Pacific and connected the transcontinental railroad |
| Chinese Immigrants | Made up almost 80% of the central pacific workers. |
| Red Cloud | told Union Pacific they were scaring away buffalo. |
| Gen. William Tecumsah Sherman | warned the Native Americans that nothing would stop the building of the railroads. |
| Homestead Act Of 1862 | law that offered free land to American citizens and immigrants who were willing to start new farms on the Great Plains. |
| Homesteaders | settlers who claimed land through the Homestead Act. |
| sod House (soddy) | houses made from sod (soil) on the Great Plains. |
| sodbusters | the name for farmers on the Great Plains. |
| Pioneers | new settlers. |