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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 telegraphs messages. |
| Transcontinental Railroads | a railroad across the continent linking the Eastern United States to the Westward United States. |
| Union Pacific | began building train track west from Omaha, Most workers for 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 that transcontinental railroad |
| Chinese Immigrants | made up almost 80% of the Central pacific workers |
| Red Cloud | told Union Pacific workers that they were scaring away the buffalo |
| Gen. William Tecumsah | 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 |
| exodusters | thousands of African American pioneers moved to the Great Plains and started communites. |
| Nicodemus, Kansas |