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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 telegraph messages along wires using electricity |
| Samuel B. Morse | Developed a way to send telegraph messages |
| Transcontinetal 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 Cebtral Pacific and connected the transcontinental railroad |
| Chinese Immigrants | Made up almost 80% of the Pacific workers |
| Red Cloud | Told Union Pacific workers they were scaring away the 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 |
| Sod house ( Soddy) | Houses made from sod ( soil) on the Great Plains |
| sod busters | The name of farmers on the Great Plains |
| Pioneers | New settlers |
| Exodusters | Thousands of African Americans pioneers who moved to the Great Plains and started communities |