| Term | Definition |
| California Gold Rush | period where thousands of people went to 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 United States to the Western United States |
| Union Pacific | began building train track west from Omaha,
Nebraska. 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 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
Of 1862 and immigrants who were willing to start new
farms on the Great Plains
Had to be a man 21 or older or a woman
who was head of the family
Got up to 160 acres of land
Paid about $10 and a |
| Homesteaders | settlers who claimed land through the Homestead Act of 1862 |
| 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 who
moved to the Great Plains and started communities |
