WESTWARD EXPANSION

Front

TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD

Back

Railroad that crosses a continent. The first one in the U.S. was completed in 1869.

Front

TELEGRAPH

Back

Device that sends messages through wires using electricity

Front

Name for African American pioneers who moved to the Great Plains after the Civil War

Back

EXODUSTER

Front

The way cowboys moved large herds of cattle north from ranches in Texas to towns along railroads in the late 1800s.

Back

CATTLE DRIVE

Front

HOMESTEAD ACT

Back

Law signed in 1862, offering free land to people willing to start new farms on the Great Plains.

Front

PIONEER

Back

Early settler of a region

Front

Settler who claimed land in the Great Plains under the Homestead Act

Back

HOMESTEADER

Front

SODBUSTER

Back

Great Plains farmer in late 1800s who had to cut throug sod, or thick grass, before planting crops.

Front

Service begun in 1860 that used a relay of riders on horses to deliver mail from Missouri to California in ten days

Back

PONY EXPRESS

Front

BUFFALO SOLDIERS

Back

Nickname for African American soldiers who fought in the wars in the plains against Native Americans in the 1870s