2.1 and 2.2: Settling the West Flashcards
Vigilance Commitee
group of ordinary citizens who organize to find criminals and bring them to justice.
hydraulic mining
Method of mining by which water is sprayed at a very high pressure against a hill or mountain, washing away large quantities of dirt, gravel, and rock and exposing the minerals beneath the surface
Open Range
vast areas of grassland owned by the federal government.
Hacienda
huge ranches that covered thousands of acres in territories formerly settled by Spain.
Barrios
Spanish-speaking neighborhoods in a town or city.
Homestead
a piece of U.S. public land acquired by living on it and cultivating it.
Dry Farming
A way of farming dry land is which seeds are planted deep in the ground where there is some moisture.
Sodbuster
A name given to Great Plains farmers
Bonanza Farm
A large, highly profitable wheat farm
Annuity
Money paid by contract by regular intervals
Assimilate
to absorb a group into the culture of another population, widely used in the U.S. during the 19th century with immigrants and Native Americans.
Allotment
A plot of land assigned to an individual or a family for a specified use
Prospector
A person of valuable resources such as gold
Boomtowns
Towns that popped in areas where there were prosperous mines.
Cattle Drives
Texas cattle were driven north to railroads to be transported east.
Barbed Wire
A new invention that was used to fence off the Great Plains.
Mexican Cession
Mexico handed over a large portion of Northern Mexico the the United States after the Mexican American War Via the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
Forty-Niners
Gold prospectors in California during the California Gold Rush of 1849.
Homestead Act of 1862
government gave away Federal Land in an attempt to settle the Great Plains
Oklahoma Land Rush
in 1889 the federal Government released the last portions of Federal Land of settlement
Comstock Lode
First discovered in 1858 by Henry Comstock, some of the most plentiful and valuable silver was found here, causing many Californians to migrate here, and settle Nevada. It turned Virginia City into a boomtown.
Stephen Long
Explained the Great Plains in 1819 and called it the ‘Great American Desert’ and concluded that I was almost “wholly unfit for cultivation” he also predicted that “the scarcity of wood and water would prove to be an insuperable obstacle in settling”
Sedalia, Missouri
Destination of the first cattle drive.
Chisholm Trail
A former cattle trail from San Antonio in Texas to Abilene in Kansas
Placer Mining
Method of extracting shallow deposits of mineral ore by hand using simple tools like picks, shovels, and pans.
Sluice Mining
Diverted the current of a river into trenches, then the water was directed to a box where heavier minerals settled at the bottom.
