Chapters 1 and 2 Flashcards
subsidy
money or goods given by a person or government to support a project that benefits the public
transcontinental
going across a continent
time zone
money or goods given by a person or government to support a project that benefits the public
Boomtowns
Towns where gold and silver ere found and people struck it rich quickly, but they also lost it quickly. There was no law
Ghost towns
AFter all the gold and silver was used up, people left town and they became ghost towns
States created by 1890
Colorado Noth Dakota South Dakota Washington Montana Wyoming Idaho
Railroads were built
to get the gold and silver from the west to the east to the markets
Transcontinental railroad building
Two different companies built the railroad Central Pacific worked eastward from California
Union pacific worked westward from Nebraska
Union pacific hired African Americans and Irish
Central Pacific hired Chinese
Transcontinental railroad completion
Finished in May 1869 when the tracks met in Utah
Uses of the railroad
Carried workers and goods to west
Carried metals and supplies to east
Effects of the railroad
Helped coal industry
Towns built along the railroad, even cities such as Denver, CO
Established time zones
Connected America
long drive
a trip of several hundred miles on which ranchers led their cattle to railroads and distant markets
vaquero
Mexican cowboy
homestead
to earn ownership of land by living on it
sodbuster
Great Plains farmers
dry farming
a farming method that depends on plowing after every rain to trap moisture in the soil
cattle ranching
Cattle was cheap and avaible in TExas and the demand was high in the Northeast
cattle ranchers used the railroad towns of Kansas , Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming to ship their cattle east
Herding cattle was difficult because
The long drive took two or three months. * Cowhands faced many dangers, such as violent storms and “rustlers” who tried to steal cattle. * They had to control the herd if a stampede started.
vaqueros
developed the riding, roping, and branding skills that cowhands used. They also added Spanish words to the language. For example, the word ranch is from the Mexican word rancho.
Homestead Act of 1862
Congress passed the Homestead Act in 1862. To homestead means to earn ownership of land by settling on it. The Homestead Act helped people to settle the Great Plains. The act gave free land to anyone who paid a $10 fee and lived on the land for five years. A settler could get up to 160 acres (65 hectares) of land
Life on the Great Plains
not easy at all. Farming in the Great Plains was hard. There were few trees, so farmers built houses of sod—packed soil held together by grass roots. The climate was extreme. Some years there was too much rain. This brought floods to the Great Plains. Other years there was not enough rain. Then there would be droughts and brushfires. Winter brought deep snow. This could trap people in their homes and bury the animals. Farm families planned ahead by storing food. The whole family worked on the farm. Children often had so much farm work that they did not have time to go to school. Farmers on the Great Plains were called sodbusters. They came up with new tools and new ways to farm the hard sod. One way was dry farming. With dry farming, farmers plowed the land every time it rained. This trapped water in the soil. Farmers also dug wells. Sodbusters had to cut through tough layers of sod. They used steel plows to plow their fields. They planted a crop called winter wheat. This crop grows well in dry climates. Even with these new methods, farmers often could not grow large enough crops. Many farmers lost their farms
Native Americans
By the 1880s, only Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma had not been settled. The law said only Native Americans could live there. There was one part of Indian Territory that was not assigned to any of the Indian groups. The government agreed to let non-Native American homesteaders settle there. On April 22, 1889, more than 10,000 people lined up at the edge of these lands. A signal was given. Homesteaders rushed into the land to claim a piece for themselves. They found that some people had gone over the line early. These people were called “sooners,” and they got the best land. By 1890, all of America was settled. Life in America had changed, especially for Native Americans.
