21.2
Comstock Load: large load of gold and silver, found in western Nevada, 500 million dollars of gold and silver. Found by Henry Comstock.
Bonanza: a large deposit of precious ore.
Mining dangers: unsafe equipment, little oxygen, little light, dust, explosions, and fire.
Boomtowns: communities that sprang up by mines.
Pony Express: messengers on horseback, used to deliver mail, out of business because of telegraph.
Transcontinental Railroad: railroad connected the Pacific Coast to the Atlantic Coast, the two railways met Promontory, UT
Pacific Railway Acts: the government gave loans and grants to railroad companies to encourage construction.
The Great Race: the Union Pacific started at Omaha, Central Pacific started in Sacramento, met in the middle.
Leland Stanford: part owner of Central Pacific, hired Chinese to work because they would work for less.
Railroad Effects: increase population and economic boom in the west, better transportation.
21.3
Texas Longhorn: a lean and tough mix of English and Spanish breeds, survived on very little water, sold to turn a profit, Texas to be sold in Kansas.
Cattle Drive: long journeys herding cattle to market or grazing lands.
Joseph McCoy: businessman who established the cattle market.
Kansas-Pacific Railroad: shipped cattle from Abilene, KS to the North.
Cattle Kingdom: built ranches that stretched from Texas to Canada.
Open Range: public land that ranchers let their cattle graze.
Elizabeth Collins: her and her husband discontinued mining, moved to Montana to be cattle ranchers. She was successful, the Cattle Queen of Montana.
Charles Goodnight: started the first cattle ranch in Texas.
Range Rights: water rights to ponds and rivers, gave ranchers water for their livestock.
vaqueros: ranch hands who cared for cattle and horses, traditionally Mexican.
Nat Love: African American, autobiography about being a cowboy.
Round Up: a gathering of cattle, traditionally in the springtime.
Chisholm Trail: from San Antonio, TX to Abilene, KS, established by Jesse Chisholm for cattle drives.
Range Wars: competition for more land and water between cattle ranchers.
21.4
Sod Busters: nickname for farmers on the plains, had to break the sod with plows.
Dry Farming: the idea of using plants that don’t need as much water to thrive in the plains, such as wheat.
Homestead Act: gave government owned land to small farmers, white males could get 160 acres for a small registration fee.
Morrill Act: Congress gave land to the western states, encouraging them to built colleges, created land grant universities.
Exodusters: large group of southern African Americans who moved West, called this because of Exodus.
Cyrus McCormick: made a fortune designing, building, and selling farming equipment, specifically the reaper.
