westward expansion

5. was a person settling on land in the early west prior to the official opening to settlement in order to gain the claim.
10. a law passed by Congress in 1862 offering government loans and free land
11. a long journey taken by cowboys to herd, or drive, cattle from the ranches in Texas north on trails leading to the railroads.
15. a house built of strips of sod
17. Omaha Nebraska
18. name they called the train

1. a railroad that crosses an entire continent.
2. Sacramento California
3. Famous cattle trail used to herd longhorns from San Antonio, Texas to Abilene, Kansas
4. person who claimed land on the Great Plains under The Homestead Act
6. Nickname given to the first African American Cavalry regiments of the U.S. Army who served in the western U.S. during 1867-1896
7. ended the cowboy era
8. young men from the west
9. Famous businessmen who during the expansion out west founded the R.W. Sears Watch Company
12. available 160 acres of free farmland
13. used on the very last rail of the transcontinental railroad marking its completion.
14. Point where the two railroads met
16. Former slave turned Cowboy.