Across
- 7. the place in northwestern Utah where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads met on May 10, 1869, completing the transcontinental railroad.
- 9. law passed by Congress in 1862 offering government loans and free land to the two companies building the Transcontinental Railroad. (President Lincoln)
- 11. young men mainly from Texas paid to herd and drive cattle north. Approximately ¼-⅓ all cowboys were Hispanic or African Americans (newly freed slaves-remembers it was 1865 ish)
- 13. The name given to the Transcontinental Railroad by Native Americans.
- 14. a railroad that crosses an entire continent.
Down
- 1. starting from Sacramento California
- 2. was a person settling on land in the early west prior to the official opening to settlement in order to gain the claim.
- 3. Famous cattle trail used to herd longhorns from San Antonio, Texas to Abilene, Kansas
- 4. from Omaha Nebraska
- 5. Former slave turned Cowboy. Famous for his skills of roping, and cattle herding.
- 6. a house built of strips of sod, laid like brickwork, and used especially by settlers on the Great Plains where timber was scarce.
- 8. a type of steel fencing with sharp points at various intervals. Invented by Joseph Gliden that resulted in closing the western frontier and ending the cattle drives and cowboy era.
- 10. used on the very last rail of the transcontinental railroad marking its completion.
- 12. person who claimed land on the Great Plains under The Homestead Act of 1862 Sodbuster- settler on the Great Plains in the late 1800s who had to “bust” through thick sod to plant crops.