Westward Expansion

2. settler on the Great Plains in the late 1800s who had to "bust" through thick sod to plant crops.
4. a house built of strips of sod, laid like brickwork, and used especially by settlers on the Great Plains where timber was scarce.
6. Used on the very last rail of the transcontinental Railroad marking it's completion.
11. A law passed by Congress in 1862 offering goverment loans and free land to the two companies building the transcontinental railroad.
13. person who claimed land on the Great Plains under The Homestead Act of 1862 Sodbuster.
14. Native Americans called the Transcontinental Railroad.
15. What day and year was the completion of the transcontinental?

1. Nickname given to the first African American Cavalry regiments of the U.S. Army who served in the western U.S. during 1867-1896, fighting Native American Tribes on the frontier.
3. a railroad that crosses an entire continent.
5. a person settling on land in the early west prior to the official opening to the settlement in order to gain the claim.
7. famous cattle trail used to herd longhorns from San Antonio, Texas to Abilene, Kansas.
8. the place in northwestern Utah where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads met on May 10th, 1869, completing the transcontinental railroad.
9. A long journey taken by cowboys to herd, or drive, cattle from the ranches in Texas north on trails leading to the railroads.
10. a type of steel fencing with a sharp points at a various intervals. Invented by Joesph Gliden that resulted in closing the western frontier and ending the cattle drives and cowboy era.
12. Former slave turned Cowboy. Famous for his skills of roping, and cattle herding.