Across
- 2. a long journey taken by cowboys to herd, or drive, cattle from the ranches in Texas north on trails leading to the railroads.
- 3. The name given to the Transcontinental Railroad by Native Americans.
- 4. Famous cattle trail used to herd longhorns from San Antonio, Texas to Abilene, Kansas
- 6. a house built of strips of sod, laid like brickwork, and used especially by settlers on the Great Plains where timber was scarce.
- 7. person who claimed land on the Great Plains under The Homestead Act of 1862 Sodbuste- settler on the Great Plains in the late 1800s who had to “bust” through thick sod to plant crops.
- 13. a railroad that crosses an entire continent.
- 14. the place in northwestern Utah where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads met on May 10, 1869, completing the transcontinental railroad.
- 15. 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.
Down
- 1. a law passed by Congress in 1862 offering government loans and free land to the two companies building the Transcontinental Railroad
- 5. Enacted by Abraham Lincoln in 1862 that made available 160 acres of free farmland to adult men or widows 21 years of age who were head of their household and who agreed to farm the land for 5 years.
- 8. starting from Sacramento California.
- 9. used on the very last rail of the transcontinental railroad marking its completion.
- 10. from Omaha Nebraska were assigned the task of building the transcontinental railroad that would link the United States from east to west.
- 11. Former slave turned Cowboy. Famous for his skills of roping, and cattle herding.
- 12. was a person settling on land in the early west prior to the official opening to settlement in order to gain the claim.