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Transcontinental railroad system
Is a network of railroad trackage. It crosses a continental land mass with terminals at different oceans or continental borders. -
Jesse James
He was American outlaw, gang leader. He was born in 1847 and died in 1882. -
Homestead Act of 1862
The first of the acts, the Homestead Act of 1862, was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862.
The Homestead Acts were several United States federal laws that gave an applicant ownership of land called a "homestead", at little or no cost -
discoveries of large amounts of gold and silver
The area surrounding Butte's present location remained uninhabited before gold was discovered in 1864 in Silver Bow Creek. Native Americans and explorers passed through the region, but found no attractions for permanent settlement until two prospectors detected placer deposits in the creek; they named the site the Missoula lode. -
growth of new towns and cities to support cattle, mining, and farming industries
By the end of Civil War, as many as five million longhorn cattle, descendants of old Spanish stock, roamed wild in Texas. These tough, rangy animals sported horns with a spread of as much as eight feet. -
Barb Wire
Type of steel fencing wire constructed with sharp edges, points arranged at intervals along the strands.Lucien B, Smith od Kent, Ohio was the inventer of barb wire. -
Wlid West Shows
Were traveling vaudeville performances in the United States and Europe. -
shift from “long drive” to “cattle ranching”
Cattle drives were a major economic activity in the American west, particularly between 1866 and 1886, when 20 million cattle were herded from Texas to railheads in Kansas for shipments to stockyards in Chicago and points east. The long distances covered, the need for periodic rests by riders and animals, and the establishment of railheads led to the development of "cow towns" across the American West. -
Dawes Act of 1886
Allowed the president to survey American Indian tribal land and divide it into allotments for individual Indians. Those who accepted the allotments and lived separately from the tribe would be granted United States cittizenship. -
Cattle Extinction
Once numbering in the hundreds of millions in North America, the population of the American Bison decreased to less than 1000 by 1890, resulting in the near-extinction of American bison. Thanks in large part to conservation efforts undertaken by Theodore Roosevelt and by the US government, there are now over 500,000 bison in America.
