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Study Guide – Mining, Railroads, and the West
- What is Manifest Destiny?
- What is the definition of Culture?
- Settlement Patterns in the American West – mountain men (fur trappers), the Overland Trails (covered
wagons), prospectors, and railroads
The West
- Exodusters
- Homestead Act (1862)
- What percentage of land in the United States was given away through the Homestead Act?
- What percentage of homesteaders were successful in gaining title to the land?
- What particular struggle or event destroys most of the crops in 1874?
- At one time, how many buffalo roamed the Great Plains?
- During the 1870’s and 1880’s, how many buffalo were killed each day?
- Within the historical period of 1860 to 1900, the United States accomplished the closing of the frontier and the
settling of the West largely through the Federal Government policy of …
- Morrill Land Grant College Act (1862)
- Dry farming techniques: John Deere’s steel plow, mechanical reaper, threshing machines, seed drills, and
mechanical binders (reaper)
- The mechanization of agriculture in the U.S. led directly to …
- Safety-valve theory
Railroads
- Pacific Railway Act (1862)
- Transcontinental Railroad (1869)
- With the Transcontinental Railroad, how long did it take to cross the continent?
- American Railway Association & the formation of time zones
Mining and Cattle Drives across the American West
- Types of mining: placer, sluice, open-pit, hydraulic, and quartz
- Terms dealing with mining towns in the American West: Bonanza, boomtowns, vigilance committees, “boom
and bust” cycles, and ghost towns
- Why were cattle taken across the “open range” northward across Texas?
- What ended the days of the “open range?”
Lakota Cultural Ideas
- What do Oceti Sakowin, Tiospaye, Mitakuye Oyasin, and Oyate mean?
- What is the origin of the name Sioux?
- What is the significance of Wind Cave with regards to the Lakota creation story mentioned in class?