| A | B |
|---|
| open range | 1000s of miles of unfenced grasslands in the American West |
| homesteaders | people who took advantage of the Homestead Act |
| prairie | the eastern part of the Great Plains where grasses grow tall |
| sod | the thick mat of roots beneath the prairie grasses |
| Ablilene, KS | the first cow town |
| long drive | trip made when the cowboys drove the cattle across the Plains to cow towns |
| Chisolm Trail | best known long drive trail |
| Quanah Parker | Comanche chief who helped his people by leasing their fertile lands to ranchers & later getting them into the cattle ranching business |
| Homestead Act | passed by Cong. to encourage western settlement; gave people 160 acres of land for a small fee; had to live there for 5 yrs & improve it for full ownership |
| dry farming | best method of farming for Great Plains soils; works by digging deeply to access moisture below layers of top soil |
| John Deere | inventor of the steel plow |
| sodbusters | Plains farmers |
| Joseph Glidden | invented barbed wire |
| barbed wire | wire twisted at intervals w/ sharp points on twists; used to protect crops from grazing animals |
| John Appleby | inventor of the twine binder, a machine that automatically bundled wheat, reducing time and labor for farmers |
| Exodusters | former slaves who settled in the West; name taken from the book of Exodus in the Bible |
| Nicodemus, KS | town settled by Exodusters; only one still in existence; named for the 1st slave to buy his freedom |
