Answer Key: Texas Turning Point — The Railroads Arrive

Full credit for any reasonable notice + prediction. Notice examples: "Abilene did not exist in 1870 but grew after the railroad," "cattle used to walk for weeks." Predict examples: "trains made travel and shipping faster," "towns grew near the tracks," "more people moved to Texas." Accept any on-topic prediction — this is a warm-up graded for effort.

Accept any reasonable idea in the student's own words: dirt roads, no fast machines, wagons/horses are slow, rivers unreliable, long distances, weather. More than one answer is defensible.

Correct order (earliest to latest): 1 = Cattle trails drive longhorns north to Kansas (1866), 2 = New towns grow beside rail stations (1876), 3 = Lines connect across the state (1881). Note: "Lines connect across the state" (1881) comes after "new towns grow" (1876) on the timeline.

Creator: not a real person — an imagined/representative Texas town booster (the packet states it is not a real quotation).
Date represented: about 1885 (the 1880s).
Type of source: an original paraphrase / summary of a viewpoint — not a genuine primary quotation. Full credit if the student recognizes it is not a real quote.
Proud detail: any of — "everything changed," farmers can now ship cotton "in a morning," "new stores, a hotel, and new neighbors," or that the skipped town is "losing people to us." Accept any one.

Event (given): Railroads spread across Texas (1870s–1880s).
Causes (before) — accept any two supported by Source A / timeline, e.g.:

• Old travel by wagon, horse, and riverboat was slow and unreliable (a need for faster transport).
• Ranchers had to drive cattle for weeks to reach out-of-state railroads (demand to reach markets).
• After the Civil War, railroad companies laid track quickly / national markets were expanding.

Effects (after) — accept any two supported by the sources, e.g.:

• New towns grew up beside rail stations; skipped towns often shrank.
• Goods (cotton, cattle, lumber) shipped in days instead of weeks.
• Thousands of new settlers arrived; the Texas population grew rapidly.

Watch: a common error is placing an effect (e.g., "new towns grew") in the cause column. Causes must come before the event.

a) F — checkable in Source A ("several major rail lines crossed Texas").
b) I — reasoned conclusion using "probably" ("caused nearby skipped towns to lose people").
c) O — a personal belief/preference ("most exciting invention"); cannot be proven.
d) F — checkable in Source A (cattle "driven north on foot to reach a railroad").
Fact = checkable; interpretation = reasoned from facts (often "because/probably"); opinion = personal belief.

Model: "Before the railroads, ranchers drove cattle hundreds of miles on foot for weeks to reach a railroad in Kansas. After the railroads spread across Texas, cattle could be loaded onto trains in Texas and shipped in days. This mattered because it saved time, reached markets faster, and helped Texas ranching and towns grow." Award credit for a clear before/after contrast and a reason it was significant. See rubric below.

Correct: B (No). The sources show towns on the tracks grew while skipped towns often shrank (Source A: "older towns that the railroad skipped often shrank"; Source B: the town "the tracks passed by is already losing people to us"). Reject A (nothing says growth was equal) and C (the sources clearly discuss towns). Explanation must cite one such detail.

Model answer. Claim: Yes — the railroads were a turning point because they changed how Texas moved goods and people and caused rapid growth. Evidence: (1) Source A / timeline: before the 1870s cattle were driven for weeks on foot, but by the mid 1880s several rail lines crossed the state and goods shipped in days. (2) Source A: new towns grew beside the tracks and thousands of new settlers arrived, so the population grew rapidly. Reasoning: Life in Texas was clearly different after the railroads than before — faster trade, new towns, and more people — which is exactly what makes an event a turning point.
Defensible alternates: a student may frame the claim around a single main effect (population growth, town growth, or faster ranching/trade) and still earn full marks if two accurate pieces of evidence support it. A cautious student who argues the change was gradual can earn credit if they still cite evidence of clear before/after difference.

Articulate: accept any accurate plain-language definition (e.g., "a turning point is an event that makes life clearly different than before").
Connect: the cited date/line must actually show change — e.g., 1876 "new towns grow beside rail stations," 1888 "population grows sharply," or Source A "goods shipped in days instead of weeks."
Extend: any reasonable modern turning-point invention with a reason (e.g., the internet — changed how people communicate; the smartphone; electric power). More than one answer is defensible; grade the reason, not the choice.