What is the Homestead Act, and why are we learning about it? We are learning about it because we happen to be in the area in Nebraska where it started and a National Monument was placed here so that no one would forget the historical significance that the Homestead Act had on our history as a nation. As to what it was, it was enacted by Abraham Lincoln in 1862, and the general purpose of it was to encourage people to move out west and settle in new areas of the country. To do that, the Homestead Act allowed anyone over the age of 21 to apply to receive 160 acres of land for free, but that acreage had to be in certain areas of the country.
Of course, there were rules. You had to live on the land for 5 years, build a home on it, and use the land to cultivate crops. Millions of people took advantage of this program until it was abolished in the 1980s. The first successful homesteader had his plot at the location of this museum. His descendants donated the land for the museum. The last homesteader got his 160 acres up in Alaska in 1986.
The idea of “taming” the wild west was not a new one in 1862. As early as the late 1700s our government was trying to find ways of creating settlements out west. Telling “Americans” to go forth and build communities in unpopulated areas pretty much ignored the fact that actually, those lands were
not uninhabited. They had been inhabited by native Americans for thousands of years by that point. No one asked the Indians what they thought of the idea of thousands of people settling on lands that they already occupied, and as has happened innumerable times over the course of the history of our planet, the Native Americans were shoved aside to make way for new, more powerful people.
Over 270 million acres of land were given away by the Federal government, in 30 states. Along the wall at the entrance to the museum there were metal representations of all the states that were involved, with a square cut out of it to indicate how much land was given away in that particular state. This picture shows that Iowa had very little land given away, but Minnesota had a lot.
Once the land had been occupied and cultivated for 5 years, the settler could apply for the official patent (deed) for the land. He or she had to bring two witnesses to the Land Office that would verify the the fact that they had fulfilled the obligations required of them.
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| a restored 1800s homestead cabin |
The Ingalls Family of “Little House On The Prairie” fame tried, (in Kansas) and ultimately succeeded (in South Dakota), in receiving their 160 acres of land from the government.
Of course, there were rules. You had to live on the land for 5 years, build a home on it, and use the land to cultivate crops. Millions of people took advantage of this program until it was abolished in the 1980s. The first successful homesteader had his plot at the location of this museum. His descendants donated the land for the museum. The last homesteader got his 160 acres up in Alaska in 1986. 
