Homestead Act
From Freepedia
The Homestead Act is a piece of U.S. legislation which gave one quarter of a section of a township (160 acres, or about 65 hectares) of undeveloped land in the American West to any family head provided he lived on it for five years, or allowed the family head to buy it for $1.25 per acre ($308/km²) after six months.
The act was signed into law by President Lincoln on May 20, 1862.
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History
By the end of the 19th century, over 570 million acres (2,300,000 km²) remained open to settlement, but very little of this was usable for agriculture. As the Frontier moved west onto the arid Great Plains the amount of land a homesteader was allowed to claim was changed to 640 acres (2.6 km²), a full section.
In 1906, the Forest Homestead Act was passed. The Homestead Act of 1912 reduced the homestead requirement from five to three years.
Although a few isolated pockets remained into the 1950s most land in the lower 48 states had been taken up by 1910 or so. Homesteading continued on a small scale in Alaska. Much of the remaining public domain was included in the National Forests or is administered by the Bureau of Land Management.
In Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado homesteading cut into the access of the large ranches to the public domain where hundreds of thousands of cattle were grazed upon the open range, a practice called free grazing. The ranchers fought back by themselves (or their cowboys) homesteading prime spots which gave access to water. At times tensions escalated into violence, conflicts called range wars, for example, the Johnson County War in Wyoming.
First claim
The first claim under the Homestead Act was made by Daniel Freeman for a farm in Nebraska on January 1, 1863.
Last claim
The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 ended homesteading; the government believing that the best use of public lands was for them to remain in government control. The only exception to this new policy was Alaska, for which the law allowed homesteading until 1986.
The last claim under the Homestead Act was made by Kenneth Deardorff for 80 acres (32 ha) of land on the Stony River in south-western Alaska. He fulfilled all requirements of the Homestead Act in 1979, but he did not actually receive his patent until May 1988. Therefore, he is the very last person to receive the title to land claimed under the provisions of the Homestead Act.
Fraud and corporate use
- Image:Stop hand.png The factual accuracy of this section is disputed. Please view the article's talk page.
The intent of the Homestead Act was to grant land for agriculture. However in the arid areas west of the Rocky Mountains 640 acres was generally too little land for a viable farm (at least prior to major public investments in irrigation projects). In these areas homesteads were instead used to control resources, especially water. A common scheme was for an individual acting as a front for a large cattle operation to file for a homestead surrounding a water source under the pretense that the land was being used as a farm. Once granted, use of that water source would be denied to other cattle ranchers, effectively closing off the adjacent public land to competition. This method could also be used to gain ownership of timber and oil-producing land, as the Federal Government charges royalties for extraction of these resources from public lands. It was generally pointless for land containing "locatable minerals" such as gold and silver which could be controlled through mining claims and for which the Federal Government did not charge royalties.
There was no systematic method used to evaluate claims under the Homestead Act. Land offices would rely on affidavits from witnesses that the claimant had lived on the land for the required period of time and made the required improvements. In practice many of these witnesses were bribed or otherwise in cahoots with the claimant.
Legacy
International derivations
The act was later copied with some modifications by Canada in the form of the Dominion Lands Act, and similar acts, usually termed the Selection Acts were passed in the various Australian colonies in the 1860s, beginning in 1861 in New South Wales.
See also
External links
- Homestead Act and related resources at the Library of Congress
- Homestead National Monument of America
Categories: Accuracy disputes | 1862 in law | Historic United States federal legislation | History of the American West | United States public land law
