LIVECottonwood Connections - The Opportunity and Risk of the Homestead Act
In 1862, the United States government created the Homestead Act, fueling westward expansion across the continent by providing settlers the opportunity to claim 160 acres, provided they could pay the small application fee, improve the claim, and (often more challenging) live on it for five years. Some succeeded. Most did not. Don Rowlison walks us through how the Homestead Act worked, how some people worked the system, and how this legislation and its promise of ?free land? was integral in shaping life on the Great Plains.
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