Picture: Daniel Freeman, one of the first people to file a claim under the Homestead Act of 1862
Several years ago NPR did two stories on the New Homestead Act, a congressional effort to rejuvenate dying rural areas of the Great Plains. Both stories reference the original Homestead Act and the first settlements. They are interesting supplements to Old Jules.
Reviving the Great Plains with Homesteading - David Welna
Weekend Edition Sunday, July 27, 2003 · The 1862 Homestead Act provided 160-acre parcels of land to settlers willing to populate the Western United States. With many original homestead towns dying, two senators have proposed new homestead legislation to revive the Great Plains. NPR's David Welna reports from the Capitol.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1358765
The New Homestead Act - Howard Berkes
Weekend Edition Sunday, July 27, 2003 · New Bill Aims to Repopulate Dying Towns Across the Great Plains
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1342240
Dennis:
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this info about the Homestead Act and linking to Homestead National Monument of America from your blog.
For those that don't know, the monument is a National Park Service unit that interprets the history of the Homestead Act of 1862. We're in Beatrice, Nebraska, on the site of Daniel Freeman's homestead. (Freeman is the scary-looking guy at the top of this page.)
Homestead has been here since 1936, and for years the site celebrated the Homestead Act and Freeman. Over the last ten years or so, we've started looking much for critically at the law and presenting a much more balanced interpretation. The Homestead Act was a great thing for a lot of people and did a lot of good, but there was plenty about it that wasn't so good, either. The environmental impacts and the continuation of American Indian displacement are two examples.
All are encouraged to visit and learn more about the positive and negative implications of the Homestead Act. Hope to see you here sometime.
Todd Arrington
Historian
Homestead National Monument of America
Of course I meant to say "much MORE critically," not "much FOR critically." Typing too fast!
ReplyDeleteTodd Arrington
Historian
Homestead National Monument of America