1. Introduction to American Studies Settling the West

2. What to do with Federal lands? When new states were formed, most of the land remained under Federal control  Even today this is the case (Nevada) Pre-Civil War During the Civil War  Homestead Act of 1862  Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862

3. The federal government controls 86.1 percent of the land Of the remaining 13.9 percent, 11.5 percent is privately owned, 1.6 percent tribal, 0.4 percent local, and 0.4 percent state government owned Black areas indicate federal owned or controlled lands

4. Township and Range system Northwest Ordinances of 1785 and 1787 Township consists of 36 sections Each section is 1 square mile or 640 acres – 259 hectares Sections divided in quarter sections (160 acres/65 ha) 1 section left for local schooling

6. 60” = 1524 mm 40” = 1016 mm 20” = 508 mm Minimum required for maize is 20” Desert is defined as less than 500 mm annually Average for ČR is 693 mm

8. Advertising for homesteads This poster alerted many to inexpensive land for sale in Iowa and Nebraska CREDIT: "Millions of Acres. Iowa and Nebraska. Land for Sale on 10 years Credit by the Burlington & Missouri River R. R. Co. at 6 per ct Interest and Low Prices... " Burlington & Missouri River Railroad Co., 1872. An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera, American Memory collections, Library of Congress.

9. The High Prairie – Lower Brule Indian Reservation (South Dakota)

10. The reality of homesteading

11. CREDIT: McCarthy, John, photographer. "John Bakken Sod House, Milton, North Dakota." Circa 1895. The Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920: Photographs from the Fred Hultstrand and F.A. Pazandak Photograph Collections, American Memory collections, Library of Congress.

12. A Nebraska homesteading family, 1880s

13. A sod house (circa 1880-1900)

14. Life in on the Plains

17. Selling railroad lands

18. A History of the Morrill Land Grant Act (1862)