Homesteading

Legal Provisions for Homesteading

Homesteading in the United States began in 1863 when the Homestead Act of May 20, 1862, went into effect. The law applied to citizens and to immigrants who declared their intent to become citizens; heads of households or individuals who were at least twenty-one years old could claim tracts of up to 160 acres (64 hectares) under the Homestead Act. Subsequently Congress increased the amount of land a homesteader could claim in more arid regions to 320 and then to 640 acres (128 and 256 hectares, respectively). After filing their claim and paying a filing fee, applicants were required to settle on the land within six months. The law required applicants to affirm that they were not claiming land on behalf of any other person and that they intended to live on and farm the land. Homesteaders were required to spend five years on the land before the government would transfer ownership of the tract. Congress in 1872 decided to allow veterans to count up to four years of service in the military toward the five-year residency requirement. Those who claimed land under the Homestead Act could also legally opt to shorten the residency requirement by purchasing the land from the government for as little as $1.25 an acre. In 1912, Congress reduced the residency requirements from five years to three.

Lands Available for Homesteading

Approximately 600 million acres were available for entry under the Homestead Act following the Civil War. Most of the terrain available for entry was west of the Mississippi River, but millions of acres were also available in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. From 1868, when the first homesteaders received title to their lands, through 1967, the federal government disposed of 267,170,341 acres to 1,322,107 applicants under the provisions of homesteading legislation. In the nineteenth century, Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas attracted the largest number of homesteaders. From 1896 to 1920, the greatest homesteading activity occurred in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, the Dakotas, and Montana. Following passage of the Taylor Grazing Act in 1934, the president temporarily withdrew all public lands from entry with the exception of those in Alaska. Lands that were subsequently found to be suitable for raising crops could be reopened to homesteading, and from 1936 through 1967, applications were filed for 15,481 homesteads. These included applications for homesteads on land newly opened to irrigation by the Bureau of Reclamation in the lower forty-eight states, but the majority of homesteads that were claimed in the post–World War II era were in Alaska. In 1976, Congress approved the Federal Land Policy Management Act, providing for cessation of homesteading over the next decade; after October 21, 1986, homesteading was no longer possible, even in Alaska.

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