In 1966, my father, a small town general practitioner, discovered a provision in the Homestead Act that allowed a person to ship all of his household belongings and livestock by railroad for purposes of relocating. And so it was he loaded up a boxcar in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, filled on one side with all of our furniture, and the other side containing his prized Tennessee Walker hunting horses and hound dogs. He hired a hunting buddy to ride inside the boxcar and tend the "livestock" as per regulations. Destination: Moscow, Idaho. We then followed along via station wagon for our first trip across the great "Wild West". I still have the original Bill of Lading from the railroad. Total cost: $200.

Hello In regards to obtaining information abaout our ancestors who homesteaded out west. Here is the answer. You can write National Archives Trust Fund (NWCT-1F oom 14N-2) 700 Penn. Ave. N.W. Washington, D.C. 20408 I obtained all the documentation about my grandparents. The cost was $40.00. It was so exciting to get all this information. Best wishes!

Correction: My grandfather homesteded out in South Dakota not Oregon. Thank you!

My grandfather and grandmother homesteaded in Gillette, Wyoming in approximately. I think they would have moved there in approximately 1915-1919(?). My grandfather died in 1933 and on his deathbed asked my grandmother to promise never to sell the homestead. This was a hardship because she was left with three small children to raise alone but she honored his request. I would like to locate a copy of the Homestead documents signed by my grandfather related to his ownership of the Gillette, Wyoming homestead property. I would love to give the documents to my uncle for his 90th birthday in December. He was raised on the Gillette, Wyoming homestead. How would I locate copies of the homestead documents signed by my grandfather. Thank you to anyone who can provide assistance.

The Homestead Act was not all sweetness and light. Millions of Americans were lured West to arid pieces of land, put themselves into debt and struggled desperately to make their claims pay out. Many went bankrupt, committed suicide and were forced to leave their stakes and return, penniless, to urban areas to make a living. Even after WWII, the Homestead Act was used to provide stakes to returning vets -- but all the good farmland was long gone by that point. These poor vets discovered what the earlier homesteaders had learned -- that it was impossible to make much of this land pay. I recommend the excellent book "Bad Land," by Jonathan Raban, which documents the second homestead act in the 1920s.

History is just that, history. Even if you don't agree with how the winners of any conflict won. It's never correct to forget history just because something was said or done that someone finds distasteful. Our nation's culture at the time of the Homestead Act was what is was, no denying that. As stated in the article, the Act allowed for a poor, hard working individual to stake a claim and carve out a place for his family, and in history. History also tell us things like the Homestead Act eventually lead to other cultural and social changes over time and create a country where most of the world's down trodden population strive to go and make a better place for themselves and their families.

I have just finished wading my way through the comments on your article on the Homestead Act and homesteading. Two comment: why is so little written about the Homestead Act? I have searched on line, at the local library, in history books generally and - you name it - and have found little to nothing about the Homestead Act, which I see as an important turning point in the history of this country and especially, of western expansion. Any ideas for research? I am interested because I believe my great-grandfather was a homesteader in Iowa, in the year i863. Comment #2: Have any of the writers who feel we are, as one put it, being chased down the road to socialism, considered the Homestead Act as socialistic? And what if it is - it has worked, and it has by and large benefited this country and many many people who, like my great-grandfather, were trying to find the means to make a home and raise a family.

Fascinating article. My great Uncle Joe and his family Homesteaded in Perry Twp South Dakota in 1877. Often wondered how they survived the hardships, living in a soddie,the weather. There were six children in the family and so they all had chores to do. They were tough people. The first house they built was destroyed by a tornado and they survived the Great Depression. The old man lived to be 95 years old and his son lived to be 99! My relatives fit into your description as the old man was American born in New York state. They went to the Dakota Territory from a farm in Canada leaving in 1865 with four children. They had 2 more children along the way in Iowa. They knew how to survive in those days.

Lets not go bleeding heart, my grandmother was native American, so Native Americans stole land from each other, and killed each other, just as did the Romans, the Greeks, the Germans, so on so on so on, its the history of the world, we can not dwell on that, we rose as a great nation, but with the bleeding heart liberals appologising for everything our nation has done, we are falling, Im not saying we should not learn from our past, but to dwell with unfounded guilt is crippling our nation, my grandmother held no grudges, she said her people fought as valient warriors, and lost as valient warriors to greater warriors, an honerable defeat.

My grandparents and father homesteaded in the early 1900 out in Eagle Butte, SD. Is there any where I could get a copy of the document.

My GG Grandfather homesteaded 160 acres in Oregon. How can I get a copy of his Homestead application?

Native Americans displaced. My ancestors were chased from Virginia to North Carolina to Georgia, to Alabama and finally to Oklahoma, and then in the 1930s were 'chased' in an old car to California. Now our President, thru his spend and tax policies, wants to chase us even further down the road to socialism. When will enough be enough?

"Native Americans would be displaced." This bold, stand alone statement ranks alongside the glorification of LBJ and Lincoln in "The Conscience of the King." The sentence and the article title are puns to be understood by Washington insiders who would kill off poor Americans in the same way that the U.S. Army killed off the Indian People?

I'm sorry I just renewed my subscription. Even the "The Smithsonian" has sold out to our owners and controllers.

Need to know how many and tribal identify of native americans that were displaced from each state? How? To Where? What compensation, if any, was given to them?