Homestead Act: Resources

There’s an entire National Park dedicated to the memory of the Homestead Act. Daniel Freeman’s homestead is appropriately the focus of Homestead National Monument in where else but Homestead, Nebraska. The site is full of tasty tidbits and factoids.

This is a pretty intense look at the Oklahoma Land Rush and a side of reality about homesteading.

This would be the government’s take on historical context and the shaping of the Homestead Act.

This is a much more extensive timeline (with pictures) about the events leading up to and beyond the Homestead Act. Seriously, we’re talking 1785 to 2000.

This site pulls no punches when listing off where the Homestead Act went wrong.

This is a run-down of quite a few of the problems involved in homesteading.

No list is ever complete without the History Channel’s take on something. Good synopsis, but the linked videos and articles are awesome.

Feel up to a silent movie? Buster Keaton does his comedic thing in a movie that epitomizes the dream of Westward Expansion.

The Marx brothers. 'Nuff said.

Okay, so the voice-over is a little something, but the first half is full of amazing historical photographs of homesteaders. The second half is more about modern "homesteading" or living off the land, which isn't really about the Homestead Act, but it's worth the watch.

Five minutes about the Homestead Act, problems with homesteading, and changing the course of the West.

Sure, it’s an hour of your life, but this is chock full of primary source material.

A tiny snippet of an interview with Ken Deardorff about homesteading.

Want to see the actual Homestead Act?

Take a look at a map of where the Homestead Act applied (marked in brown).

This is David Freeman’s Homestead Certificate, the very first issued under the Homestead Act. And a few more certificates under the Homestead Act, including the last one in 1988.

Ken Deardorff and the final iteration of his homestead.