1. Settling of the Great Plains
Homestead Act
Exoduster
Soddy
Morrill Act
Bonanza Farm

2. Homestead Act RR companies began to expand westward
Build by immigrants
Chinese
Irish
Mexican
Former Slaves
RR Companies sold some land for farms
Bought mostly by immigrants

3. Homestead Act cont.
1862
Offered 160 acres free to any citizen who was a head of household
Land was largely claimed by companies and private speculators
10% was settled by families
Some land wasn’t as fertile as others
Required more land to turn a profit

4. Homestead Act cont. 1889 Act was strengthened
Land rush in Oklahoma (Sooner State)
2 million acres were claimed in less than a day
By million acres of gov’t land was sold
End of the frontier

5. Exodusters
,000 former slaves take advantage of homestead opportunities in Kansas

6. Soddy Many people lived in caves, dugouts or soddys
Stacks of prairie sod built as walls
Warm in the winter
Cool in the summer
Little light
Dirt floor
bugs

8. Morrill Act
1862 and 1890
Gave federal land to help finance agricultural colleges
Worked with the Hatch Act
Established agricultural experiment stations to inform farmers about new farming techniques
Both helped the Midwest to become the nation’s “breadbasket”

9. Bonanza Farms Farms that focused on a single, enormous crop
15,000-50,000 acres
Not flexible
Large drought
Bonanza farms were not flexible enough to survive
Many went bankrupt
Many farmers were impacted by falling cost of grain, rising taxes, and railroad companies
Farmers would become an important political machine