Homestead National Monument of America, Beatrice, Nebraska

In America, the fact about this place is what people did scream

For "free land!" was the cry for many people reaching for their piece of the American Dream

Welcome to Homestead National Monument of America.  The park is here because of the Homestead Act of 1862.  It’s the time when our government gave 160 acres of land to the head of a household.  You had to make improvements and after 5 years the land was yours.  The park sits on one of the first claims under the law.  That’s why it’s located here.  We represent the nearly 4 million people who filed claims in 30 states over 123 years.  It wasn’t repealed until 1986. 

Park’s 5 themes.  It changed the immigration/migration patterns for the whole world, hastened the Industrial Revolution, began a farming evolution, changed the tallgrass prairie into the break basket of the world, and changed the lives of the Native Americans forever.

 Park’s 5 themes expanded.  

·        It changed the immigration/migration patterns for the whole world.  Ellis Island was opened during the height of homesteading (1913) and closed when homesteading subsided.

·        It hastened the Industrial Revolution.  The farms sprouting up needed equipment.  Interchangeable parts and assembly lines were created as well as building plants out west (Chicago & Ohio)

·        It began a farming evolution.  As soon as one process or piece of equipment was created, the farmers figured an even better way to doing things.  Very similar to today’s computer industry.

·        It changed the tallgrass prairie into the break basket of the world.  Less than one percent of the tallgrass prairie still survives.

·        It changed the lives of the Native Americans forever.

For more information, visit: http://www.nps.gov/home