Around 1860, towns started to grow in the West, but there was still a lot of unused land. So the Government passed a called the Homestead Act in 1862. Under the new law, anyone over the age of twenty-one could claim 160 acres of land as long as he or she stayed on it for five years. The of free land brought thousands of people from the East to start their homesteads. They came to places like Kansas, Texas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, and the Dakotas. These states are in an area called the Great Plains because the land is flat and open.
Life was hard for the . There was little water on the plains and it was difficult to raise crops. The farmers had oxen* to help them work the fields. Fires and bad weather such as droughts or dust often destroyed the crops. During difficult icy winters, when there was no food, the farmers had to kill and eat their oxen.*
There were not many trees on the plains, so there was no wood to build houses. Homesteaders made their houses by cutting squares of the earth. Then they used the sod** as bricks to make a house. The roof was made of dried or straw with more sod on it. The floor was just earth, and the windows were made of oiled paper.
Some homesteaders found farm life on the plains too difficult and moved farther west; others returned back to the . Many homesteaders, however, stayed on their farms and did well.
oxen: large cattle used for work on farms
sod: the surface of the earth with grass and roots growing on it
