President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act making millions of government owned acres in the west available to "homesteaders". The Act granted 160 acres of surveyed public land to US citizens who agreed to live on and improve the land for five years. The act took effect on January 1, 1863.
It was a major, progressive piece of legislation encouraging the settlement and development of the American West and providing opportunities for many groups, including immigrants, single women, and formerly enslaved people, to become landowners. More
