Julius Wilm, Robert K. Nelson & Justin Madron, Land Acquisition and Dispossession
Mapping the Homestead Act, 1863-1912

The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed any adult American citizen who had never taken up arms against the United States to claim up to 160 acres of surveyed government land and "improve" it by building a dwelling and cultivating the land for a period of five years, at the end of which they would receive a title to the land. Over 123 years, the Homestead Act of 1862 granted land claims in 30 states and across 270 million acres, or 10% of the area of the United States. However, the Homestead Act also dispossessed many Native American tribes of their traditional or treaty lands, further pushing them onto reservations. This interactive map by Julius Wilm, Robert K. Nelson, and Justin Madron shows the percentage of claimed land between the years 1863 and 1912, by the end of which, Americans had transformed over 125 million acres of land. The federal government split most states and territories up into a number of land districts, each with a designated office administering that district. On the right side of the map, users can select a fiscal year and view the claims or patents (titles granted) within each land district for that year on the map, which is color coded according to the percentage of land claimed or patented. The map also shows Native American reservations, unceded lands, and conflicts involving Native Americans in the selected year. Users can zoom in to learn more about a state or land district, or study the graph of all claims and patents in the United States.