' friday, October 7, 1977
section b
.v
omesteading
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The final dream
is disappearing
It was summertime when
Luke Lavender pulled up to
the corner of what is now
14th and 0 Sts. Accom
panied by his wife and four
children, Lavender had just
arrived from Dayton, Ohio,
to settle in Nebraska.
In 1863 the site of Lav
ender's three-room log cabin
bore little resemblance to
the' busy downtown inter
section it is today.
Lavender was the first
homesteader to arrive at
what four years later would become the city of Lincoln. A comemorative plaque at 14th
and 0 Sts. is all that remains of the first Lincoln homesteader, who abandoned 19th cen
tury civilization for the unsettled West and a piece of land he could call his own.
Every so often the dream of leaving everything and striking out to claim your own iso
lated .bit of land seems as distant as the days when Lavender first arrived in Nebraska.
Sitting in my fluorescent-lighted, climate-controlled office, it seemed likely that with
the convenience of a WATS line I could contact some nebulous bureaucrat in some
concrete-gray office in a modern magapolis half way across the country who could tell
me where to find my land.
But a few touch tones later, I was dismayed to find that escape to an unclaimed piece
of land I could call my own was unreachable. Homesteading has gone the way of the Wild
West and Lavender's log cabin.
For all practical purposes, it doesn't exist anymore.
In fact, homesteading in the United States has been legally extinct for almost a year.
According to Paul Herndon, a public: information specialist with the U.S. Pept, of the
Interior, "there has been no homesteading to amount to anything for the last 50 years.
"When Congress repealed the Homestead Act in 1976, we'd been out of good home
steading land for 50 years," Herndon said,
The Homestead Act, .passed by Congress in 1862, allowed settlers to claim as much as
160 acres office land, with the stipulation that they live on and cultivate that land fo?
five years. Congress repealed the act in October, 1976, closing the last American frontier,
Only Alaska, which has a 10-year extension on the repeal remains open for home
steading. But don't pack up your tents and sleeping bags yet. Herndon explained that un
settled Alaskan land must first be divided between the state, the Federal government, and
the native Alaskan tribes before being opened to homesteading.
"It means absolutely nothing to a person in Lincoln until we get the native claims
settled," Herndon said. He, added that it was his personal speculation that Alaska would
never be opened for homesteading again.
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Soloman D. Buther CollectionNebraska State Historical Society
Some early Nebraskan homesteaders.
Despite the legal action, many Americans seem to think the western United States is
still unexplored territory.
Haywood Meeks, also a public information specialist with the Dept. of the Interior,
said his office receives calls regularly from citizens seeking homesteading information.
"Mostly they're city dwellers," Meeks said. "They think there's a mountain top some
where where they can go,"
Herndon added that most callers don' realize what homesteading entails.
"A lot of this is spur-of-the-moment interest. "A small percentage would go if they
could. Why do people think it's simple to become a farmer?" Herndon said,
, Although Herndon admittedly thinks homesteading is a "romantic deception" to most
Americans, there are a few options for the serious land seeker,
"There's a lot of scattered land," he said. "We can't get around very often to review
it, so it's just better to" sell it," Herndon added that the land is sold at the government's
convenience rather than to meet public demand.
"Real estate, no matter where it is, is expensive. Most public land would cost more
than comparable private land," Herndon said.
Canada is another option for homesteaders, but Herndon sws quick to add that he
was sure they wouldn't' listen to anyone unless they gave up their American citizenship.'"
The Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C., confirmed Herndon's prediction.
Canadian homesteading is strictly for that country's citizens, according to Mrs. M,
Fabian, embassy librarian.
Fabian added that there is practically no land left in the country for homesteaders,
"I get at least ten questions a week on homesteading," Fabian said. She added that she
does not handle homesteading claims because what little land is still available must be
negotiated with the government in the respective province.
Homesteading is not as glorious as most people envision it, Herndon said,
"Men really had to work at it to become a successful homesteader," he said. 'The guy
who had to go out there and just make a living off the land had a hard time." ,
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