Pictures taken from http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may20.html and http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/civil/jb_civil_homested_3_e.html
One of the biggest impacts of the Homestead Act was adding states. Over the period of the Homestead Act more than 270 million acres of land where cultivated. The Oklahoma Land Rush was an example of the kind of publicity that the
Homestead Act created. When the Oklahoma Territory, 2,000,000 acres, went over to the public 50,000 people put
in a claim for land on the property. Hamilton S. Wicks wrote, “A city was established and populated in half a day, in a remote region of the country and many miles distant from the heaviest civilized community, is a marvel in no age but our own, and in no land except the United States. The opening of the Oklahoma was indeed one of the most important events that had occurred in the development of the West…Never before has there been such a general uprising of the common people seeking homesteads upon the few remaining acres possessed by Uncle Sam.” ("Hamilton S. Wicks" 203-206). There were mule teams carrying people and there were people on horseback. In the homesteaders perspective going to Oklahoma was not about adding states but about claimed land for their own good.
The industrial revolution affected the Homestead Act and enabled machinery to dominate and cultivate the area making the process easier and faster for land to be acquired. The adrenaline rush was what got most out on their feet and moving towards the call of free land. Homesteaders had different outcomes as well as perspectives on the situation. Hamilton describes it as a contest, he wrote, “Here was a unique contest in which thousands participated and which was to occur but once for all time…The race was not over when you reached the particular lot you were content to select for your possession. The contest still was who should drive their stake first, who would erect their little tent soonest,
and then, who would quickest build a little wooden shanty.” ("Hamilton S. Wicks" 203-206). When states had been accepted into the Union the government would pay them ten percent of the money that the government had earned from homesteaders as a benefit.
Homestead Act created. When the Oklahoma Territory, 2,000,000 acres, went over to the public 50,000 people put
in a claim for land on the property. Hamilton S. Wicks wrote, “A city was established and populated in half a day, in a remote region of the country and many miles distant from the heaviest civilized community, is a marvel in no age but our own, and in no land except the United States. The opening of the Oklahoma was indeed one of the most important events that had occurred in the development of the West…Never before has there been such a general uprising of the common people seeking homesteads upon the few remaining acres possessed by Uncle Sam.” ("Hamilton S. Wicks" 203-206). There were mule teams carrying people and there were people on horseback. In the homesteaders perspective going to Oklahoma was not about adding states but about claimed land for their own good.
The industrial revolution affected the Homestead Act and enabled machinery to dominate and cultivate the area making the process easier and faster for land to be acquired. The adrenaline rush was what got most out on their feet and moving towards the call of free land. Homesteaders had different outcomes as well as perspectives on the situation. Hamilton describes it as a contest, he wrote, “Here was a unique contest in which thousands participated and which was to occur but once for all time…The race was not over when you reached the particular lot you were content to select for your possession. The contest still was who should drive their stake first, who would erect their little tent soonest,
and then, who would quickest build a little wooden shanty.” ("Hamilton S. Wicks" 203-206). When states had been accepted into the Union the government would pay them ten percent of the money that the government had earned from homesteaders as a benefit.
Taken from http://www.lisarivero.com/2013/02/09/the-homestead-act-of-1862/