Homestead National Monument

Nebraska is the home of an exquisite National Park Service monument commemorating the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862. Four miles west of Beatrice in Gage County, situated on 211 acres of land, part of which are some of the first acres that were claimed under the act, the monument was included in the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.

Qualified applicants were allowed to claim up to 160 acres of federally- owned land under this act. To "prove up" a claim, the homesteader had to live on, cultivate, and improve the land over a 5-year period. Many of our Nebraska plains homesteaders did so by living in sod homes or homes cut into hillsides since lumber, windows, flooring, etc., were luxuries they could not afford. My great-grandparents on both my father's (in Kansas) and mother's (Cheyenne County Nebraska), claimed land in this manner -- part of the 270 million acres transferred to private ownership under this act.

If you travel to Beatrice, this park is a must- see. Part of the park is the oldest restored tall grass prairie in the National Park Service. Representing what the homesteaders found when they came to their 160 acres in the central plains and what they nearly destroyed following the mandates of cultivation to claim their land, this grassland example has been nurtured for more than 60 years using mowing, haying and prescribed burns. There are nearly 3 miles of hiking trails (not my thing but I know a lot of people love that) within the prairieland.

A beautiful example of a squared log cabin also exists on the site. The 14' x 16' earth-floored cabin was built in 1867 and lived in for over 60 years. Joining the cabin is the Freeman School, the longest continuously-used one-room school in Nebraska. Built in 1872 using foot-thick red brick and limestone lintels, it is restored to represent a typical 1870s school house.

This visit can be geared to your children or grand-children also when you access the Education Center at the museum. They have hands-on arts and crafts, living history demonstrations, real life science experiences and distance learning available. As an example, scheduled events during the next few months include a Prairie Visions Writing Festival (Grades 9-12) on Sept. 20, Bee Bioblitz ( studying prairie pollinators) on Oct. 2 or Junior Ranger Weekend Nov. 25-27.

Currently, the most important job this group is doing is converting the over 800,000 homestead filings records to digital searchable on-line documents. Nebraska records were the first to be completed in this ongoing project.

This brings me to why I am writing about the Homestead National Monument. On Oct. 15, SWNGS is hosting a Tri-State Genealogy Exposition centered on tracing your ancestors through land records. Our featured speaker, Park Ranger Susan Cook, who serves as Acting Chief, Interpretation and Resource Management (Chief Ranger) at the Homestead National Monument, will be covering not only what you can see and do at the park but also Land Entry Case Files that people can use for research. Even if you are not interested in genealogy, this program is informative for people who are registrars of deeds or land holders.

Following Susan, Tom Corey of McCook will be covering the on-line resources; how to access, search and use them to find the filings for the Homestead Act. This will be a full day of information for genealogists, history buffs and the general public!

For more information you can visit our web site: www.swngs.org, our Facebook page, or email us at swngs@hotmail.com.