(excerpt from the 2015 Institute of Investigative Living reader)

The “Homestead Acts”:

The “Homestead Acts” were several different US laws that gave applicants 160 acres of land, typically called a “homestead”, for little or no cost. They were originally passed as an expression of the Northerners “Free Soil Party” which wanted individual farmers to own and operate their own farms, instead of Southern slave-owners who used groups of slaves to their economic advantage.

The “yeoman farmer”, an ideal of Jeffersonian democracy, was a powerful influence in American politics during the 1840—1850s. Many politicians believed the Homestead Acts would help increase the number of “virtuous yeomen”. The Free Soil Party demanded that new lands opening up in the west be made available to independent farmers, rather than wealthy planters who would develop it with the use of slaves forcing the yeomen farmers onto marginal lands. Southern Democrats continually fought (and defeated) previous homestead law proposals, fearing that free land would attract European immigrants and poor Southern whites to the West. The Homestead Acts required a three-step procedure: 1. File an application 2. Live on and improve the land for five years 3. File for deed of title.

Between 1862 and 1934, the federal government granted a total of 10% of all land in the United States. Homesteading was discontinued in 1976, except in Alaska, where it continued until 1986. About 40% of the applicants who started the process were able to complete it and obtain title to their homesteaded land.

The “Baby” Homestead Act:

The earliest known homesteader in Joshua Tree filed on a site in the Fall of 1911. The land in the desert was impossible to farm — and in 1938 during the height of the Great Depression, President Roosevelt passed the Small-Tract or “baby” Homestead Act — so instead of 160 acres, people were allowed to acquire a 5-acre parcel of land through the “improvement” of building a small structure on non-agricultural sites. Originally this required a 200 square foot cabin, but later this size was increased to 400 square feet. Some of the first homesteaders were World War I Servicemen who wanted to move out to the desert for health reasons (apparently the gases used in warfare had damaged their lungs, and the dry desert climate was easier for them to tolerate than more humid climates).

San Bernardino County was enthusiastic about “getting lands on the tax rolls”, and was not concerned about infrastructure (roads, water, power, schools) to support such development. Because of this, dirt roads are not part of the county maintained road system so the property owners pay for maintenance. Much of the original grid-work of desert roads is now melting back into the desert.

The “baby” Homestead Act boom reached its peak after World War II when thousands of claims were filed in the Morongo Basin, sometimes sight-unseen in unbuildable washes or rock piles. Local companies such as Homestead Supplies grew by serving the “Five Acre People”, developing the quick-rising “jackrabbit” cabin models that could be put up almost overnight to help meet the requirements for proving up a claim. The boom petered out and homesteading came to an end by 1976. Today, the 5-acre homesteads, decaying, rehabilitated or acting as ruined catalysts for new forms of off-the-grid living have become the basis of a special “edge-culture” built upon a combination of resourcefulness, creativity, lack of traditional infrastructure, determination, and diversity that is increasingly rare in the monotonous suburban landscapes of California.