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homesteader were recognized. The Kincaid Act of 1904 made it possible for settlers in certain counties in western Nebraska to file on a full 640-acre section of land. While still inadequate for ranching, this acreage was more realistic than the quarter section allowed under the Homestead Act. About the same time, the Reclamation Act of 1902 was passed, which permitted the settler to homestead on property irrigated by Government recla- mation projects if he would bear part of the project construction costs. In 1906, the Forest Homestead Act permitted home- steading on a small scale of 160-acre tracts in national forests. In 1909, the Enlarged Homestead Act was passed, which made it possible to file on a 320-acre homestead in nine different states and territories in the West. In 1912, the residence requirement on homesteads was shortened to 3 years, thus making it easier to acquire a homestead. Finally, in 1916, the Stock Raising Homestead Act was passed, providing for 640-acre homesteads on land that had been classified for stock raising. In general, the homestead era ended about 1920, with a few homesteads being filed on as late as 1935 when President Roosevelt temporarily withdrew all such public lands subject to classification for private entry. Actually the Homestead Act and other land settlement laws are still part of the Federal Statutes, but currently they have limited practical value due to the small amount of economically manageable agricultural land remaining in public ownership. Following their eastern heritage, the first settlers on the prairies of the Missouri Basin staked their claims on the rich bottom lands along the rivers where both water and timber were plentiful. For these first arrivals, the pioneer experience did not differ greatly from that in the eastern part of the country. The settler cleared his land, using felled trees to build a rail fence and to construct and warm his home. His dwelling was the familiar log cabin, usually comprising one room about 12 by 16 feet. Nails were expensive and scarce, so hardwood pegs in augerbored holes were used wherever necessary. The more primitive cabins lacked windows, had dirt floors, and in lieu of a door the owner closed the entrance with a piece of carpet or buffalo skin. Puncheon floors of crudely split logs, together with greased paper windows and wooden doors hung on hide hinges, were found in the better dwellings. The best timbered areas soon were occupied, and later arrivals were likely to find only crooked trunks and branches with which to build. Especially for homes built of such materials, the spaces between the logs were chinked with mud and twigs, which were likely to fall out, permitting wind, dust, rain, and snow to enter. If the settler became wealthy enough and if a sawmill was established in the neighborhood, the log cabin might be replaced with a 26 frame 'house. However, as late as 1860, the owner of such a dwelling ran the risk of being looked upon as "high-toned." For the river bottom settler the most important crop, as it had been in the East, was corn. There were oxen to pull his plow and a cow or two for milk, together with a few pigs which either shared the corn or were allowed to root in the woods for nuts. By 1840, the choice wooded areas along the streams in the areas open for settlement had been occupied. The American pioneer finally entered upon the treeless prairies. In his contemplation, he considered the soils of the region rich and the rainfall and growing seasons right for bountiful crops. Furthermore, he could avoid the grueling labor of clearing the land, but without timber what would he burn for fuel and of what materials would he build his house? Aside from these practical considerations, the open, undulating prairies often pro- duced a psychological uneasiness that one observer described in the following manner - "You look on, on, on, out into space, out almost beyond time itself. You see nothing but the rise and swell of land and grass, and then more grass - the monotonous, endless prairie! A stranger traveling on the prairie would get his hopes up expecting to see something different on making the next rise. To him the disappointment and monotony were terrible. 'He's got loneliness,' we would say of such a man." The settler's first response to this challenge of the prairie was to postpone its occupancy as long as possible. Instead, he would, and did, jump across the prairies, plains, mountains, and deserts to the lush wooded areas of the northern Pacific Coast, which were akin to the forests and valleys he had known in the East. Thus began the great covered-wagon migration along the Oregon Trail. A thin migration of settlers and pioneering mission- aries began in the late 1830's, followed by a heavier migration in the mid-1840's. For years, a stream of migrants journeyed along the Oregon Trail in their white-topped wagons, despite the hazards of floods, desert dust, quagmire, marauding Indians, and disease that laid thousands in trailside graves. The westward migration boom really got underway after the discovery of ,gold in California in 1848. In the following two decades, more than 150,000 men, women, and children made the trek across the Great Plains westward to California and Oregon. The tales told by the Oregon emigrants of their hardships in the Great Plains region were not en- couraging to the frontier farmer who stopped along the way, but, at the same time, they helped ease some of the fear of that little-known region. This treeless belt did not