Curated OER
National Park Service: Homestead National Monument: History and Culture
An extensive site that covers many aspects of the Homestead Act, including biographies, charts, and the text of the act. From the National Park Service.
Curated OER
National Park Service: Homestead National Monument: Exodusters
Read about the reasons for the extensive black migration to Kansas, especially in the 1870s. These emigrants were called Exodusters. From the National Park Service.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Our Story: Life in a Sod House
Imagine moving into a house made out of sod that you and your family had to build in the middle of a prairie! Find great information and activities that will help you understand how it felt to live on the prairie.
Curated OER
National Park Service: Adeline Hornbeck and the Homestead Act
This Teaching with Historic Places lesson effectively depicts the life of a pioneer woman and ways in which the Homestead Act impacted her life. The site includes lesson plans, inquiry questions, and photos that may be used in covering...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Sodbusters!
From the National Endowment for the Humanities, a lesson plan on sod construction on the American prairie, "Sodbusters!" includes several links to related information and four activities: "Designing a Home," "Sodbusters and Their Homes,"...
US National Archives
Nara: Teaching With Documents: The Homestead Act of 1862
A lesson plan about the Homestead Act of 1862 with much background information about previous land grants made by the U.S. government,
PBS
Pbs the West: The Homestead Act May 20, 1862
The critically acclaimed PBS series, "The West," provides the text of the Homestead Act of 1862.
Wessels Living History Farm
Living History Farm: Farming in the 1920s
Experience what farming was like in Nebraska in the 1920s. Many farms lacked electricity, indoor plumbing, refrigerators, and other conveniences enjoyed by city dwellers. Stories, pictures, and videos make the history of rural 1920s...
US National Archives
Laura Ingalls Wilder Teaching Unit: Pioneer Life With Laura
A great lesson plan using the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder to teach about pioneer life on the plains. Filled with before reading and during reading activities and questions.
Curated OER
National Park Service: National Historic Landmark Nomination: Bonanza Farm [Pdf]
On this site you will find the application to the National Park Service to include the Bagg Bonanza Farm as a National Landmark. The first part describes what is found on the land now, but if you'll scroll through the history of...
Nebraska Studies
Nebraska Studies: Building a Sod House
Here's great information on building sod houses. You can even watch a video of a famous two-story sod house that stood until 1967.
University of Manitoba
History of Cooperatives
This page gives a brief history of cooperatives, and describes several types of agricultural co-ops, such as marketing, supply and surplus.
Library of Congress
Loc: America's Story: The Homestead Act Went Into Effect
This 4-page article discusses the Homestead Act of 1862 and its effects.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Frontier Life: Uncle Sam Is Rich Enough to Give Us All a Farm
In this companion essay to the PBS series, Frontier House, you can see how the Homestead Act opened up the frontier to ordinary citizens, eager for a chance to own their own property.
Library of Congress
Loc: African American Mosaic: Western Migration and Homesteading
Contains text and photos on the African-American exodus to the West. Includes primary source documents and maps from the era.
Legends of America
Legends of Kansas: Exodusters of Kansas
A look at the exodusters and the reasons the blacks left the South and migrated to Kansas after the Civil War.
Other
Postbellum African American Society and Culture: Black Migration
From the Encyclopedia of American Social History. Read about the black migration to the West, primarily Kansas and Oklahoma after the end of Reconstruction and the institution of black codes in the South.
Curated OER
National Park Service: Stories of the Westward Expansion: Exodus to Freedom
Contains an article written on the African American exodus to Kansas to farm in the late 19th century.
Other
Selected Essays on Barbed Wire: Brief History of Barbed Wire
Provides information on the development and use of barbed wire. Includes biographies on Joseph F. Glidden, Jacob Haish, and Isaac L. Ellwood, who were instrumental in its invention and marketing. For more information on barbed wire,...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Life on the Farm
With the passage of the Homestead Act, settlers could own 160 acres for free. Read about the problems that faced the new farmers both economically and from Mother Nature.
Utah Education Network
Uen: Utah History Encyclopedia: Dry Farming in Utah
Provides information about dry farming in general as well as specific information about dry farming in Utah.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Frontier Life: Frontier Education and the One Room Schoolhouse
See how much public education has changed from the one-room schoolhouse days of the frontier. From a companion essay to the PBS series, Frontier House.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Frontier Life: Food on the Frontier
Would you clean your plate if you had to eat what frontier families served in eastern Montana? Find out what's on the menu from this companion essay to the PBS series, Frontier House.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Frontier Life: Creating a Home on the Frontier
Making a house a home was a struggle on the plains. This companion essay to the PBS series, Frontier House, describes the problems with getting water, outhouses, and furnishing the sod house.