Land, free for the taking, just waiting for someone to work hard enough to claim it as their own. Does a sentence like that send shivers of longing and hope down your spine?
“But those days are gone” you may concede with a sigh. Gone along with the covered wagon, the real cowboy, and herds of bison as far as the eye can see. The best we can do is try to make do with our postage-stamp city backyards and illegal urban chickens, right?
I am delighted to tell you that you’re wrong. Yes, even in 2021, there is still unclaimed, free land out there. It’s not the same world as when the Homestead Act of 1862 sent streams of would-be settlers west, but that doesn’t mean opportunities aren’t available.
And for the record, the last claim officially staked was granted in 1988 (in Alaska), so the era of homesteading isn’t as dusty as you may have thought.
Take heart you modern homesteaders-to-be, back-to-the-landers of a new decade, and city-stuck dreamers with motivation and willingness to try. It will require a lot from you, but you too, can stake your claim in the 21st一个世纪,选择一种不同于你现在的生活。
Let’s dive into where and how you can find a patch of land to call your own, and all without needing to go into the mental prison of debt.
A Very Brief History of the Homestead Act of 1862
To encourage the settlement and American-style property development of the western United States, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act onMay 20, 1862. The requirements for a prospective settler were surprisingly open for the time period. People of any race, freed slaves, immigrants or American citizens, men or women were all eligible.
All that was really required of the “application” was that you needed to be over 21 years old, the head of your household (or the only one in your household, for all the single people), have never raised arms against the United States, and have two witnesses confirm these facts. If all that was set, you were welcome to give it a shot.
Thebasic premiseof the original homestead act was that a family would be granted 160 acres of land if they paid a small fee and then “proved” they were able to work the land and improve it — notably, by getting a house in place. Every homesteader had five years to prove their claim. As a result, claim shanties sprang up as fast as the new inhabitants could build them, and the race against time to turn prairie into productive farmland began.
Now, if you read the “Little House on the Prairie” series as a kid, you’ve been acquainted with the triumphs and failures of this bold venture into the wild. An adult reading will probably make you much more sensitive to the fact that it wasn’t “unpopulated land free-for-the-taking,” however — theOsage peoplewere so recently shoved off Ma and Pa Ingalls claim that Laura and her sisters spent some of their childhood exploring their newly-abandoned camps.
尽管对无畏的早期定居者的勇敢描述确实鼓舞人心,但当你意识到无数的家庭、村庄和印第安人的国家被强制迁移,为这些新定居者让出空间时,故事中不可否认的黑暗暗面。
So when you look at it as a whole, the heart of the Homestead Act was really the young United States itself staking a claim on the landmass it was prying out of indigenous control. The Federal Government used any and every willing settler to set out and build the rough infrastructure for future development. Suffice to say, all history is pretty complicated, once you start digging.
Now fast-forward to 2021 and times are different, to say the least. The tracts of available free land are fewer and farther between, and proving your claim isn’t quite as hard as it was in the past (well, at least as far as fighting packs of wolves and blizzards are concerned). The reasons for states and countries to offer free land have changed, too.
Related Post:Getting Started With Self-Sufficient Living (and Why It IS Possible)
Rather than encouraging rural development and westward expansion, many modern homesteading programs are attempting to revitalize and repopulate old towns with aging populations, rekindle the agricultural traditions of rural areas where local interest has waned, or welcome life and community back into old cities thatlost their core industries.
这种免费的重新开始的机会无疑会吸引很多人。也许你们中的一些人渴望过自己的家庭生活,但却被有限的经济状况所束缚。也许你想有机会过上便宜而简单的生活,在你还债的时候离土地更近。
Undoubtedly (like many of us) you have found that life in the city is soul-deadening and empty, and you’re looking for a more meaningful, purposeful way to live. Homesteading has always been an answer to those questions, both in 1862 and now.
I’ll do my best to report the requirements for free land opportunities as well as I can, but keep in mind, the conditions of these situations are changing constantly. If you browse through older articles on this topic, you’ll largely run into online dead-ends, broken links, and closed programs for free or cheap land.
So all I can promise is these links were viable and the programs were still open as of February 2021. As you go on this search, remember that the best bet you have for finding the most accurate information is to contact the program yourself, and get the up-to-date information straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.
说了这么多,让我们深入到你可能仍然主张免费土地并重新开始的地方。
Free Land in America
As we’ve discussed, modern homesteading is not the same as historical homesteading. Many of the lots are much smaller — sometimes given in square feet rather than acres, and some more urban programs don’t allow you to have livestock. Rather than being surrounded by wilderness, some lots are surrounded by city blocks.
On the other hand, some sites are still so remote that you can only reach them by plane or boat! But the method of proving your claim is still the same — you’ll need to build a home on the land given to you within a time limit and prove your residency.
As you peruse, please remember: This list is not exhaustive, not by a long shot, but it offers a variety of programs meant to give you inspiration. Even if your solution is not on this list, keep hunting, searching, and asking. Your land is out there.
Urban Homestead Program
Buffalo, New York
Do you have at least $5,000 in the bank to use for repairs,$1 to spend, and an appreciation for snow? Then you have all you need to start an urban homestead on some basically free land. New York’sUrban Homestead Programis revitalizing unused, abandoned, and empty lots in an urban setting.
You have a few options: Add an empty lot next to your existing urban homestead, turn a plot into a garden, or purchase an assortment of unused lots to make a homestead from scratch.
Free Lots
Lincoln, Kansas
There are several free lots available at the end of some cul-de-sacs in the town of Lincoln, Kansas. You’re required to build your own home, but you won’t have to do the hard work of establishing utilities — they’re already there, waiting for a house to use them.
For home gardeners, this may be a great opportunity, but for those wanting the full-on homestead life, complete with animals and an alternatively built, off-grid house, you may have to look elsewhere for free land — farm animals aren’t allowed, and the house they want you to build will need to be conventional. But still, there are definitely available lots of get started.
Free Lots
Marquette, Kansas
The small town of Marquette, Kansas is offeringfree land lots(and more than one, if you’re interested in having a bigger garden or a workshop) to prospective house builders. All utilities are already installed and available.
Homestead Act Residential Application
Mankato, Kansas
A small town of just over 900 people may become your new home. Mankato, Kansas is offeringfree land lotsto home builders in their rural environment. A short list of building requirements is there to guide you in building the type of house that makes the program work.
Land Reuse Program
Detroit, Michigan
底特律土地银行管理局(Detroit Land Bank Authority)在该市拥有数千块未使用的土地,并希望它们不仅仅是空置的土地。Though it’s not technically free land at$100 a pop, you could hardly ask for a better deal on an urban lot. An innovative urban homesteader could patchwork together an amazing garden systemlike these folks(though you’ll have to grapple with Detroit’s outdated livestock ordinances).
This program does, admittedly, come with risks. Having driven through several of these neighborhoods personally, I can attest that describing some of them as “rough around the edges” is putting it kindly. But you can find good neighbors anywhere you look, and perhaps your homestead will be another step towards Detroit’s recovery from their rust-belt decline.
Incentive Program
Curtis, Nebraska
Free land in Curtis, Nebraskais available for industrial, commercial, and residential use. A rural low-crime neighborhood, they are offering incentives for families with children to choose their town as a new home.
Free Land Program
Flagler, Colorado
Online information for this program is scant, so all I can offer you isthe bread-crumb trail of a town and their website— if you think this may be the area for you, it’s time to make a few calls and ask a lot of questions.
Alaska Native Veterans Program of 2019
Alaska
Probably one of the last, true wildernesses out there in the United States, Alaska is not a land for the faint of heart. Often accessible only by boat or plane with snowy landscapes, howling winter winds, and wild wolves. This wilderness calls out to the rugged adventurer with dogged persistence.
There are around1.5 million Alaskan acres available按照最初的《宅地法》(Homestead Act)的精神,这个项目的分配面积可达160英亩。
这个项目的申请人必须是阿拉斯加土著遗产的退伍军人或他们的继承人。虽然这肯定会筛选出可供选择的人,但如果你符合要求,你可能已经找到了家。
There’s a lot more to the story than these free land programs, however. Both Australia and the UK have had their own iterations of a homestead act-type program, and there are undoubtedly other opportunities in countries around the world.
If you know of an active program I’ve missed, please post it in the comments and add to the current knowledge base. And in all cases, as it was back in 1862 and is now, the big factor is not whether there’s free land — but whether there are motivated people to go through the massive effort to claim it as their own. What will your adventure be?
Mike Cavanaughsays
Another 10 years we can live in any country for free when you consider every ingrate in the world will be living in the USA by then.