The year 1913 saw the largest amount of federal public land, nearly equal in size to Massachusetts and New Hampshire combined, patented to the largest number of homesteaders than in any other year in the history of homesteading.  In 1913 alone, 59,363 individuals received ownership to 10,884,822 acres by "proving up" under the homestead laws of that time.  Further, 1913 was the only year to see more than 10 million acres become private land under homestead laws, and the only year with more than 54,000 people receiving free land as homesteads.  Clearly, it was a record-breaking year in the history of homesteading.

 

So, why did this happen in 1913?  What was so special about that year? 

 

The reason was due to the passage of new homestead laws in 1909, 1910, and 1912.   These changed two very significant requirements of the original 1862 Homestead Act allowing a homesteader to get more land, and also to get it faster.  The new "Enlarged Homestead" law in 1909 increased to 320 acres from 160 acres the maximum amount of land that could be homesteaded in seven states and two territories: Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, plus Arizona and New Mexico Territories.  In 1910, the law was amended to also apply to Idaho.  Then in mid-1912, the "Three-Year Homestead Law" passed decreasing down to three years from the original five years for the amount of time required of a homesteader to live on the land.  Since the law applied retroactively, suddenly there were many more homesteaders ready to prove-up and get their land for free in 1913 than what would have been normal.  The year 1914 was similar with just under 10 million acres being transferred to 53,308 homesteaders that year.  This was the second largest number of homesteaders get land in any one year and the second largest amount of land being transferred to homesteaders in any single land-again, second only to 1913.

 

While the changes in homestead laws accelerated the process, other factors were also involved in helping make 1913 the peak year for homesteading.  Since the early 1900s, the amount of land patented yearly as homesteads was mostly increasing.  By 1908-1912, it had risen to over 6 million acres yearly, nearly double the acreage awarded as homesteads on average yearly in the 1890s.  The reason was improved transportation and easier access to public lands.  With the steady construction of more railroads in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and then the rise of automobiles in the early 1900s, it became easier and perhaps even cheaper to "go out West" and homestead.  People could book train passage to many areas in the West where land open to homesteading was nearby. 

 

Also adding to the rise of homesteading in the early 20th century were wetter than normal conditions prevailing in the northern Great Plains states.  The same was true in some of the normally dryer parts of the Pacific Northwest including the Big Bend country of eastern Washington and much of central and southern Oregon.  But in the second half of the 1910s, dryer conditions set in causing making a living on some homesteads to become much harder.  Increasing drought conditions that lasted into the 1930s in some areas made it very difficult if not impossible for some homesteaders to "prove up" because of crop failures.  Today, the Bureau of Land Management in Montana and elsewhere manages some public lands where homesteaders filed claims, built cabins, but later had to abandon the land due to the unfavorable weather shifts in the early 20th century.

 

Further Note:  While 1913 saw the largest number of acres pass into the hands of homesteaders than in any other year, the year 1902 saw the most people of any year apply for homesteads (98,829).  Further, the year 1910, just after passage of the 1909 Enlarged Homestead Act, came in a close second with 98,598 people filing applications for homesteads.  That same year of 1910 saw the largest number of acres (18,329,115) claimed under homestead applications than in any other year in homesteading history.  Thus, the year 1910 also enters the history books as another special "peak" year for homesteading.