Homestead National Monument
| Homestead National Monument of America | |
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IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)
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| Location | Gage County, Nebraska, USA |
| Nearest city | Beatrice, NE |
| Coordinates | 40°17′07″N 96°49′19″W / 40.28528°N 96.82194°WCoordinates: 40°17′07″N 96°49′19″W / 40.28528°N 96.82194°W |
| Area | 211 acres (85 ha) |
| Authorized | March 19, 1936 |
| Visitors | 69,845 (in 2011) |
| Governing body | National Park Service |
| Website | Homestead National Monument of America |
Homestead National Monument of America, a unit of the National Park System, commemorates passage of the Homestead Act of 1862, which allowed any qualified person to claim up to 160 acres (0.65 km2) of federally owned land in exchange for five years of residence and the cultivation and improvement of the property. The Act eventually transferred 270,000,000 acres (1,100,000 km2) from public to private ownership.
The national monument is four miles west of Beatrice, Gage County, Nebraska on a site that includes some of the first acres successfully claimed under the Homestead Act. The national monument was first included in the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966 (ID 66000115).
The Homestead Heritage Center, dedicated in 2007, contains exhibits that treat the effect of the Homestead Act on immigration, agriculture, native tribes, the tallgrass prairie ecosystem, and federal land policy. The roof line of the center resembles a “single bottom plow moving through the sod,” and the parking lot measures exactly 1-acre (4,000 m2). A separate Education Center features science and social science presentations that can be shared with classrooms anywhere in the United States through distance-learning.
The park includes 100 acres (0.40 km2) of tallgrass prairie restored to approximate the ecosystem that once covered the central plains of the United States—and that was nearly plowed into extinction by the homesteaders. This restoration, which necessitates regular mowing, haying, and prescribed burns, has been managed by the National Park Service for more than 60 years and is the oldest in the National Park System. The park maintains about 2.7 miles (4.3 km) of hiking trails through the prairie and woodland surrounding Cub Creek, accessible via all-terrain wheelchair.
The restored Palmer-Epard Cabin was built in 1867 about fourteen miles northeast of the Monument. For more than sixty years, Palmers and Epards lived in the 14 X 16 foot structure before it was converted to grain storage. The cabin, built of squared logs of mixed hardwoods, consists of a single, earth-floored room downstairs and a small attic. It was donated to the park in 1950 and has been moved and restored several times through the intervening years.
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Wikipedia