A brief look at the Homestead Act, the Morril Land-Grant Act, and the Pacific Railway Act.

1. Why go
west?

2. Why go west?
•There were a number of
reasons why newspaper
editors said, “Go West,
young man, and grow up
with the country.”

3. Why go west?
•For thousands of people
looking to carve out a
new life themselves at the
end of the Civil War, the
area of the Great Plains
offered new opportunities.

4. Why go west?
•The government played
their part in two ways: the
Morrill Land-Grant Act
and the Homestead Act,
both of 1862.

5. Why go west?
• The Morrill Land-Grant
Act gave states the right to
sell public land in order to
establish colleges
specializing in agriculture
and the mechanical arts (A
& M).

6. Why go west?
• The Homestead Act gave settlers
160 square acres (1/4 of a mile)
for a small fee provided that the
buyer was at least 21 or the head
of a family, an American citizen
or legal immigrant, they built a
house and lived in it for 6 months
a year, and they had to farm the
land for 5 consecutive years.

7. Moving west
• Improvements
in
transportation
made the way
out west much
easier.

8. Moving west
•In 1862,
the Pacific
Railway
Act was
passed.

9. Moving west
• On May 10, 1869,
the Union Pacific
Railroad and the
Central Pacific
Railroad companies
met in Utah, and the
transcontinental
railroad was
complete.