Alpine History Mystery: “The Unlikely Homesteader” January 2015

Alpine History Mystery: “The Unlikely Homesteader” – January 2015

The Unlikely Homesteader – January 2015 Here’s a mini-history lesson that had a big impact on Alpine’s early development. On May 20, 1862 Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, a hand-written law that opened up federal lands to settlement. Under the law a U.S. citizen who had never taken up arms against the U.S. Government and who was the head of a household or was at least 21 years of age could file an application to claim up to 160 acres of unappropriated federal land in public land states. The law prescribed a simple three-step process: file an application for…