They Settled in Montana: Introduction
Updated: February 4, 2026
Congress passed the Homestead Act in 1862 and it encouraged hundreds of thousands of people to move west, including into what is now Montana, but it did this by giving away Native peoples' lands that had already been taken by treaty, force, or pressure. Scientists like John Wesley Powell later warned that using the same homestead rules in dry places like Montana would cause serious environmental problems, and history shows that many of his warnings came true.
The Homestead Act and "free" land
The Homestead Act became law in 1862 and took effect in 1863, offering 160 acres of public land to any qualifying person who lived on and farmed it for five years. These lands were usually part of the traditional or treaty territories of Native nations, so when homesteaders moved in, it pushed Native communities off land they already used and cared for.
At the same time, the Pacific Railway Act of 1862 gave railroads huge strips of land and money to build tracks across the continent, which helped open the West to more settlement and made it easier to ship crops and minerals back east. By the 1860s, eastern cities were growing crowded, and many white Americans and immigrants saw the West as a place where they could start over and own land, especially in big, open areas like Montana.
Native land, "improvement," and different views
The land given to homesteaders was not empty; it was part of living Native homelands where people hunted, fished, gathered plants, and sometimes farmed. Many U.S. leaders at the time only counted land as "used" or "owned" if it had fences, plowed fields, or permanent houses, so they often ignored Native ways of caring for the land.
Some Native peoples on the northern Plains did farm or garden, especially along river bottoms, but many also followed seasonal rounds of hunting and gathering that left the land looking mostly natural to outside observers. Today, scientists and historians recognize that Indigenous knowledge about native plants, fire, and wildlife is extremely valuable for keeping ecosystems healthy, especially in dry regions like Montana.
John Wesley Powell and the "arid region"
About fifteen years after the Civil War, John Wesley Powell, an explorer and scientist, studied the climate and geography of the "arid region," which included most of Montana. In his 1878 report, he explained that successful farming without irrigation usually required at least about twenty inches of rain per year, and large areas of Montana received much less than that.
Powell argued that if people tried to farm this dry land the same way they farmed wetter eastern land, they would face droughts, crop failures, blowing dust, and serious soil erosion. He also warned that careless overgrazing by cattle and sheep would damage fragile grasses, cause gullies and bare soil, and turn some areas salty or alkaline.
Powell's ideas for land and water
Instead of small, square 160-acre homesteads, Powell suggested that western lands should be organized around water sources like rivers and streams. He wanted communities of families to share access to irrigation ditches and grazing areas, and he believed that many homesteads in very dry places would need thousands of acres of range to support just one family's herd.
Powell opposed the popular slogan "rain follows the plow," which falsely claimed that simply farming the land would magically increase rainfall. He recommended that Congress change land laws so that settlement in arid regions would match the climate, but his ideas were mostly ignored at the time because they conflicted with the push to quickly fill the West with small farms and townsites.
What actually happened in Montana
Large waves of homesteaders began arriving in Montana especially in the early 1900s, encouraged by changes to land laws and a few unusually wet years that made the land seem more fertile than it really was. Many newcomers tried "dryland farming" without irrigation, planting wheat and other crops on land with little rain and without fully understanding how quickly the climate would swing back to drought.
When the rains stopped, soils dried out, strong winds blew away topsoil, and grasshoppers and other pests ruined crops, just as Powell had predicted. Many homesteaders left their claims and moved away, but the homestead era still transformed Montana's landscape, economy, and Native communities, and it set up later debates about land use, water rights, and how to farm in a changing climate.
How historians view this today
Modern historians and political scientists now describe homesteading as one of the main tools the U.S. government used to take Native land and turn it into private property owned mostly by settlers. At the same time, they also study how homesteading gave some poor and working-class families a chance to own land, even though success was far from guaranteed in difficult places like Montana.
Scientists and land managers still read Powell's work because it offers early scientific evidence that laws and farming methods must match local climate and water supplies. In Montana and across the West, people today are combining Powell's ideas with Indigenous knowledge and modern science to find better, more sustainable ways to use land and water in dry country.
They Settled in Montana: Interactive Timeline
Explore this timeline to see how the Homestead Act, railroads, Native lands, and John Wesley Powell's ideas shaped settlement in what is now Montana. Click on each year to learn more.
Act
in Effect
Lands Taken
Explores
Report
Boom
Acres
Time
& Bust
Ideas
Test your knowledge. Take the quiz.
Updated: February 4, 2026