NPS Website; Local Website
WHAT IS IT?Site of the first land claim made through the Homestead Act of 1862. The Site commemorates not just the first claim but all government land grants made during the program’s more than 120-year history.
BEAUTY (3/10)
Layered rolling fields of both farmland and tallgrass prairie enjoy their own distinct, rippling calming beauty. To appreciate this subtle attractiveness you need to be perched on high ground. The eye must be able to see forever. Without perspective, you become lost in a crowded, hot and boring environment. The views from the Homestead NM offer few large vistas and big blue skies. Nearby houses and a creek surrounded by trees blocks any grand horizons.
HISTORICAL INTEREST (8/10)
The 1862 Homestead Act, passed at the height of Abraham Lincoln’s Civil War failures, provided 160 acres of free land to any United States citizen who, after five years, could demonstrate that they had improved the land.
The importance of this indiscriminate and unprecedented land giveaway on the future of the West, agriculture, the feeding of the American people, the displacement of the native Plains Indians, the mass slaughter of the Bison, waves of European immigration, American population shifts, the draining of the Ogallala aquifer and land rights cannot be overstated.
Strangely, the Park does just that, ignoring the big picture and historical impact in favor of a micro history that recounts the homesteaders’ traumatic sagas, their day-to-day difficult life and how so many were cheated by unscrupulous land speculators. The Park operates as a myopic account of how the area’s people lived instead of how their way of life affected United States history. It is a triumph over tragedy yarn about virulent salt-of-the-earth hard workers that works with the premise that these farmers lived in a vacuum.
CROWDS (6/10)The beginning of school group trips to National Park Sites did not stop us from diving into the chest filled with frontier clothing. Gab gamely donned the humble full-length dress and wielded both a threatening rolling pin and frying pan at the same time! Michael was less adventurous; he draped the suspenders over his shoulders and held up the thick wool pants hoping for a trompe l’oeil effect.
EASE OF USE/ACCESS (1/5)
The drawback to the Site’s historic location is its isolation. The Monument is 5 miles northwest of Beatrice (pronounced bee-AT-tris), Nebr. Beatrice is located is the southeastern portion of Nebraska, about 50 miles south of Lincoln via U.S. Route 77.
CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (5/5)
A nostalgic look took over Gab’s beautiful visage when she saw the full set of Laura Ingalls Wilder books. If reading is not your thing (or you are not a pre-teen girl), the bookstore also sells the full-season DVDs for the Little House on the Prairie TV show.
It is not just Laura Ingalls books either, some compelling titles included Jonathan Raban, Bad Land; David Laskin’s The Children’s Blizzard; Jeffrey Lockwood’s Locust; and the well-titled The Good Old Days – They Were Horrible. The store stocks more Willa Cather books than you can shake a stick at. We conveniently avoided the illustrated children’s book titled Book of Farm Chores.
Throw in model windmills, a John Deere-themed Monopoly game, frontier dolls and old school brooms and you have a terrific, fun bookstore.
COSTS (4/5)
The Site is free, a bargain almost as great as the one enjoyed by America’s homesteaders.
RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (4/5)Two Rangers were stationed in the lobby eager to answer our questions.
TOURS/CLASSES (3/10)
An easel in the current Visitor Center lobby holds a picture of an artist’s rendering of the new Homestead NM Museum and Visitor Center. Sadly, new museum in the future usually means inadequate one in the present.
The Mission ’66-era displays grabbed our attention for about a half second. The 18-minute intro video is good but mentions at least 20 times how difficult life was for the homesteaders. We get the picture. The 160 acres were free, correct? Reconstruction was not exactly an easy time for the average American worker.
Along one outside wall, banners portray famous homesteaders and well-known scions of homesteaders like Lawrence Welk, George Washington Carver (that’s a stretch), Jeanette Rankin and Virgil Earp. Old farm machinery lines an interior wall. These two displays offer no interactivity. Its subjects are just there. There is no detailed history of the homesteaders and no explanation of how the farming utensils work or what they are for.
The Site does offer some compelling programs throughout the year. In October, author David Laskin talks about his aforementioned book, Children’s Blizzard. In June, during Homestead Days, members of the Little House cast gave talks and there were numerous craft demonstrators. It probably pays to schedule your Park visit here around a special weekend like June’s Homestead Days or October’s Pioneer Days.
FUN (2/10)Does viewing 100-year old farm machinery and walking through horizon-blocking tallgrass prairie sound fun to you? The most excitement Michael had at the Site came from looking at the banner picturing the singer Jewel, granddaughter of Alaskan homesteaders.
We hope that when the Monument moves into its new Visitor Center the displays become more interactive and the history more big picture.
WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (2/10)
No. There is just not enough to do here to warrant the long drive. Read Willa Cather or netflix Little House.
TOTAL 38/80
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© 2005