Homesteading in Alaska

Although the Homestead Act was enacted in 1862, it was not until 1898 that special legislation extended the provisions of the act to the territory of Alaska. Even with the lure of free land however, homesteading in the remote territory was slow to start due to poor weather and poor soils and by 1914 less than 200 homestead applications had been filed in Alaska. A surge did come however in Alaska homestead applications after WWII and the Vietnam War. Those 20th century pioneers were looking for the same land ownership opportunity that had lured settlers out to the western states 100 years before. They also encountered many of the same hardships as their homesteading brethren of the 19th century such as lack of transportation, harsh weather, and even the danger of local wildlife. The Homestead Act was finally repealed in 1976, but a provision of the repeal allowed for homesteading to continue in Alaska until 1986.The last Homestead to be awarded under the provisions of the Homestead Act was in 1988. The owner of that land, Kenneth Deardorff originally filed for his 80 acre parcel on the Stony River in Alaska in 1974. He and his family built a life in the remote roadless Alaska wilderness through persistence and by subsisting off the local landscape. By the time Kenneth Deardorff finally received the patent for his land in 1988, 3,277 homesteads had been conveyed in the state which equaled over 360,000 acres or less than 1% of the total land in Alaska.

Find out more about the Last Homestead

Source: home.nps.gov