Copyright information
This exhibition was created by Sara Gregg in 2020 under a CC BY 4.0 International license. This refers only to the text and does not include image rights.
Images used in the exhibition carry individual licenses (please click on an image for information). The images below are featured on the exhibition landing page. Please click for details.
GLO surveyors worked to make the Western landscape legible to the state, and laid corner markers across the public domain. General Land Office corner marker, Stearns claim, Township 30 N Range 38 E, Section 34. Photograph by Sara Gregg, 2019.
GLO surveyors worked to make the Western landscape legible to the state, and laid corner markers across the public domain. General Land Office corner marker, Stearns claim, Township 30 N Range 38 E, Section 34. Photograph by Sara Gregg, 2019.
Sara Gregg, 2019.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
What remains: an abandoned car and farm equipment on the Stensland homestead adjoining Stearns’s land. Photograph by Sara Gregg, 2019.
What remains: an abandoned car and farm equipment on the Stensland homestead adjoining Stearns’s land. Photograph by Sara Gregg, 2019.
2019 Sara Gregg
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abandoned homestead building of similar construction, located a few townships to the northeast. Photograph by Sara Gregg, 2019.
Abandoned homestead building of similar construction, located a few townships to the northeast. Photograph by Sara Gregg, 2019.
2019 Sara Gregg
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
CC BY-ND 2.0. Photograph by Kamal Hamid.
CC BY-ND 2.0. Photograph by Kamal Hamid.
Photograph by Kamal Hamid.
Accessed via Flickr on 9 December 2020. Click here to view source.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic License.
Homesteaders at Enright Ranch on Porcupine Creek. Unknown photographer, no date.
Homesteaders at Enright Ranch on Porcupine Creek. Unknown photographer, no date.
Courtesy of the Valley County Historical Society.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0 License.
Piles of wheat in front of the Glasgow, Montana First National Bank Building. Photograph by Ellis, no date.
Piles of wheat in front of the Glasgow, Montana First National Bank Building. Photograph by Ellis, no date.
Courtesy of Valley County Historical Society.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0 License.
Rundle’s three-color brochures celebrated the opportunities abounding on
northeastern Montana’s shortgrass plains. The advertisement captures the quirky creativity of this land locator working to capture the attention and the cash of aspiring homesteaders—and the progression of clever inducements merits a closer look: “Come to Glasgow… And we will show you… What other settlers are doing…”
Public domain. Courtesy Wisconsin State Historical Society.
Rundle’s three-color brochures celebrated the opportunities abounding on
northeastern Montana’s shortgrass plains. The advertisement captures the quirky creativity of this land locator working to capture the attention and the cash of aspiring homesteaders—and the progression of clever inducements merits a closer look: “Come to Glasgow… And we will show you… What other settlers are doing…”
Public domain. Courtesy Wisconsin State Historical Society.
Courtesy of Wisconsin State Historical Society.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0 License.
One of dozens of communications Lily Stearns mailed to federal officials. This letter to “Mr. Jones, U.S. Land Office, City,” 1914, inquired about the status of her claim.
One of dozens of communications Lily Stearns mailed to federal officials. This letter to “Mr. Jones, U.S. Land Office, City,” 1914, inquired about the status of her claim.
Courtesy of the Montana Historical Society Research Center.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0 License.
American Land Rush:
“A Lonely Homesteader” Searches for Security in the Montana Homestead Boom
Swept up in the optimism of the 1910s, Lily Stearns settled with her four children on a promising homestead in northeastern Montana, where she found her fate conscribed by extreme weather and the limits of her endurance. This richly illustrated virtual exhibition tells the story of one participant in the largest homestead boom in US history, revealing the erratic fortunes of farm life reflected in the abundant economic, political, and personal uncertainties of the era.
Sara M. GreggAbout the author
