Prairie Ghosts

 In 1909 the US Government, under Teddy Roosevelt, passed the "Enlarged Homestead Act," which opened the vast eastern corridor of Montana and part of the Dakotas to homesteaders.

A media blitz in part funded by both the government and railroad magnates, made this extremely dry western part of the country look like the land flowing with milk and honey.  So they came by the thousands for their share of the American dream--Europeans, urbane easterners who knew nothing about farming but wanted out of the crowded conditions of city life.

And they lost everything.  Life savings, new farm equipment, and hope.  Sure-fire tricks to get seventy bushels to the acre out of 5 inches of rain annually failed.  Defeated, demoralized, and in debt, they left quietly by the thousands.  All across the eastern Montana outback you'll still see their abandoned hope.  Sagging, delapitated, and crumbling, their homes remind us of a people who came with such enthusiasm and hope and left with despair.

Here is one of the homesteads that we happened upon.