| Abstract: | From 1900 to 1920 the land alienation process in the northern Great Plains was primarily influenced by location, not land quality, in a railroad-dominated settlement pattern. Homesteaders in Sheridan County, MT and Bowman County, ND generally did not settle on the best lands first and assessed the productive acreage on their claims inaccurately. In peripheral locations, homesteaders who perceived soil resources correctly took the higher quality lands first. Evidence suggests abandonment was most likely on poorer soils, least likely on the best soils. Inability to perceive soil capability exacerbated an unstable situation that, with drought, led to out-migration. |
