Homesteading Public Land: In The American West

What's up everybody? My name is Chase Bipes and you are watching a brand new episode of Chasing History and we are out in the wilds of the grasslands of Montana with our buddy Ty Lamp. Hi dude. Thank you so much for having us back out. >> Anytime. >> So here's the question is is when you're in this vast sea, how do you how do people survive here? How do you live here? Homesteading was a thing in the United States that you could actually do up until 1978. could literally walk out onto property that hadn't been claimed and claim that property and make a living. Ty, what was what was the Homestead Act? What was how did people get this? >> Well, this was a way for the for the government to they basically owned all the land. Um, and it was a way for citizens of the United States to be able to get that land and basically purchase it from the government. But what they were doing is they were wanting that western expansion. They were wanting America to grow. They had all the immigration coming in. They had people that were coming here wanting better life and this was a way for them to, you know, get that land. You know, from Europe, you didn't own land. You had kings and you were surfs and things like that. You came here and you could actually get land. You would come out here, you'd find an area that you liked that was public land. You could do a homestead on it. And if I if I'm correct, you had to stay there for 5 years. It was a $10 filing fee. You had to build a struct uh uh certain improvements. I think it was a house and a corral. There was like there was a few things that you had to do that at the end of five years that deed would be yours up to 120 acres for farming and grazing >> just for that $10 fire >> for that $10 and 5 years of your labor. >> That's insane. That's something that's so foreign to us today, but back in the 19th century, that was a staple. That's what made America America. That's why you have all of these citizens from all over the world coming here because they can have something that they never even thought was possible anywhere, especially in the countries where they were from was their own land. You were the king of your own castle and in America you could do that. So that brought literally hundreds of thousands of immigrants into this country out into the wilds of the West to settle to create land. And it was a good thing. That's how the United That's how the United States knew that it could grow. If it could get populations out in the vastness of its territory, then it could have towns, it could have taxes, it could have settlements, they could have railroads. It was a boom for everybody and everything. What are some of the places that people look for? You know, like so when you're out here, I mean, how do you how do you pick a spot to settle? >> Well, everything's a little bit different. You know, if you're a farmer, you're looking for fertile soil. If you're a rancher, you're looking for grass, you know, depending on what you want. But out in this area up here where we're at, Montana is, this is the they call it the high country prairie is basically what it is. Gets cold in the winter, hot in the summer, but water is very important here. So, this homestead we're on here, they homesteaded this because there's a natural spring that was a year round spring, and there's not a lot of those around here. So, they had a natural spring. They had some bottom grass lands that was had enough grass and enough, you know, natural stuff growing that they could actually harvest some hay for the winter time to carry their animals over. And then they like the area obviously. >> So they water is important and then figuring out what you need for the job that you want to do. >> So >> there was there was a there was a lot of these homesteads that failed. They came out, they didn't make it the five years or they made it 10 years and they abandoned it because they couldn't make it work. The wa the spring dried up, the winters were too bad. You know, there was a lot of things that made these not work that a lot more failed than probably made it. There's no like report on the internet that's going to tell you, okay, this is what your winter's going to look like. You know, this is what the summer's going to look like. Oh, by the way, you're not going to get any rain for 4 months. Like there was none of that. All it was was word of mouth. And there was also a lot of bad actors out there. People who were, you know, saying, "Oh, we've got the best land in the world. Plenty of springs, plenty of everything. There's no pictures. There's just this dude standing on a railroad platform telling you how awesome this freaking land is." You get out there and you settle. There is no spring. There is no grass. There are no trees. I mean, it is like it was a huge, huge gamble. But that's the gamble that people took. That was the That was the price for having your own land. Now, Ty, out here in the grasslands, I'm looking around and I'm not seeing like any trees. >> Yeah, they're up there on there's a few trees up there on the peaks up on the hill and that's about it. So, anything that you want firewood or building materials you had to haul by horse or horse and wagon from the top of that mountain up there is about the closest trees that I know of here. Now, it's possible there might have been a few more cottonwoods in these drawers, but they would have been used up so quick. >> So, what type of homesteads were people building out here in southeastern? >> This was this was your typical dugout or saudies. >> They would dig into the side of a hill. They would cut the sod out and use that clumps of sod with all the roots actually like building blocks. And then they would just get a few poles to build a house, a roof, put more sod and thatch on top of it to run off. and you basically lived in the side of a hill. Almost these were almost all one room log, one room cabin type situations. Uh you could tell the new the homesteads that did better because they would later on they would there would be additions. There would be outbuildings. But a lot of these you find out here is just one little dugout and that's all there is. >> And it was possible to do these saw houses because the types of grass that were planted out here or that not that were planted but that were native out here to the plains. these grasses because you know there's so little rainfall here. These grass roots had to go deep deep deep in the soil down to 16 feet in some places to get that grass. So you had this root system that you could cut little squares out of and make bricks and that dirt would be held together by the roots themselves. That's why this type of home construction was possible. >> So what So what do we have behind us? >> This is one of the dugouts. This is so cool, dude. Like seriously, this is epic. So this So we are we are in a homestead. >> This is this is an original homestead. This was this is called Mimi Creek. This was Mimi that lived out here. She dug this homestead. You can see she just dug dug in the hill. There is some timber here that she brought in for the roof and that's all it was. Dirt walls and a timber roof with saw over the top of it. And my understanding she was single, lived out here for about 70 years by herself. >> 70 years by herself. That is insane. It's just so hard for us to fathom. So if you look I I am literally standing into the entrance of someone's home and now I am walking into someone's home. And see what you have to remind yourself is is that this is one spot in the entirety of the American West. And throughout the entirety of the American West, there are spaces just like this that would have, you know, that families made a living. I mean, imagine working hard throughout the entire day and coming back to here, your hole in the ground where you are trying to make it so that you can have piece of land that is your own. >> Imagine living in that with a wife and six kids. >> Yeah. There's no privacy. >> Yeah. That's that's I mean that's where you raised your children. That's where your family lived. And that's where you lived and died. >> It's hard for us to fathom, but this is how America was settled. you know, we think of all these, you know, towns and all this crazy stuff and that stuff existed, but for the majority of people on the American frontier, this was their reality. These hole in the ground. So, we're So, this is timber that would have made. So, this is original timber. >> That's original timber that would caught cut and brought down. Yes. >> So, she probably cut the timber from up there. >> Timber up there, drug it down with horses or on a wagon to put the house to put the roof up. And then saw would have been around >> would have raised the walls up a little bit higher. Uh or the front wall would have been sawed. >> What do we know about her? What type what what was she doing out here? >> Um I believe was sheep herder. She had sheep that she raised. >> Um and I mean it everybody that worked out and lived out here, it was basically anything they could do to make a living. I'm sure she had a garden. I'm sure you know everybody grew everything they possibly could. The nearest town was Powderville, which I think we did an episode on it. I think there was what, 100 people there at one time? Yeah, there was 100 people. >> And that's half day's ride on a horse from here. Um, but even there, there was just one small general store that was a one room small building. To get to a real city, mile city, you would have been three, four days on horseback. One of the reasons why she would have took that gamble is is because Powderville was supposed to be a railroad hub. And the Powderville got bypassed for Miles City, which eventually became the railroad hub. So once that happened, that town died. And that was another part of the gamble that you took. So she's out here. She's hoping that this Powderville half a day's ride on a horse is going to be a very big town. Well, the railroad gets moved. Powderville dies. Now she's stuck out here by herself scratching a living, you know, two days ride to the nearest town now instead of half a day. So your circumstances could change just like that. So describe this type of house, Ty. What would have what what would it would have looked like? >> Well, it would have been just a square square hole dug. They would have used that saw that they dug out of the square to build a wall across the front. Hard to say on this one if it would have been walls up higher around the edge or if it was dug in deep enough that >> Well, it seems when you step in here, it seems to drop a little bit. >> Yeah. I don't know if they It could have sloughed in pretty easy. It could have been, you know, it could have been quite a bit deeper 50, 100 years ago pretty easily. >> Yeah. But it would have had the sod piled up in the front. And it would have just been the timbers, pitched timbers down to the ground and then more sod and thatch on top of it to make that hopefully the water runs off and doesn't drip on you all night long and runs down your mud walls. And >> so she would have had her stove here, her kitchen, her bed. >> Yeah. She probably would have just had a little cook stove and maybe a little pantry type cabinet. You know, that's where you see a lot of the the pie cupboards and things or pie safes and things like that was built for this sort of thing >> really >> was just so they had that one rodent proof, insectproof way to store food out in a place like >> store food, prepare food, the whole nine yards. And then this was her view. >> Yeah, that was the view every morning. >> Understand you're out here by yourself. This is how you're making a living. And you're waking up every morning. You've got your sheep down there. You've got a little garden over here. And this this was your view. This was your life. This was your existence. And you had to make this sparse land. You had to make it work. And if you didn't make it work, you were in big big trouble >> out here getting eaten by the flies and the mosquitoes and the bugs and the rattlesnakes and the coyotes eating the calves and the I mean it's >> everything. Everything. >> Where would her spring have been? Where would she have gotten water? >> Spring. If you look up that draw behind the wheelers there, you can see a tree up there. Trees out here. If you see a tree, there's water cuz it's they're very far and few between. Now, the modern rancher has come in. You can see he's got a little salt lake there and he's put it down into a trough a little bit more to capture the water that's coming off that spring. So, she would have tked up there to bring water to her house or the livestock probably would have just been roaming and been able to go to that spring and drink. So, one of the things I want to show you guys is uh we use this app that shows you what landowner information is. So, if you look on here, little blue dot is us. And you can see this weird square here. The yellow is still BLM. This is still public land. Nobody ever wanted this yellow land. Nobody ever wanted to farm or homestead this property. So, it was still owned by the federal government. This property that's all brown in here was homesteaded. Now, this was probably all her homestead that went down through here. And the reason it's shaped like this, if you look behind us up this canyon, it's got a creek that has a little bit of water up at the very top end if you go about a mile up. And it has good grass all the way down it. If you look over here at these hills behind us, you see these clay hills. You see all these little brakes and stuff like that? That's all BLM still. Nobody wanted that because you can't grow anything on it. You can't you can't use it. It's not productive land. So, what would happen was people would come in, they would take the most productive sections, the part with water, and that would just they would never homestead the rest of it. Nobody would come in and take it. So, it stayed public land, but they were still grazing on it. They were still able to graze it. and their cattle would come back or sheep would come back and use the water that's here, but they would go out and graze farther out than that. And that was a tactic that a lot of the bigger ranches used. They would go in and claim up all the water in an area and they'd cover, you know, 20 square miles with half a dozen homesteads and but they'd be able to graze the whole thing because it was the only water, you know, and now it's a fight in the west because people want, you know, I love our public lands and it's it people want to do they they can make money off it so they want to privatize it. But at this point right now, that's public. You can come out, anybody can come camp, hunt, fish, rockhound, whatever they want on that property. >> Understanding public lands here in the US is something that's that's really hard to to wrap your head around. I mean, it's insanely hard to wrap your head around. But what it is is it's a remnant. It's what's left over from this homesteading period where you have patchworks of private ownerships with public lands in between. And the reason is is because when you were settling that land, you had to pay a small fee per acre when you claimed that land. So every acre you took, you had to pay 5 cents or whatever it is. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but you had to pay a fee. So why would you want to pay fee on land that wasn't good? So you would leave the bad lands alone and just claim the good spots. And still today in modern maps, the patchwork of the US is still laid out to the from these old homesteading claves years and years ago, leaving which is why in the middle of a we're in the middle of a huge ranch. I mean, we're in the middle of, you know, 50,000 acre ranch, but within that ranch are little squares of public land that can't be accessed. you you're supposed to go camp on it, but you can't you can't because you can't access it. So, you know, uh it's just it's it public lands are so important. It's lit it's literally our land and they still exist and it would be nice if systems were set up to allow people to make use of those lands cuz there's still an incredible amount of public land left in the US. But it's just so cool that it's left over from this homesteading period. >> Well, yeah. And people just don't realize that it's land that nobody wanted. I mean, that's the thing is there's a lot of there's a lot of >> misinformation out there about how the federal government wouldn't let people have it or took it away or it's literally nobody wanted it. Yeah. >> Up until 1978, you could have came out here and homestead that you could have had that for $10. >> Yeah. >> Nobody wanted it. Well, now they do. Now, here's what's really important is is that and especially us in the east, we don't have a concept of public land. Like, we really don't. And it's a shame because that's where a lot of the voting block and the power is. Out west, when you come out west and you explore out west, you understand what you think national parks and state parks are freaking cool, dude. Check out public land. You can put a tent freaking anywhere. You can stay there for 14 days and then all you have to do is move your tent like half a mile and then you can still stay there. Like it is such an incredible thing that needs to be protected, that needs to be saved. And right now there's um there's engines at work to destroy America's public land. So, if you have an opportunity, look into the public lands of the United States and more importantly, what you are allowed and what you're not allowed to do. You know, we have these maps cuz we're out here dinosaur hunting and we have these maps to make so that we know to make sure to not collect off of those places. That helps us, >> you know, make sure that we're paying attention to the laws and not looking where we're supposed to look. But there are things that you can do out there that do it. Public lands are so freaking cool. I mean, I do not understand why people don't get it. >> Well, I think unfortunately a lot of people back east, they don't really understand how much there is. I mean, you back in your area, people are used to driving an hour to go stay in a little campground somewhere. Where I'm from, we just load up the truck and we just we just head out west. We just leave town in 30 minutes. I've got >> a million miles. Yeah. Half a million acres to play in. And we I think we just became accustomed to it and didn't think much of it. And it's just, you know, it's it's not a big deal to us cuz we do it all the time. I mean, it's to be able to just leave your house and say, "Oh, we want to go shoot. We want to go ride our four-wheelers. We want to go fishing." and just go out and randomly look at a map and go, "Uh, let's go here and drive two hours across anywhere that you can stop for two hours and get out and wander around and you're not trespassing and you can pick up rocks and you can build a campfire and you can have the kids run and some of the country is absolutely phenomenal because, you know, let's face it, you know, Arches National Park is not the best farmland in the world." You also places like that that are just beautiful all over the place that people don't get to see unless you just get out and explore and actually start looking. There's little hidden stuff just everywhere out here. >> How can people look up public lands? What are some what are some websites people can go to? How can people find out information? >> Well, the BLM, the Bureau of Land Management is who manages them. You can look it up and they have a lot of information there of what is allowed, what is not allowed, things like that. They have like the regulations like the I deal a lot with the rock counting and the dinosaurs and stuff. You know, you can go out and pick up petrified wood and agots and crystals and things like that. You can't touch the dinosaurs. You can't touch the vertebrate fossils, but you can the other all the rest of the rocks you can. You can go out and, you know, build a campfire and roast a hot dog and shoot some tin cans with the kids and drive your four-wheeler. And I mean, there's so much to do. >> Anybody can do it. That's the thing. Anybody can do it. If you live in freaking Wisconsin or New York or Georgia, you can drive to Utah and go camping wherever you want to on public lands. You can shoot cans. You can go fishing. You can do whatever you want. >> There's not there's not a fee. There's not a campground you have to stay in. There's not regulations like you do, you know, most campgrounds where there 10:00 you got to be quiet. And I mean obviously on busy weekends some areas that like the four-wheelers go to might be busy. There might be other people camp half a mile from you which I call busy, you know. But I mean most of the time there's just wide open spaces that you can just explore and enjoy. >> See, you didn't think we'd talk about public lands, did you? >> You didn't think that's where this conversation was going, did you? But see, that's just it. And it just shows you how America's history in our settlement ties in to what we what we can and cannot do today. And I really urge you guys to go explore your public lands. Make use of your public lands. Figure out that they even exist and go make use of them and let your congressman know that yes, I want this resource so that I can go explore and hike and do stuff. And that is all because of homesteads like this behind us. So sometimes these people would, you know, who homesteaded this place, they would alter the land and sometimes in great ways. What's some of the ways that they would alter the landscape? >> So what this is, this is just a simple dam that they made. And you'll find these all over the western United States. This is pretty common thing. And what they'll do is they'll just come in. This one would have been done with horses and a drag and they would just pulled the dirt up and made a burm so that the water that came down this gully got caught right here and ponded up. And the reason for that is so we're what a mile from where her homestead was. Yeah. >> So we're a mile up this creek and that's the only water. So this would have been another water source. It would have c caught that spring runoff or anytime it we got a thunderstorm it comes down here and caught for water. So now she can utilize this area to graze her cattle and her sheep on. Whereas before they would have been stuck closer there and it would have this was a way to expand and be able to be more productive with the land. >> That's something that she wouldn't have known when she got here. She wouldn't have known that that water was going to be a little scarce and she needed to make a dam. But maybe after the first year or the second year, she's out here and she's like, I don't have enough water for my animals. So I need to do something to get more water for my animals. And so this is where she either hired somebody or did it herself. We don't unfortunately those details are lost to time. But you can look back here and there's a whole burm right behind us that goes all the way across this creek or or this draw that encapsulates that creates a pretty big pond. This has got to be two acres. >> Yeah, it's this would have been about two acres. This would have been a big one at some point. Um it's all sealed it up. There's no water that catches in it anymore. Now, the ranchers will come in and and fix these. They'll pull more dirt out. They'll repair the dikes. They'll do stuff like that. But what they've done a lot in the west nowadays, you look right there, they call that a solar. So, what they've done, they put a small surface well in that solar power to pump water out into a trough. Now, rather than trying to maintain this pond, they put that in now and don't use it anymore. >> Right? So a lot of times you get these old, you know, spaces on the landscape that, you know, these original homesteaders created that aren't necessary anymore. And so what happens is is that dam falls into into neglect. A big storm comes in, washes out a section, and it's never repaired, which is what happened to this dam. If you look over in the corner over there, you can see where the main creek that ran through just burst through the dam and, you know, allowed the water to continue to drain naturally as it did before this pond was ever created. So, this is just another really cool thing to see on the landscape that these early homesteaders created that are still present on the landscape. >> This was a lot. I mean, you think about how much work it would have taken with a horse and a drag to dig this burm and move that much dirt just trying to improve it to well, basically improve your life. But this is a long-term improvement when they're looking at this. Mimi looked at this. This was an investment in the future of her ranch by doing this. And just imagine how she felt when that first rain came. She either paid somebody or did it herself and got this burm and she's waiting for that first bit of rain to come. Not only is she waiting, but all her animals are waiting also. And then all of a sudden, this huge rain comes down and fills up. We would be neck deep in water. This would have been filled up. And just think about the emotion of that person who traveled across the ocean, who traveled across the breath of the United States, dug a hole in the ground to create a home, and then now has an ample water supply for her animals. It's improvement like that on the landscape that we still take pride in today, but that was literally life and death for these early homesteaders. So Ty, the big question is is all are you're out here homesteading. How are you feeding yourself? >> There's a It's tough. Okay. So everything you're everything out here you either have to bring in by horseback or wagon or you have to grow yourself. There were supplies are very sparse out here. You would have brought beans and flour, sugar and coffee and tobacco and you would have been that was about it out here in a lot of these places and that's what people lived off of. But what they did is they supplemented themselves just the same way the Native Americans lived. There's certain plants out here that are that you can eat and are actually good to eat. Um this is an example right here. This is >> seo lily. >> Sego lily got brain damage. This is a Utah state flower. This is seo lily. And it's Utah state flower because the Mormon pioneers when they came out, it was one of the things that they ate the first winter to help them get by. So this little flower here will have a little tuber, a little bulb at the bottom that's a little starchy like a little potato that you could eat. There's wild peas. Now you can eat that whole plant. It has these little bean pods that'll get on it, but it also you can eat the leaves and stuff on it. You've got prickly pear cactus that has a fruit on it that you can eat where you can burn the spines off and actually cook and eat the pad. There's a lot of things out here that you can eat to survive. Um, some of it might not taste the best, but >> it'll keep you alive. >> It'll keep you alive. Here's the thing is is that no matter what landscape you're in, anywhere in the world, doesn't matter whether you're in the harshest desert or the lusest rainforest, literally all around you are things to eat. In our 21st century lives, that's a novelty. Most 99% of people don't know of the things they could eat. But if you were coming out here to homestead, one of the things that you would have taught yourself is is what is out there that I can eat to survive? And what's so cool is is when you go out onto those same landscapes today, you still see things that would have kept these early homesteaders alive. This is a type of yucka that the leaves are edible. Cows love this stuff. Ty, do you know what species this is? >> Uh, it's just a yuck is all I know. I don't know what the subspecies is, but >> I do know it's one of the most useful plants out here in the West. >> What all could they do with this plant? >> So, the flowers and the fruits are edible. The spines you break, you dry and you break down and they have a very hard fiber. This is what a lot of the bow strings and sandals and things like that were woven out of. The root itself is edible or they would actually use it as soap. They would they would I don't know the exact process, but they would use the root for soap. >> Another thing, see these sharp needles? Well, if you break this apart, this has a really strong fiber to it. See these fibers? They could pound this. They could pound this out to extract the fibers. Let's see if I can get some fibers going here to extract the fibers and use this as a sewing needle. That sharp point right there is as sharp as this knife tip. And they could use that as the needle and use the rest of it as a fiber. Particularly in the American Southwest, you see that with the larger yucka plants. But the Native Americans here on the western on the northern plains did the exact same thing with this plant. So this was a vital plant that I'm sure a lot of the pioneers utilize the same thing out of as well. >> All right. What have we got? Well, this is a little dwelling or a little We're not sure what it is. Somebody has taken a stack these rocks around this little overhang here for a little shelter. They've leveled it off inside. It's about the right size for one or two people to maybe take shelter to sleep in. We're with inside of the old Powderville stage. Just a a Deadwood stage came through here. It had a telegraph office. Military was camped down there. Now, whether somebody in the military built this and could watch horses or whatever, whether this was actually built by the Native Americans to watch the military, we don't know. But it's a neat little historical thing that's here. I want to give you guys a little context. So, we're in southeastern Montana. We're in the middle of the great North American prairie, the northern great plains. From the 1860s on up, this was a highly contested area between the settlers and the Native Americans who historically lived here. So, you had a US military presence as well as a Native American presence on this landscape. So, we're on top of a bluff. I want you guys to look off over here. See how we've got these high bluffs off in the distance that kind of stick up by themselves? That is exactly what we were on top of. You can see this entire area. It is the commanding view for this area. Got the Powder River coming right down from here. So, you have a commanding view of everything and everybody that came down Powder River Valley. This is just a little spot where you can lay. You can look out. No one can see what you're doing. No one can see that you're up here. And you find these kind of rock structures literally all throughout the entirety of the American West, specifically the Great Plains. You see this type of construction where this little overhang, a couple rocks are stacked, and a lookout point is created. It's an amazing piece of American history. One we're glad to share with you guys. So when you're out driving in the grasslands, where you're driving around, just think no matter where you go, people have always been. We stumbled upon this really cool thing right here. We're out here hunting dinosaurs and hunting fossils and we're coming across this history and wanting to share it with you. I mean, how often do you get to come across, you know, a saw house out in the middle of the plains that nobody's seen in 120 years? I mean, even underneath the cactus, there are all kinds of artifacts that litter the ground. So, this is probably this is an old tin can right here. And you can tell by the by how it's soldered, how it's crimped together. This is probably uh 1900 1910. This I have no idea what this is. Oh, this is part of a This is part of a wagon. These are part of the rails that go on a wagon. So, this is a little wagon wagon part. Let's see if we can look around and see what else we can find here. Oh, here's another piece that we found earlier. This must have been part part of her stove. And it looks like either rust did it or somebody shot it up with bullet holes. But that that's part of her would have been part of her stove. You see, in places like this, artifacts are everywhere and they are literally just laying out here. You know, those artifacts, the artifacts that you see that we found that you'll see is is all that remains of her of her time here. I don't really see anything else. But another thing that we found uh today that we wanted to show you guys is the her um is her seller. So, you want everybody back in the throughout all of history throughout the entirety of the US uh needed a way to store their food and they wouldn't just store their food in their houses, but they would dig a sheep a separate building in order to store their food. And just down from her house, just a few feet, is her food uh is her seller, her her food seller. So, this is just a small hole in the ground that she would have done just like she did her house where there would have been logs over it. You can see how it drops down squared on each side. It would have had logs over it. It probably would have been 2 or 3 ft deeper. Remember the dirt that was on top of the roof fell down and filled up this hole. This would have been where she would have kept her food. you know, Americans during and people all throughout the world during, you know, the pre, you know, n pre20th century needed to store their food. And so they needed to be have a way to keep their food articles safe, but also um safe from predators or anything that may try to get it, but also regulate the temperature. It's another reason why this house is built into the ground. Not only is there a lack of materials, but there's also, you know, the earth is a natural insulator. So, in the winter times when it gets -40, it's not going to be -40 in here. And during the summer times when it's 100°, it's not going to be 100° in here. So, sellers were a hugely uh important thing. Every homestead had a seller. The story of the American West is filled with these kind of struggles where you're coming into a place and you're making a living out of it. Right where I'm standing is the entrance of a homestead. She dug this hole and created a home and lived here her entire life. The American frontier is filled with this kind of stories. individual men and women trying to make a living on this on the American frontier. This was an incredibly difficult way of existing and that's one that each one of these immigrants that came in and each one of these pioneers and settlers that settled the West took upon themselves and conquered. What she did was incredible. And literally the American West is littered with these kind of locations. If we could only think of this, the history, the things that happened here on this spot. We are literally in the middle of the Great Plains. Yet only thing that's left is just the hole in the ground where she once lived. It's really haunting to think that I'm standing in the doorway that she walked out of every morning and walked into every single night. Throughout the entirety of the American West, there are little homesteads. Each of them are different and unique depending on where they were. This is a hole in the ground because there are no trees. You know, there are cabin homesteads where there are trees. You know, it's just that's what the West is. And we urge you guys to get out there and to explore it. Ty, is there anything else you'd like to add? No, it's that. Get out and enjoy. Get out and enjoy stuff while you can. I mean, there's so much to see out in this world and out in the middle of nowhere and on public lands. Go take the kids outside. Let them get their feet in the grass. Let them get dirty. Get them away from a TV and get them out here and enjoy the outdoors. >> Dude, we really do have an awesome country. And it's things like this that make our country incredible. Like being able to camp wherever you want to on public lands. That's awesome. to be able to explore the history wherever you want on public lands. Get out there and explore that history. Ty, thank you so much >> for having us. Remember guys, history rocks. Woohoo. new episode of Chasing History brought brought to you by the American The sto um this is an example right here. This is sele brain damage.