The 1862 U.S. law that offered free western land to settlers who improved it was the Homestead Act.
President Abraham Lincoln signed the law on May 20, 1862, during the American Civil War. It allowed eligible applicants to claim up to 160 acres of surveyed public land. After living on the land and making improvements for five years, a claimant could receive ownership, or a patent, from the federal government.
The act encouraged migration into the Great Plains and other western territories, where settlers built farms, towns, and transportation networks. It also intensified the displacement of Native nations, whose lands were increasingly opened to non-Native settlement.
The Homestead Act is sometimes confused with the Dawes Act of 1887, which divided many reservation lands into individual allotments. The Morrill Act supported colleges, while the Pacific Railway Act helped fund transcontinental railroad construction. The original Homestead Act remained in effect until 1976, with an Alaska extension lasting until 1986.