Now, Congress is considering a New Homestead Act that would attempt to repopulate dying towns.

NPR: The New Homestead Act

The government initially tried to evict them, but eventually they gave up and passed the Homestead Act to formalize the process.

FORBES: Looking for Feedback: How Has Non-Conformism Pushed America Forward?

Others worry that the New Homestead Act will ultimately be no more successful than the original, which had a failure rate of 60 percent.

NPR: The New Homestead Act

Congress finally acknowledged defeat in 1862 with the passage of the Homestead Act, which gave settlers free federal land if they cultivated it for five years.

FORBES: America's Illegal Pioneers

It's been 140 years since the Homestead Act sent waves of settlers across the Great Plains, staking claim to parcels of land 160 acres in size.

NPR: The New Homestead Act

Lincoln's Homestead Act stands out as a prime example.

FORBES: New Geographer

Mr Dorgan is the chief author of the New Homestead Act, which would provide a host of incentives to people who settle in counties that have lost more than 10% of their population in the past 20 years.

ECONOMIST: North Dakota

Lincolns motive in favoring the Homestead Act and the patent clause (and both together) was to prevent the West from being dominated by large estates and great landowners, so that it might become a society of many freemen and many practical, inventive minds.

FORBES: Fact and Comment

This has led some locals to consider a modern version of an old idea, the Homestead Act of 1862, which helped to populate the Plains by giving settlers up to 640 acres of land in exchange for a commitment to stay for five years.

ECONOMIST: North Dakota

The famous Homestead Act of 1862, whereby an American could have free title to 160 acres of land in the West if he lived on and developed it, grew out of the fact that countless Americans were already occupying federal lands in violation of federal law.

FORBES: Fact and Comment