ws, arrows,
lances, and shields, will never be seen again." The prairies were ready
for the final rush of occupation. The homestead law of 1862, passed in
the midst of the war, did not reveal its full importance as an element
in the settlement of the Middle West until after peace. It began to
operate most actively, contemporaneously with the development of the
several railways to the Pacific, in the two decades from 1870 to 1890,
and in connection with the marketing of the railroad land grants. The
outcome was an epoch-making extension of population.

Before 1870 the vast and fertile valley of the Red River, once the level
bed of an ancient lake, occupying the region where North Dakota and
Minnesota meet, was almost virgin soil. But in 1875 the great Dalrymple
farm showed its advantages for wheat raising, and a tide of farm seekers
turned to the region. The "Jim River" Valley of South Dakota attracted
still other settlers. The Northern Pacific and the Great Northern
Railway thrust out laterals into these Minnesota and Dakota wheat areas
from which to draw the nourishment for their daring passage to the
Pacific. The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, the Chicago and
Northwestern Railway, Burlington, and other roads, gridironed the
region; and the unoccupied lands of the Middle West were taken up by a
migration that in its system and scale is unprecedented. The railroads
sent their agents and their literature everywhere, "booming" the "Golden
West"; the opportunity for economic and political fortunes in such
rapidly growing communities attracted multitudes of Americans whom the
cheap land alone would not have tempted. In 1870 the Dakotas had 14,000
settlers; in 1890 they had over 510,000. Nebraska's population was
28,000 in 1860; 123,000 in 1870; 452,000 in 1880; and 1,059,000 in
1890. Kansas had 107,000 in 1860; 364,000 in 1870; 996,000 in 1880; and
1,427,000 in 1890. Wisconsin and New York gave the largest fractions of
the native element to Minnesota; Illinois and Ohio together sent perhaps
one-third of the native element of Kansas and Nebraska, but the Missouri
and Southern settlers were strongly represented in Kansas; Wisconsin,
New York, Minnesota, and Iowa gave North Dakota the most of her native
settlers; and Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, and New York did the same for
South Dakota.

Railroads and steamships organized foreign immigration on scale and
system never before equaled; a high-water mark of American immigration