NASA Astronaut Clayton Anderson visits Homestead National Monument



Me with Clayton Anderson

Founders Day, or August 25, 2012 was the 96th anniversary of the establishment of the National Park Service. Homestead National Monument invited Nebraska native and NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson to do a program at the monument on Founders Day, discussing the new frontier- Space. Clayton Anderson's program was very interesting and enlightening. He was a very down to earth guy with great story telling skills. He wandered around the crowd talking to people and posing for pictures before the program even began. He then started his program with some pictures and he got the audience involved by asking them to think what the captions might be. After taking a few suggestions from the crowd, he would reveal his captions. His captions always got a laugh out of the crowd. In many of the pictures of him in space, there was always something Nebraska related, most often a Nebraska Huskers hat, or the big red 'N' which he always had with him an all of his space walks. He talked a little about what life the the space station was like and then he went on to draw comparisons between the old frontier and the new frontier, similarities like problems with being able to travel long periods of times with only limited supplies. The whole program was very interesting and the crowd  seem to really enjoy it. At the end of the program he took some questions from the audience. Afterwards he stayed around to sign more autographs and pose for more pictures.

Panorama view of Clayton and the audience

Clayton Anderson with artist Michael Carroll's from Long-ships
to Space-ships painting, on loan form the Planetary Society

Clayton Anderson is a truly genuine guy that enjoys sharing his stories of space. He is also very proud of the fact that he is the only astronaut from Nebraska, and that he will always be the first astronaut from Nebraska. It was great to have him speak at the monument, he drew a crowd that ranged from infants to the elderly, and all seemed to enjoy the program equally. The evening ended with a watermelon feed sponsored by the Friends of Homestead and a video from the Lincoln Prairie Astronomy club. Unfortunately the star gazing had to be cancelled due to inclement weather, but it has been rescheduled for October 20th, during the Howling Homestead program.

This program is just another great example of the excellent programs that Homestead National Monument offers the surrounding communities. If you are in the area you should check out the website at www.nps.gov/home to see a list of upcoming activities and programs, including the Living Homesteader Reunion and Living History Extravaganza on Labor day weekend, Bill Nye the 'Planetary' guy on Sept 23, the Hedge Apple Festival on Oct 7 and Howling Homestead on Oct 20, along with many others.

Thicket Mapping at Homestead National Monument

2012 Homestead National Monument Thicket Map

Homestead National Monument of America was established to tell the story of  the Homestead Act. While the monument tells the story of homesteaders, they also strive to show to visitors what the tall grass prairie would have looked like to those original homesteaders. Therefor the monument has over the last decade began to monitor and remove woody species that would not have been in the tall grass prairie of the past. Smooth Sumac (Rhus) covers almost 24 acres of the 120 acres of tall grass prairie. Dogwood (Cornus) is the other big issue species. Plum (Prunus), Ash (Fraxinus) and Elderberry (Sambucus) are also present as thickets. There are also a small umber of trees such as Eastern Cedar, some other deciduous trees and quite a few Honeylocust. The numbers that are in the key, 1-4 refer to the density of each thicket. Thickets rated a with a number 1 are the thickest and 4 are the thinnest. At present 34 acres of the prairie are currently covered by thicket. Mapping has been done about 5 times in the last 10 years. This year I was the one that did all of the mapping. I used a Trimble GPS with an external antenna attached to a back pack I wore. I had to identify  thicket species and density and then walk around the perimeter of each thicket. The data was then downloaded and Natural Resource Specialist Jess Bolli made the map that is at the beginning of this blog. Once the location and density of the thickets is recorded, treatment and removal can begin. Numerous different treatment methods have been tried including foliage treatment with different chemicals and also the cut and spray  treatment method. Much thought is put into choosing chemicals and treatment methods. The monument wants to control the amount of tickets present on the prairie while causing no harm to wildlife or desirable native plants. For this season, both foliage and cut and spray methods are being employed. So, for any of you that have visited the prairie, all of the red areas are dogwood and sumac thickets that have been treated by chemicals applied to the foliage. Starting this week I will be out in the prairie beginning with cut and spray treatment of some of the thinner thickets. Hopefully the treatment this year will stop the spread of the thickets and perhaps it will even begin to shrink the size of the thickets. Homestead National Monument is committed to showing all its visitors what the tall grass prairie would have looked like to the homesteaders just arriving in the area.

Joe Nichols at the Gage County Fair

The Gage County fair, in Beatrice Nebraska, had Joe Nichols for entertainment on Thursday night (7/27012). He put on an amazing show! He did a great job at trying to get everyone involved, even the one sitting way back in the grand stands.He played a ton of songs including his hits: Take it Off, Gimmie That Girl, The Shape I'm in, Brokenheartsville, Size Matters (Someday), The Impossible, and of course Tequila Makes her Clothes Come Off. Joe played Tequila Makes Her Clothes Come Off as the encore, and I lost track of the amount of bras/shirts that were thrown up on stage during that song! He also did a cover of Nickelback's Rockstar and Sir-Mix-a-lot's Baby's Got Back!

Parades

Chelsea (right) and I at the Homestead Days Parade

I have been able to participate in two different parades since I have started working at Homestead National Monument. I got to ride in the Beatrice Rural Fire truck with fellow SCA intern Chelsea Schrage,  in the Homestead Days Parade. The truck was just part of Homestead National Monument's entry in the Homestead Days Parade. The monument's entry also included homesteading decendents carrying  flags of the 30 homesteading flags and a group of AmeriCorps (NCCC) group dress in period clothing carrying flags celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Homestead Act. The parade was a great way to remind the community that there is a National Park Service site in their backyards!

The monument has participated in many parade this season in southeast Nebraska and northeast Kansas. I had the opportunity to march in the Diller, Nebraska parade with Chelsea and some volunteers.  The Diller parade was a part of the 'Party on the Plains' community picnic.

Diller NE parade

The monument is schedule to participate in many more parades this season in southeast Nebraska, including the Wilber Czech Festival parade. Keep an eye open if you are at any parades in southeast Nebraska because there is a good chance that someone will be in it representing the monument!

The Freeman School

Freeman School

The Freeman school is part of Homestead National Monument and is open to visitors 1-4pm all summer or any other time by request.

The school opened in 1872 and remained in operation until 1967. While the main purpose of the building was to be a school, it also served many other purposes such a a meeting place for the First Trinity Church, polling station for Blakely Township and a meeting area for clubs and organizations. The school was donated to the National Park Service in 1970 and it was restored to look like it would have in the late 1800's.

In many homesteading communities a school was built before permanent housing. Homesteader felt that education was important, plus school buildings could be used for many community gatherings.

 The school offers the chance to see 'virgin' prairie, since the land served a a playground for the school children it was never plowed. Another interesting fact associated with the Freeman school is a court case started by Daniel Freeman in 1899. Mr. Freeman was upset when he found out that the teacher at the school was reading from the bible to the school children. He asked the teacher to stop but she refused. The court case went all the way to the Nebraska Supreme Court, which sided with Daniel Freeman in 1902. The Nebraska Constitution stated "No sectarian instruction shall be allowed in any school or institution supported in whole or in part by funds set apart for educational purposes."

There is also some debate as to who the school may be named after, Daniel or Thomas Freeman. The two men were unrelated but both prominent in the school district. Thomas Freeman was also paid $100.15 for the brick he provided to build the school.

The school is very interesting and offers events like a spelling bee that takes place in September. You can find more information on the school and the monument at the monuments website.

150 years of the Homestead Act

The entire 4 pages of the Homestead Act of 1862

I arrived in Beatrice, Nebraska on May 19. On May 20th I drove from my hotel in town out to Homestead National Monument, which is about 4 miles west of town on state highway 4.

The monument had the entire 4 pages of the Homestead Act on display, it was the first time all 4 pages were displayed together.

Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act into law on May 20th 1862 and Homestead National Monument is celebrating 150 years of the Homestead Act.

The Homestead Act allowed anyone over the age of 21 (or over 18 if they were married and the head of the house) to claim 160 acres of land in over 30 states. To keep the land the claimant had to 'prove up.' The proving period lasted 5 years and included requirements such as building a house and improving the land, however it was up to the local land office to decide the exact requirements. If the land office agreed that the land had been improved, then the claimant got the deed to the land for an $18 filing fee. The first homestead claim was in Beatrice, Nebraska, by Daniel Freeman. Myth has it that Daniel Freeman pulled his local land officer out of a new years party on January 1, 1863 to be the first to file a claim on the day the law went into effect. Homestead National Monument tells the stories of all homesteader, but is located on Daniel Freeman's land claim.

The Homestead Act was a very progressive piece of legislation in that it allowed not only men, but women, and immigrants to claim land. The Homestead act allowed women to own property 60 years before they were able to vote. The Homestead Act brought many people from western Europe and the east coast out to the great plains and the American west. Over 1.6 million people claimed 270 million acres during the time that the act was in place. Ellis Island was developed to help process all of the people coming form other countries to claim land through the homestead act.. 10% of all land in the United States was passed from the federal government to private citizen while the act was in effect. The Homestead Act remained in effect in the lower 48 until 1976 and in Alaska until 1986.

Heritage center and the prairie

Homestead National Monument has restored the land that was Daniel Freeman's land claim back to the tall grass prairie that would have been seen when people stated moving westward.

Dickcissel are very common birds on the prairie