Nothing captures the American dream quite like the story of America's 19th-century homesteaders. Answering the call to 'Go West', intrepid pioneer families crossed the Great Plains to stake a claim on the wild frontier and carve new lives from nothing.

Click or scroll on to meet the adventurous souls who built makeshift homes on bare land...

The story of America's homesteaders began in 1862 when President Abraham Lincoln passed the Homestead Act. For $18 – about $560 (£440) today – almost anyone over the age of 21 could lay a claim on 160 acres (65ha) of surveyed federal land across 30 states. 

Civil War veteran Daniel Freeman was the first person to file a homestead claim on 1 January 1863, the day the scheme opened. He built this house, America's first homestead, in Beatrice, Nebraska. Although the building burned down in 1916, the site was declared a National Monument and is now the Homestead National Historical Park.

As long as homesteaders built a house, improved the plot and lived there continuously for five years, the land became officially theirs. Union soldiers even had their time served in the army shaved off the mandatory term, but the scheme was closed to anyone who had fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War.

As a result, early pioneers hit the trail west in covered wagons like these. While life on the open road may sound romantic, it was fraught with hardship and peril...

This harsh reality of the journey is etched on the faces of these homesteaders. Wagon trains were often hit with diseases like typhus and cholera. Tragically, infected families would be left behind in an attempt to protect their fellow travellers.

Weather on the Great Plains – which spans ten US states – was also a threat, ranging from electrical storms and sandstorms to flooding and drought.

As we'll see, Native Americans were badly affected by the Homestead Act and they were known to attack wagon trains crossing their lands. At night, travellers would 'circle the wagons', making a corral with their vehicles to defend their livestock from raids.

This Mormon family was photographed in front of their small log cabin in the Great Salt Lake Valley, Utah in 1870. These basic cabins were commonplace for settlers, although it's hard to imagine fitting all the people in this picture inside one humble dwelling.

Frontier cabin roofs were made from poles covered in straw and twigs and then topped with a layer of dirt. 

Much of the so-called 'empty' land covered by the Homestead Act belonged to Native American tribes, particularly in Oklahoma and the Dakota territories. They believed land belonged to a community rather than a single person. As more settlers moved West, Native Americans were displaced from their lands and pushed onto reservations. Their hunting grounds were carved up, buffalo numbers decreased and water sources were redirected. 

What's more, Native Americans could only claim land under the act if they left their tribe. This photo shows Pisehedwin, a Native American Potawatomi man, and others – probably his friends, family and workers – on his Kansas farm. 

There are very few trees on the Great Plains, so homesteaders turned to inventive building methods. Many built rustic dwellings using strips of turf rolled into bricks – as a result, many homes had grass and other plants growing from their roofs and walls. 

This Coburg, Nebraska family seem to be doing relatively well from their new venture, as their house had a solid roof and they owned what was known as a 'self-governing windmill' – a relatively new invention at the time, which pumped water out of the ground.

Many homesteaders were European immigrants whose heritage influenced the way they built their new homes. These houses, for example, are similar to the turf homes of Ireland.

The four daughters of rancher Joseph M. Chrisman were photographed outside their rather basic house in Custer County, Nebraska.

This family posed next to their wagon and horses in Loup Valley, Nebraska, on their way to their new homestead.

Horses were an essential commodity on the Western frontier, where the nearest neighbour or town might be many hours or even days away. They could also pull logs and ploughs and move cattle, and their manure was used as compost.

This family bought a claim that had been relinquished by an earlier settler. Many homesteaders lived in tents while building their new homes, although ready-made shacks were also available to buy.

To meet the requirements of the Act and make a successful claim, homesteaders had to build a 'good board house' of '12 by 14'. The unit of measurement wasn't supplied and while it was generally assumed to be feet, some people bent the rules and erected miniature 12 by 14-inch (30 by 36cm) model homes made from cardboard.

Photographers would take portraits of homesteaders and turn them into penny postcards to send to family back home. 

Homeowners would pose with their most prized possessions to show off how well they were doing. This could lead to some interesting compositions – like this photo of J.D. and Lillie Semler standing outside their house near Woods Park in Custer County, Nebraska with their donkey.

This multi-generational family posed by their large turf house in Broken Bow, Custer County, Nebraska.

Their home has glass sash windows, but their proudest achievement appears to be their ability to grow – or at least buy – an enormous watermelon, big enough for the whole family to share.

Many surviving photos of pioneer families were taken in Nebraska by their fellow homesteader Solomon D. Butcher – including this one of the Laulerman family.

A failed farmer, Butcher hoped to make money by producing images documenting life on the Plains. While his Pioneer History of Custer County was moderately successful, his many subsequent money-making schemes were fruitless and he died considering himself a failure. However, his work is now considered the "most important chronicle" of early American homesteading. 

Butcher captured David Hilton and his family on their farm near Weissert, Custer County.

To show off their farmland, livestock, cart and – most importantly – their ornate organ, they carried the instrument outside, producing this rather amusing tableau. 

Thanks to the 1866 Civil Rights Act, African Americans were eligible to claim land under the Homestead Act. Around 3,500 black claimants succeeded in obtaining the titles to their land (known as patents). Including family members, up to 15,000 people lived on approximately 650,000 acres (263,000ha) of prairie. 

This family of four were pictured standing in front of their makeshift cabin on a claim near Guthrie, Oklahoma. 

Large farms employed horse-drawn combines to harvest their wheat. Invented in 1835, these enormous machines could reap, thresh and winnow the grains all at once. While they saved time, the 17-foot (15m) by 15-foot (4.6m) combines needed a team of 20 horses to pull them.

This farmer's family proudly poses on top of the formidable machine. Owning one would be a sign of true success and even renting one for a day or two must have set a farmer back a pretty penny.

About 70% of black homesteaders settled in clusters or 'colonies' with other families. This family lived in Nicodemus, Graham County, Kansas, a prosperous settlement that attracted formerly enslaved people who had been newly freed, arriving from the South in the fall of 1877. Descendants of the original homesteaders still farm in Nicodemus today.

"They created a new life of freedom and self-government in a place they could call home," said Angela Bates, a local historian and descendant of Nicodemus' early settlers. "I have always known the importance of what they did. Making such a brave move to a place unknown and so far from the borders of Kentucky must have taken pure courage, vision, and a strong faith in God."

While it might seem that these horses and their wagon stand on top of this dugout house, they're actually standing on the hillside behind it. The wagon is full of turf needed to repair the roof.

Dugout houses were popular as they provided shelter from the harsh weather that rolled across the Great Plains. Here, a tree trunk has been built into the roof and a rope swing hung from it – the perfect way to keep the little ones amused while their parents farmed the land.

The women and children of this large pioneer family in Minnesota lined up before their tar paper house to have their photo snapped. 

Tar paper nailed to a wooden frame kept out the wind, rain and snow, so it was a popular choice for building homes in rural America and Canada at the time. Here, the arrangement of nails gives a folk art effect.

Photographer Ada McColl and her mother Polly captured this image of Ada pushing a wheelbarrow full of 'buffalo chips' – dung burnt for fuel –on their homestead near Lakin City in Kearny County. Ada's three-year-old brother Burt sits on the wooden camera box.

Ada learned photography by serving as an apprentice to a photographer in Garden City. She wanted to capture details of their homesteader life to send back to family in Iowa, who they rarely saw, according to Ada's daughter, Erma Pryor.

This portrait marks the moment a Californian homesteader receives the patent to her land sometime between 1895 and 1905.

While 4 million homestead claims were made, only 1.6 million deeds were officially obtained. Pioneer life was full of challenges and claims were often abandoned. Only the tough succeeded, which would have made this moment all the sweeter.

This youngster was photographed in the final decade of the 19th century, posing with a sheepdog at Allen Ranch. In the background, a woman – presumably the child's mother – looks on, holding an infant on her hip.  

The building in the centre has a sign near the roof that says "photographs", so perhaps locals came here to have their portraits taken.

John and Marget Bakken and their two children Tilda and Eddie are seen here in front of their turf and mud house in Milton, North Dakota in 1898. John, the son of Norwegian immigrants, built his home in 1896.

This scene was used on the Homestead Act Commemorative Stamp in 1962. Since living people can't appear on US stamps, the children were blocked out by a haystack. It was also used on a 1975 postage stamp in Norway commemorating the 150th anniversary of Norwegian emigration to America. 

Under the Homestead Act, almost any adult over 21 could claim land in the West – including single, divorced and widowed women. More than 100,000 women received land in their own name and it was their pioneering spirit that helped women win the right to vote in 1920. Tellingly, nearly all 30 homesteading states introduced female voting rights before they were granted nationwide in the Nineteenth Amendment. Many female homesteaders came from Canada, where women couldn't claim land until the 1930s.

Here, a woman (thought to be Oline Steen – the daughter of Norwegian immigrants), sits in the doorway of her tar paper shack near Bucyrus, North Dakota. 

The most successful claims were made in Montana – where this photo was taken – followed by North Dakota, Colorado and Nebraska. 

This image gives us an idea of just how isolated a person could be on the frontier. Due to the vast distances between homesteads, life could be lonely – particularly in winter, when families would shut themselves in and dream of spring. The isolation was also dangerous as there weren't any doctors, midwives or sheriffs nearby. 

The first fast camera shutter was invented in the 1890s. While it could capture rapid movement like cycling and rowing races, it doesn't seem to have made it to the American Midwest by the time this photo was taken around 1900.

The parents who shelled out for this photo may have been a little annoyed that their children couldn't stay still for long enough to appear clearly, but we think it's a charming snapshot of frontier life.

When settlers arrived in the Pacific Northwest, their first priority was growing and farming food. As a result, some lived inside huge hollowed-out tree stumps left behind by logging companies before they built more substantial homes. 

This cedar stump house in Edgecomb, Washington was built by Swedes Gustav Lennstrom and Johan Westerlund. It was home to three adults and three children before Gustav, his wife Brita and their children built a home nearby. Sadly, the house was destroyed in 1946 during an attempt to move it.

These smiling women look like they've stepped straight from the set of the 1970s TV show Little House on the Prairie. The hit series was based on the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder, who grew up moving from state to state before settling permanently on a homestead in De Smet, South Dakota.

In 1907, Ingalls Wilder's younger sister Carrie was one of the many single women who claimed a homestead. She raised a tar paper shack on the edge of the Badlands – so-called because it was a hard place to live.

Many homesteaders chose to have their photos taken outside their homes, presumably so they could show off their residences and land. As a result, there are far fewer surviving images that show home interiors. 

This homesteader in Quinn, South Dakota had just enough space for a single bed and a small table and chair. Net curtains, a white table cloth and photos on the wall are just about the only adornments in the simple wooden shack. The man's clothing – a nightshirt, suit jacket and long fur coat for winter – hangs on pegs on the wall.

Buck-and-rail fencing like this was used in wooded areas on the frontier. The design was ideal for homesteaders looking to quickly build a simple fence as it required few tools or nails – things that were hard to come by in remote territories. It can also be built on hard ground as it doesn't require postholes.

They were a common sight on Civil War battlefields and many farms were damaged or destroyed by Union and Confederate soldiers alike, who took the fencing for firewood.

Successful homesteaders eventually moved out of their shacks and into farmhouses, keeping their old cabins for storage or for housing livestock.

While wood-frame farmhouses may have been simple affairs, inhabitants tried their hardest to make them comfortable. This elderly couple has decorated the interior of their Oregon farmhouse with floral wallpaper, a patterned rug and a large framed photo of the man in his younger years or perhaps their son.

This woman and her daughter may have smiled for the camera, but they faced myriad problems. Leaky roofs, open wells, outdoor lavatories and dirt floors that were impossible to sanitise meant that death and disease – particularly diphtheria – stalked the pioneers. 

On top of that, money was tight and without any stores nearby, possessions and resources were scarce; some families had just two buckets and some crockery to their name. Women would make their own candles and soap, but with only 15 inches (38cm) of rain on the Plains each year, water for washing was in short supply.

While many homesteaders struck solemn, dignified poses for their portraits, this group decided to have some fun and pose on the roof of their cabin. 

This house has been built from wood and tar paper and many were also partially banked up with soil blocks to help protect them from being blown away by the notorious Plains winds. Blizzards, tornados and warm winds that fanned wildfires were all a concern.

While homesteading was a hard life, millions succeeded. It gave a fresh start and new hope to a huge variety of people from formerly enslaved people to single women and immigrant families. By 1910, nearly half the settlers in the northern plains states came from Britain, Germany, Russia and Scandinavia. 

However, it made a lasting and damaging impact on America's indigenous peoples, continuing to push them from their native lands and onto poor-quality reservations that still exist today. Despite this, the Homestead Act was expanded and officially ran until 1976. The last land patent was awarded in Alaska in 1988.

Loved this? Now discover more historic homes around the world