The process of land alienation involves the disposal of the public domain by the federal government and the acquisition of land by settlers. Land alienation policies affected the way in which the land was settled. Homesteads, railroad grants, purchase via scrip, and state grants all played a role in the settlement of Kandiyohi County, central Minnesota, during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Dutch and Swedish settlers took up land in restricted areas of the county because of the pattern of available land resulting from the various policies. Homestead entries contained the largest proportion of original farmsteads in the mid1880s. These patterns resulting from initial settlement conditions are still observable.OST studies of land alienation by geog-M raphers have been concerned with the order in which parcels of land were ch0sen.l The objective of this research has been to reveal the preferences prospective land owners had for location, vegetation cover, and other attributes of the land. Little attention has been given to the way in which the process of land alienation itself has affected settlement. Hart has recently pointed out the need for "far more detailed and intensive investigations of the interaction of land alienation policies and initial settlement, and their impact upon the contemporary rural landscape of the United States."2 Using a case study in Minnesota, this paper will explore the interplay between the disposal of the public domain by the federal government and its acquisition by settlers. It will show that land alienation policies and practices guided the course of settlement and in so doing created settlement patterns which are still in evidence today.
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