By the early 1860s, homesteaders were surging into the rich farmlands of the Midwest, fueled by the Homestead Act of 1862 which gave people 160 acres of land if they would live on their farms and grow crops. For many, this was a no brainer, as the soil was bountiful and rain was consistent. When that land was all taken, they started looking farther west, where change was once again on the horizon.

It’s safe to say that no single movement affected Montana history more than homesteading and the 1904 Crow Act really set this in motion. This law allowed the Crow tribe to give up a portion of their Montana reservation to the United States. The land was then made available for settlement by non-Indians. By this time, the area around present-day Hardin, Montana was home to cattle ranchers, though really was one of the last areas of the state to be settled. The Crow Act suddenly left available land for homesteaders.

By 1907, the town of Hardin had been established by the Lincoln Land Company as an agricultural shipping point along the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad and the area was officially open to homesteaders.

Most homesteaders arrived in Montana after 1909, when the Homestead Act was amended to allow settlers to claim 320 acres. A tsunami of settlement descended upon the state, rushing westward and engulfing the broad valleys of southeastern Montana. Dozens of boomtowns appeared out of thin air and those that previously existed flourished. The city of Hardin was incorporated in 1911 and, by 1926, the area around the young town was completely settled.

Homestead life was anything but easy. Many newcomers erected sod houses constructed from grassy slabs of topsoil while others built cramped-one room shanties out of rough-cut lumber. The shacks had to be at least nine-feet by twelve-feet, roughly the size of a modern-day bedroom.

John Torske, a Norwegian homesteader, made his way to Montana in 1908 and settled on 160 acres. He built his homestead house and then added onto it years later when his sister arrived in the area. The building was donated and moved to the Big Horn County Museum in 2008 and is an example of primitive and often crude accommodations homesteaders faced. Despite hardships, John Torske and other homesteaders carved out a meaningful life during Montana’s homestead boom.