Date of Award

3-1-1974

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Geography and Geology

First Advisor

Dr. Philip Vogel

Abstract

Scholars of frontier settlement have been aware for a long time that the westward expansion of the United States involved far more than the legendary "advancing wave" of hardy and determinedly independent pioneers, seeking "free" landon which to build themselves a permanent home and begin life anew. That the homeseeker played an important role in western settlement certainly cannot be seriously challenged. Indeed, a less mythical version of this particular kind of pioneer probably was, in the end, the most important of all. Scholarly research in recent years however, has revealed that the homeseeker was not very often the first occupant (or holder) of newly opened western lands. But rather, it was the nonhomeseeker who most often came first, with the homeseeker following in his wake or not at all.

Comments

A Thesis Presented to the Department of Geography and the Faculty of the Graduate College University of Nebraska at Omaha In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts. Copyright 1974, James P. Reed.

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