TRACING THE SMALL TRACT ACT IN THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LANDSCAPE

JACKRABBIT HOMESTEAD

DESERT X 2021 ORDER THE BOOK
about

What are all those little shacks?

BEYOND THE PROLIFERATION of big-box chains, car dealerships, fast food joints, and the nameless sprawl located along California State Highway 62 the desert opens up. Out there, where signs of familiar habitation seem to fade from view, a variance appears on the horizon in the form of small, dusty cabins—mostly abandoned and scattered across the landscape. The majority of the existing shacks, historically found throughout the larger region known as the Morongo Basin, lie east of Twentynine Palms in outlying Wonder Valley. The curious presence of these structures indicates that you are entering one of the remaining communities of “jackrabbit homesteads” left in the American West. The mostly derelict structures located among the occasional inhabited ones are the remaining physical evidence of former occupants who were some of the last to receive land from Uncle Sam for a nominal fee through the Small Tract Act of 1938.

One of the many land acts designed to dispose of “useless” federal lands from the public domain, the Small Tract Act authorized the lease of up to five acres of public land for recreational purposes or use as a home, cabin, camp, health, convalescent, or business site to able-bodied U.S. citizens. When the applicant completed the necessary improvements to their claim by constructing a small dwelling within three years of the lease, the applicant could file for a patent—the federal government’s form of a deed—after purchasing the parcel for the appraised price (on average $10 to $20 an acre) at the regional land office. This highly popular mid-twentieth-century homestead movement reflects the quintessential American desire to claim territory and own a piece of the land even if the property in question is deemed “worthless” from an economic and governmental perspective. Continue reading –>

View the KCET Artbound short film on Jackrabbit Homestead produced in 2012.

survey-stake
audio-tour

JRHS Audio Tour

THE JACKRABBIT HOMESTEAD AUDIO TOUR is a self-guided car audio tour of Wonder Valley, California—a Small Tract settlement located east of Twentynine Palms near Joshua Tree National Park. To experience the tour while driving play or download the entire half-hour program to a mobile device or CD. A downloadable driving map is available to guide you along the route.

The audio tour features the voices of Pat Rimmington, a local historian from Twentynine Palms; Jacob Sowers, a cultural geographer; Chris Carraher, a Wonder Valley resident and artist; Andrea Zittel, a Joshua Tree resident and internationally recognized artist who directs High Desert Test Sites; Stephanie Smith, a Joshua Tree resident and architectural designer. In the final track Andrea Zittel, Chris Carraher and Pat Rimmington discuss Shack Attack—a now-defunct federal program that funded the eradication of many abandoned shacks throughout the Morongo Basin region. A bonus track by former Joshua Tree-based singer/songwriter Tim Easton performing Goodbye Blues written by singer/songwriter Evan Phillips from One for the Ditch CD—a collaboration between Easton, Phillips and Leeroy Stagger. Two extra tracks—one by the Ted Bingham, a former BLM tract surveyor and the other by Joanne Anderson, an original homesteader—complete the tour.

Funding for the JRHS Audio Tour was made possible, in part, by a grant from California Humanities as part of their statewide California Stories Initiative. California Humanities is an independent non-profit organization and a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

 

kenney-homestead
“Jackrabbit homesteads are only for folks who have a bit of pioneering blood in their veins. The land generally is rough, no water is immediately available, more or less road building has to be done. But fortunately there are many Americans who find infinite pleasure in doing the hard work necessary to provide living accommodations on one of these sites—and cabins are springing up all over the desert country.”

Desert Magazine 1950
jrhs-photos

JRHS Photos

Dohmeyer Homestead, U.S. Patent No. 1182982
Cottgias Homestead, U.S. Patent No. 1179592
Wormus Homestead, U.S. Patent No. 1216418
Noonan Homestead, U.S. Patent No. 1161910
Crane/Lewis Homestead, U.S. Patent No. 1199542
McWilliams Homestead, U.S. Patent No. 1210868
Handler Homestead, U.S. Patent No. 1197717
Guerre/Beckman Homestead, U.S. Patent No. 1213323
Phillips Homestead, U.S. Patent No. 1197717
Willis Homestead, U.S. Patent No. 1139519
Kenney Homestead, U.S. Patent No. 1161706
Fernandez Homestead, U.S. Patent No. 1161909
Artist Perry Hoffman and his partner Douglas Smith
Painter Bob Arnett and his wife Jeanette
Artist Andrea Zittel
Geographer-at-large Eames Demetrios
Artist Chris Carraher
Musician Teddy Quinn with his son Sage
Architectural designer Stephanie Smith
The Sibleys
Artist Diane Best

 

View installation photos of JRHS at the Autry National Center.

conzelman-homestead
“Passage of the Small Tract Act has opened vast areas of land, not for profit or exploitation, but for folks who like to build with their own hands, and who are thrilled by the challenge of creating a home of their own…These homesteads are for people who delight in watching the moon rise over purpled hills, for those who would call the stars by name, and who love the peace that is found only in remote places.”

Desert Magazine 1954