Homestead National Historical Park

Homestead National Historical Park is a place located in the state of Nebraska, a space that honors the history of the “Homestead Act,” under which, in the era of the American westward frontier, the government granted land to encourage settlement. It is a place that holds the stories of the countless pioneers who moved west and built new lives.

The reverse of the coin depicts a log cabin, two ears of corn, and a water pump together. These three things symbolize, respectively, shelter (home), food, and water, showing the most basic things a pioneer needed to live on new land.

For people who arrived in an unfamiliar land, the first things needed were a house to lay their bodies down in, food to eat, and water to drink. Though not showy, the log cabin, corn, and pump are the things that become the roots of life, symbolizing the weary yet steadfast lives of those who built a new home with their bare hands.

This site was designated as a nationally protected place on March 19, 1936. It is a place set up to long remember the life of the frontier era and the mark the Homestead Act left on American society.

This coin in the America the Beautiful series plainly reminds us that a nation’s westward expansion was built upon the most basic things: home, food, and water.