Once President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act of 1862, which granted 160 acres of free land to anyone with the grit to farm it for five years, the rush to the Great Plains was on.
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Like his subjects, Butcher was a pioneer, even though he held a camera more often than a plow.
Alongside sixty-two of Butcher\'s iconic photographs, Light on the Prairie conveys the irrepressible spirit of a man whose passion would give us a firsthand look at the men and women who settled the Great Plains.
Butcher noticed how fast the vast land was settling up, so he formed the plan that would become his life\'s work--to record the frontier Days in words and images.
He had learned the art of photography as a teenager, and he began taking pictures of his friends and neighbors.
He didn\'t like farming, but he found another way to thrive.
Butcher (1856-1927) staked his claim on the plains in 1880.
Butcher was there to document it, amassing more than three thousand photographs and compiling the most complete record of the sod house era ever made.
Solomon D.
Once President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act of 1862, which granted 160 acres of free land to anyone with the grit to farm it for five years, the rush to the Great Plains was on
