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900 Miles from Nowhere: Voices from the Homestead Frontier | 
 enlarge | Author: Steven R. Kinsella
Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $16.80
You Save: $13.15 (44%)
New (16) Used (5) from $15.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 728478
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 216
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 10.1 x 7.7 x 0.7
ISBN: 0873515722
Dewey Decimal Number: 978
EAN: 9780873515726
ASIN: 0873515722
Publication Date: September 28, 2006
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Product Description
It was on the vast American prairie that people from around the world seized the opportunity for personal and economic freedom promised by free land. Traveling across oceans and continents, these hard-nosed, pragmatic people began arriving in the 1860s with shovels and plows, convinced they were part of something important. They were. Putting hand to plow and breaking the sod for their first crude homes, these hardy settlers left an indelible thumbprint on American history and on the country’s character. Though many of their ventures ended in failure, their risks permanently enhanced the nation’s diversity and its sense of independence and resourcefulness. 900 Miles from Nowhere is the heartfelt chronicle of the daily lives and personal struggles of Great Plains homesteaders, told in their own voices through many never-before-published letters, diaries, and photographs. Believing absolutely that they could control their own destiny, they bet everything they owned, even in the face of insurmountable obstacles. This is the remarkable and ever-inspiring story of life on the grasslands that stretch from Canada to Mexico.
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| Customer Reviews:
Greater Respect for American Pioneers January 30, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
After reading "900 Miles from Nowhere" I am amazed at the pioneer spirit, and their toughness and tenacity. Settlers of the Great Plains suffered hardship upon misfortune living in crude huts and sod houses and breaking ground in an often inhospitable land. Their prize was 160 acres of free or inexpensive land given by the United States government to help populate the drier lands of the middle west. "All" they had to do was improve their land for several years, during which time they experienced some or a combination of the following natural disasters: drought, tornadoes and high winds, extreme heat, plagues of locusts, and blizzards, as well as personal torments in the form of isolation, scarcity of food and funds, unsanitary and uncomfortable living conditions, disease, and death. That anyone managed to hang on, let alone prosper, in these conditions boggles my "modern day" mindset.
The letters and diary entries in this book showcase the actual thoughts, experiences and emotions of many pioneers between 1860 and 1910. Their stoicism is inspiring and their work ethic is astounding. The optimism and sometimes the bleakness of some excerpts really tugs at your heart. The photographs are amazing, collected from many historical museums in the midwest. You see formally dressed families proudly posing in front of their sod huts, and in the background the flat prairie seems to stretch to infinity, looking more like Mars than somewhere on Earth. It's fascinating to study the faces of these people, and know that you are looking at some of the builders of America who gave it their all.
Several of my ancestors lived on claims in Montana during that same period. Now I know what they must have experienced in trying to get their share of the American dream.
Great history lesson January 9, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
If you're one of those people who think hardships mean your computer is down or you've lost a cell phone call or maybe your morning coffee isn't just the blend you prefer, this book should be a wake up call. Steven R. Kinsella 's "900 Miles From Nowhere," is a compilation of letters, journal entries and other documents in which the settlers of the Great Plains describe in their own words the immense hardships they faced as they established homes, farms and towns on the vast American prairie.
Kinsella, a former press secretary to U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle, now lives in St. Paul, Minn. He is a great-grandson of Great Plains homesteaders. Kinsella did hours of research for this fascinating book which offers insight into the courage and determination our ancestors faced as they struggled to make new lives for themselves in the frontier.
The book's title comes from a letter written by a new bride whose husband had taken her to a sod house in western South Dakota. Still, the 23-year-old woman was cheerily optimistic as she wrote about the construction of her "other house," a two-story frame structure that she was more than anxious to occupy. Her determination to succeed despite being "900 miles from nowhere" is a common theme among the writings, and is a pretty good indication of just how this a large part of this country was settled - by people who refused to be defeated.
History buff or not, most readers will find this a very good read. I received it as a gift and ordered a copy to give as a gift.
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