After the Revolutionary War ended in 1783, the land extending west from the original 13 colonies required organization for fair selling and distribution to eager settlers. The Land Ordinance of 1785 created fair land divisions and a set price of $1 per acre, requiring an outright purchase of 640 acres. However, shifting farm crop economics and demographics over time prompted the creation of the Homestead Act of 1862, signed into law by Abraham Lincoln. The Homestead Act generated a procedure for land acquisition application filing, improving the land purchase with settlements and obtaining the final title deed.
Transportation to the west was initially horses pulling wagons. Early homes were built from the surrounding land configuration. The treeless, grassy plains prompted settlers to use dense sod as wall-building materials. Those pioneers who settled farther west into the land found trees, eventually using them as cut logs for log cabins. Tarpaper shanties were not possible as a construction choice before the building of the railroad system.
The railroad system reached the state of Montana in 1880, reports PBS. The railroad advantage for homesteaders was the availability of construction materials. Tarpaper shanties were simple structures consisting of tarpaper, lumber, and shingles. These needed materials were widely available with the slow expansion of the railroad system into the western frontier. The easy construction of the tarpaper shanty motivated settlers to change from the sod construction to the new tarpaper and lumber configuration.
A typical tarpaper shanty was a simple one-room configuration. The floor was not covered, remaining as soil. A horizontal lumber box with attached vertical studs created the walls' base structure. Layered tarpaper lined the walls, held together with flat planks called lath. The ceiling consisted of tarpaper, as well as shingles. Commonly, only one window was installed for viewing the outside land.
The tarpaper shanty was extremely mobile. Settlers claiming new lands could easily move the shanty to the new land for an instant home. However, materials covering the shanty became incredibly hot during the summer, causing a sweltering interior. In contrast, winter cold easily infiltrated the inside, creating a heating challenge.