The Pre-emption Law:

            A law passed by the Unites States government in 1841 which allowed a person (squatter) the first claim to 160 acres of unsurveyed land. The price of $1.25 per acre was due as follows: filing fee of twenty-five cents an acres with the balance due eighteen months later. 

The Homestead Act of 1862:

            Provided that any adult who had not borne arms against the United States could obtain 160 acres free for living upon the land for five years if he/she cultivated a portion of the land and made certain improvements. For a veteran of the U. S. Army the time period was reduced. There was a $25 filing fee. The first one filed in Montana was near Helena in 1867 by David Carpenter. Work of surveying the land began in that year.

First Surveys:

            Beginning in 1867, at a limestone hill about 800 feet high near the mouth of Willow Creek in the northeast corner of Gallatin County, a base line (east and west) and a principal meridian (north and south) were laid down. All surveys in Montana were reckoned from this point.

Timber Culture Act:

            In 1873 Congress passed the act that anyone who would plant 2.5 acres of trees and tend them for eight years could receive 40 acres free. Planting five acres would allow 80 acres.

Desert Land Act of 1877

            Probably realizing that 160 acres of dry land was insufficient to provide a living, Congress provided an act by which a person could file on as much as 640 acres by paying a 25 cents-per-acre filing fee and $1.00 per-acre at the end of three years. This was to be land that required irrigation to be useful. During the three years irrigation and cultivation were to have begun. Unlike the Timber Culture Act, it was widely used with over 61,000 claims started in 1881. But, like the Timber Culture Act, it was abused.

Marks and Brands:

            In 1864 a bill was introduced in the state legislature that regulated marks and brands. It became a law on January 1, 1865.

 (Information taken from Montana in the Making)