The following chapter can be seen on the Iowa History Site. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ STORIES OF IOWA FOR BOYS AND GIRLS CHAPTER XXIV CLAIM AND CABIN For many days the ox-drawn prairie schooner moved slowly westward toward Iowa. Rivers were forded, or if too deep to ford, were crossed in ferry boats. At last the weary oxen ceased to strain at the yoke, and the great canvas-covered wagons came to a halt. The pioneer had reached the site of his new home. Hard work, though, lay ahead of him. Staking out a claim, building a cabin, and breaking the prairie sod for a crop, all had to be done. When the earliest settlers came to Iowa no surveys had been made. Each newcomer picked out an attractive spot for his home, usually near a spring or a stream so as to be sure of a supply of water. The early pioneers also picked a location where there was plenty of timber to furnish wood for fuel, rails for fences, and logs for a cabin. Then the pioneer marked out his claim. He stepped off certain distances in each direction and marked the boundaries by driving stakes in the prairie or by blazing trees. Sometimes a large rock or boulder was used to mark the corner of a claim. About fifteen hundred paces each way, it is said, marked off a farm of three hundred and twenty acres, more or less. Of course, many of the boundary lines were crooked, and often they overlapped. But the settlers understood that these matters would be fixed as soon as the surveys had been made. Debbie Clough Gerischer