The US government gave away 160 acres of free land to almost anyone who'd farm it

The Homestead Act of 1862 let any adult citizen, or immigrant intending to become one, claim 160 acres of federal land for free, provided they lived on it and improved it for five years. Over the following decades roughly 1.6 million homestead claims were filed, transferring about 10% of all US land, an area larger than California and Texas combined, into private hands, while displacing Native American nations from land the government had just declared available to claim.

— US Congress, The Homestead Act of 1862 — Signed into law by Abraham Lincoln, 1862