The 21st Century Land Grants
The Sheridan family’s 21st Century Land Grant, located just east of Mono Lake, California, was one of the first “drop and prop” housing designs placed on a central piling and “V” shaped foundation to minimize environmental impact.
Future Narrative
After overcoming the economic and political fallout of the 2020 Global Pandemic, the United States government and several enlightened billionaires came together to fund the 21st Century Land Grant program. The goal was to improve land quality in the Western states, alleviate homelessness, raise living standards for those in agriculture, and foster a new and widespread American organic farm movement.
Before the 21st Century Land Grant Program was adopted in the United States, the post-pandemic politics of fear, divisiveness, and grifting had been exposed. Nothing was being produced but more money for the wealthiest billionaires. California and neighboring states were the first to see tangible progress. California had the foresight to couple the Land Grant Program with the completion of the State Water Project, which had started in the 1960s and 1970s but was only half the size of the original project plan. The State’s completed water project network included a new “capillary system.” Fed by an extensive network of new reservoirs and waterways, the dense water network ensured deep storage reserves of seasonal rainfall and snow runoff.
Before the system was completed, excess water resources flowed unimpeded into the Pacific Ocean. Within 10 years of the water system’s completion, fundamental differences in land quality across California were visible. Once arid land was transformed, it began supporting small-scale farming. Coupled with the 21st Century Land Grant initiative, California ensured that the State Water Project would interweave with the land granted to those who would sustainably work the land. Success in other states followed but on a smaller scale.
The Jensen plot was one of the first minimal structures placed on 21st Century Land Grant land. These modest yet efficient accommodations provide shelter, comfort, and connectivity for the owners who work the surrounding 40-acre plot.
Similar to the G.I. Bill extended to veterans of WWII, citizens could qualify for low-interest loans for 40-acre or 80-acre lots with guaranteed water rights. The only provisions were that grantees would assist with building their home from a certified modular factory-built home kit and agree to tend the land for at least 10 years. What sprung up was a latticework of mutually supporting small farmers like those seen during the great Western migration over two centuries earlier.
Companies producing modern and efficient kit homes that could easily be transported or airdropped to new land grant sites made healthy profits that they reinvested in their businesses as the demand for their “new homestead” housing boomed. New Land Grant Owners (or “New Landers” as they came to be known, and their efficient homes referred to as “Drop and Props,” were connected by the timely widespread availability of affordable 2-4 person Electric Vertical Take of And Landing (EVTOL) craft. This form of transportation drastically reduced transit times on the new frontier. Traveling “as the crow flies” was now possible, and neighbors with hundreds of acres of farmland between them were just minutes away from each other.
The Montreat family's windmills, which they service, provide additional income and enhance the comfort of their 80-acre 21st-century Land Grant location in Christmas Valley, Oregon.
The area around California’s Mono Lake east of the Sierras before the New California Water Project additions were completed.
The area around California’s Mono Lake east of the Sierras 10 years after the completion of the New California Water Project additions.
With plentiful clean water, crops, renewable energy, and satellite connectivity available, the 21st-century Land Grant arguably had an even more significant impact on the United States than the original land grant programs. While ensuring that plenty of wildlands remained across the United States, this new era of peace and prosperity, which was universally enjoyed, ultimately freed humankind to look to the stars again with renewed vigor for exploration.
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