The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

This is a story about dirt. It includes cowboys and horses, trains and timber, mining and farming, war and politics, and settling the west. It is about hard work and hard times, choices and commitments. It is an American history lesson that spans a century. While it is not unlike most homestead stories in the early 1900's, this is our story. It is a family tale about the Wortman Homestead, founded one hundred years ago. It is a love story about dirt.

Homestead legislation was a hotly debated political issue at the time. Before the Civil War, the southern states had voted against homestead legi...