How did people's view of the great plains change after 1860?

The Homestead Act of 1862 encouraged the people to settle in the Great Plains. The homesteaders were allowed to claim for free 160 acres of land as long as they lived and worked on it for five years. This was a very attractive proposition to those who could not afford to own lands before. The invention of the steel plow blade and the mechanical reaper made it possible for the farmers to plant and harvest large plots of wheat swiftly. The emergence of railroad lines to the west played an important part. They enabled the farmers to sell their wheat crop to other parts of the country. The many new inventions and technologies made life easier for the people so they now viewed the Great Plains not as a wasteland but as an immense area where they could live and farm.