 In the Land Act of 1804, the federal government took its first steps towards legislating the manner in which pioneer lands would be individually claimed and distributed.Further evidence of the government's involvement in encouraging western settlement was the publication of The Prairie Traveler, published in 1859, three years before the Homestead Act's passage.Randolph B. Marcy, Captain of the U.S. Army was commissioned by War Department to provide a guide for those moving west.