The purpose of this portion of the resource survey of the northeastern plains is to reconstruct the settlement phase which occurred between 1880 and 1940, the period generally referred to as the homesteading era. To reconstruct the 60 years of human settlement and resettlement required an extensive review of secondary information resources as well as a field project(?) oriented around the collection of data from primary information resources. Much of the information that was compiled was directed toward a mapping project of the northeastern plains which included the location of the places named by the settlers as well as identifying the locations of both published resources (secondary data) and [illegible] settlers who were interviewees (primary data). The bulk of this data will then be transferred to a sequence of maps indicating the chronological process(?) of settlement history which will be followed by a series demonstrating the rise and fall of central places ( [illegible] towns) in the northeastern plains