Jackrabbit Homesteads: The Mojave’s Abandoned Cabins, California

East of Twentynine Palms, the desert floor is scattered with small square cabins, each one alone on its own patch of sand. They’re called jackrabbit homesteads. They go back to 1938, when Congress passed the Small Tract Act. The law let citizens lease up to five acres of federal land for $5 a year, for a home, cabin, business or health retreat. If they built a small dwelling within three years, they could buy the parcel at its appraised price, usually about $10 to $20 an acre. In 1955, the rules set a minimum of 400 square feet. The first applications arrived in 1940. More than 250 people applied to the Los Angeles land office in the first two weeks. But the real wave came after the war. By 1950, Desert Magazine wrote that “cabins are springing up all over the desert country.” Most were built in the 1950s and 1960s, often from cheap concrete block or plywood, one room each, with no road, power or water supplied. The desert was harder to live with than the brochures suggested. Summer heat, scarce water and isolation drove many owners away, and thousands of cabins were left empty. In 1976, the Small Tract Act was repealed. In the early 2000s, a cleanup program demolished hundreds of the abandoned shacks. Many still stand, especially in Wonder Valley. Some are lived in, some have been restored as studios and vacation rentals, and others are slowly falling apart.