As the Native Americans and buffalo disappeared from the Great Plains, vast herds of cattle took their place. The open range provided excellent native grass for the cattle to forage on. Without fences to confine them, the herds would range for miles and once a year the ranchers or "cattle kings," would do a "round up" and split the herds up according to their brands. Some of the early ranches around Burlington were the Tuttle Ranch, the Bar T Ranch, and the McCrillis Ranch, which is now known as the Spring Valley Ranch. All of these ranches were started between 1870 and 1876. The Rock Island Railroad was built in 1887 and 1888 and towns were built every eight to ten miles along the railroad track to provide water and supplies to the locomotives and for the construction of the track. The railroad not only transported cattle out, but provided transportation for people migrating from the east to take advantage of the Homestead Act of 1862. Land claims and new fences put a stop to the open range. The cattle kings who had owned very little land, but occupied large portions of the open range gradually disappeared. The cattle boom had ended. The Homestead Act provided people of all occupations the ability to own land and, with improvements, retain ownership of their own homestead. The settlers lived in sod houses with dirt floors and walls of dirt which were two feet thick. The drought of 1892 and 1893 chased most of the settlers away, but a few hardy people managed to survive and later prosper. In 1905, land prices increased as a wave of land buyers came in from Kansas and eastern Nebraska. The price of land jumped from $1.25 per acre to $87.50 per acre at the peak of the land boom which prompted many to plough up the fertile land and plant wheat.