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Dear Jerry, It is about time I write to you. I’m sorry it took so long since my last letter, but I have been having difficulties here in the land of opportunity. It is a little more difficult than I had anticipated out here in America. I want you to know that the American government encouraged frontier settlement by offering land grants. Remember I told you about those great beneficial policies by the American government, well I have found that it is not as desirable as some had thought, let me tell you about them. There was a government policy, the Federal Mining Act of 1872, where miners could buy federal land for $2.50-$5.00 an acre. Miners wouldn’t have to pay royalties on minerals extracted from their land. Sounds good, but the press had exaggerated when they reported miners were scooping up gold by the panful. Mining was not easy, the labor was back-breaking and the equipment to do the job could get expensive. The larger minerals lay buried deep in the earth’s soil and to extract those minerals it would take expensive equipment to dig down deep.