Jackrabbit Homestead Cabins — Wonder Valley, California
East of Twentynine Palms, San Bernardino County, California, USA · Small Tract Act of 1938
Photo: Ann Aldrich / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0); file dated 28 July 2018 in its metadata, which marks it as a screenshot (29 July on its file page); full photo, resized.
Wonder Valley, a stretch of open desert east of Twentynine Palms, is dotted with small cabins put up by ‘jackrabbit’ homesteaders, who could claim five-acre parcels of federal land under the Small Tract Act of 1938 by building a small dwelling. The land rush took off after World War II and peaked in the 1950s. Many of the cabins were later left empty; some have been demolished or burned, others have been taken over by residents and artists, and their remains were still reported standing across the valley in 2026. Source Source Source Source Checked
The newest dated evidence is a Dodho Magazine feature of 24 April 2026 on photographer Tim Walters, which says of the ruined cabins: “These skeletal remains still dot the landscape of Wonder Valley.” The newest dated free photograph found is a Commons photo with camera date 2 August 2022 showing a roofless homestead kit house on Shadow Mountain Road. A search on 10 November 2026 found no report of any new organized demolition program in 2026 and no newer dated free photo. Source Source Reported
More photos
💡 5 things to know
- Five acres and a small cabinThe cabins exist because of the Small Tract Act of 1938, which, in Kim Stringfellow’s words, “authorized the lease of up to five acres of public land”; the applicant had to build a small dwelling to get title. Visit 29 Palms puts it this way: “The desert was opened to five-acre homesteads by the 1938 Small Tract Act”. Source Source Source Checked
- The rush came in the 1950sAccording to Visit 29 Palms, “the land rush did not start until the 1950s”; by the mid-1950s, in a 1992 American Desert Magazine passage quoted there, the Bureau of Land Management “was receiving 100 applications a day for free land” (the source does not say for which area; not Wonder Valley alone). Stringfellow’s primer says “jackrabbit homesteading did not take off until the end of World War II”. Source Source Checked
- How small is small? Sources disagreeThe required minimum cabin is given as “no smaller than 12 feet by 16 feet” by the Los Angeles Times (2016) and as 200 square feet, later raised to 400, by High Desert Test Sites; DesertUSA dates a 400-square-foot minimum to July 1955, and Dodho says cabins were “typically only as large as necessary to establish a homestead claim—around 150 square feet”. The Denver VOICE describes the cabins actually built in Wonder Valley as “ten feet by twelve feet”. The differences may reflect rules that changed over time; we lean toward a small early minimum (about 150-200 sq ft) raised to 400 sq ft in 1955. Source Source Source Source Source Conflicting
- Shack AttackBy the 1990s so many shacks were abandoned that San Bernardino County launched a demolition program “funded by a $500,000 federal grant”, the Los Angeles Times reported in 2016: “The program — dubbed Shack Attack — paid to demolish 116 shacks, with property owners razing another 335 cabins at the behest of the county.” These are totals for the county’s program; the article does not name Wonder Valley or give its share. Stringfellow’s Wonder Valley audio tour calls Shack Attack “a now-defunct federal program that funded the eradication of many abandoned shacks”, and the county’s own Wonder Valley guide says “many of these cabins have been demolished.” Source Source Source Source Reported
- Artists moved into the cabinsThe county’s Wonder Valley guide says the community “is home to retirees, academics, new artists and musicians.” Kim Stringfellow’s Jackrabbit Homestead project (website and audio tour released March 2009, book published 2009) documents the cabins and the artists who live and work in them, among them Chris Carraher, “an artist and cabin dweller in Wonder Valley”. Source Source Source Checked
📍 Where it is
Wonder Valley is an unincorporated community in San Bernardino County, California, east of Twentynine Palms; the cabins are scattered over a wide area on five-acre parcels, so there is no single address. The map point is the community coordinate given by Wikipedia (34°9′4″N 115°55′53″W), not the cabin in the photo, whose exact location is not recorded. Source Source Checked
🗓️ Sightings
- 1938
Small Tract Act opens five-acre tracts · Visit 29 Palms
- 2009Mar
Jackrabbit Homestead site and audio tour released · PBS SoCal
- 201724 Apr
Abandoned cabin a total loss in fire · Z107.7
- 201717 Aug
Foundation of a derelict cabin · Nburkhart, Commons
- 201828 Jul
Bare frame of a homestead cabin · Ann Aldrich, Commons
- 20181 Dec
Abandoned homestead destroyed by fire · Z107.7
- 20203 Apr
Abandoned cabin burned to the ground · Z107.7
- 20222 Aug
Roofless kit house, Shadow Mountain Rd · Commons
- 202624 Apr
Remains ‘still dot the landscape’ · Dodho
Green stamps mark dated photographs; amber stamps mark records or reports; red stamps mark loss. Publication dates are not camera dates.
🗞️ In the sources
Jackrabbit Homestead: Artists, Off-Roaders, and the American Dream Writ Miniature
“small, dusty cabins –mostly abandoned–scattered across the landscape”
Homestead cabins have become a cottage industry in the desert
“The program — dubbed Shack Attack — paid to demolish 116 shacks,”
Note: these are totals for the county’s program; the article does not name Wonder Valley or give its share.
Tim Walters’ Five Acres of Heaven: A Photographic Journey Through Wonder Valley
“These skeletal remains still dot the landscape of Wonder Valley.”
✅ The facts
- What
- Small ‘jackrabbit’ homestead cabins, many abandoned, scattered across Wonder Valley Source Source Source Checked
- Location
- Wonder Valley, unincorporated San Bernardino County, California, east of Twentynine Palms Source Source Source Checked
- Law
- Small Tract Act of 1938: lease (later purchase) of up to five acres of public land, on condition of building a small dwelling Source Source Source Source Checked
- Built
- Mainly after World War II, with the land rush in the 1950s; according to a 1992 American Desert Magazine passage quoted by Visit 29 Palms, by 1960 the BLM imposed an 18-month moratorium on filings to process a backlog of nearly 60,000 applications (the source does not say for which area; not Wonder Valley alone) Source Source Source Checked
- Builders
- The builder of the cabin in the 2018 photo is not recorded; homesteaders built their own or bought prefab models from Homestead Supplies (Stringfellow, High Desert Test Sites) Source Source Source Unconfirmed
- Cabin size
- Minimum given as 12 x 16 ft (Los Angeles Times), 200 sq ft later 400 sq ft (High Desert Test Sites), 400 sq ft from July 1955 (DesertUSA), around 150 sq ft (Dodho); Wonder Valley’s cabins described as 10 x 12 ft (Denver VOICE) Source Source Source Source Source Conflicting
- How many
- About 4,000 original cabins in Wonder Valley, few of which remain, according to the Denver VOICE (2009); Palm Springs Life says the Los Angeles Times reported roughly 2,000 dilapidated remnants in 2000 (area not stated) Source Source Reported
- Why abandoned
- Heat, isolation and no infrastructure (DesertUSA, Denver VOICE); water service never arrived (Dodho); cabins passed to heirs with no interest in them (Denver VOICE, Dodho) Source Source Source Checked
- Demolition program
- ‘Shack Attack’, San Bernardino County, funded by a $500,000 federal grant: 116 shacks demolished by the county and another 335 razed by owners (Los Angeles Times, 2016; totals for the county program, not Wonder Valley alone) Source Reported
- Demolition program dates
- LA Times: launched after ‘by the 1990s’ so many shacks were abandoned; The Metropole: federal grant received in 1999; Desert magazine: some ‘wiped out in the ’90s’; Wikipedia: ‘a cleanup effort in the early 2000s’ Source Source Source Source Conflicting
- Artists
- Artists and musicians live and work in reclaimed cabins; the county guide lists ‘new artists and musicians’ among Wonder Valley residents Source Source Source Checked
- Documented by
- Kim Stringfellow, Jackrabbit Homestead: website and Wonder Valley audio tour released March 2009; book ‘Jackrabbit Homestead: Tracing the Small Tract Act in the Southern California Landscape, 1938-2008’ (Center for American Places, 2009) Source Source Checked
🔗 Related
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- All Artwork Files
All sources & image credits
- PBS SoCal Artbound: Jackrabbit Homestead: Artists, Off-Roaders, and the American Dream Writ Miniature, by Kim Stringfellow (7 May 2012)
- Wikipedia: Wonder Valley, California (undated, read 10 Nov 2026)
- Visit 29 Palms: Homesteading (undated)
- Kim Stringfellow: Jackrabbit Homestead, front page (© 2009-2024)
- Kim Stringfellow: Jackrabbit Homestead, primer (last modified 29 Jan 2023)
- PBS SoCal, SoCal Connected clip: Jackrabbit Homesteads (3 Sep 2014)
- National Park Service: Homesteaders (updated 24 Feb 2017)
- San Bernardino County: Wonder Valley Community Action Guide (PDF, file dated 2020; survey 2018)
- Palm Springs Life: Tobacco Road Boomtown (no date on page; Wikipedia cites it as 1 Nov 2016)
- Denver VOICE: Feature: Wonder Valley, by William Hillyard (1 Jul 2009)
- DesertUSA: The Jackrabbit Homesteads (22 Jun 2023)
- Dodho Magazine: Tim Walters’ Five Acres of Heaven: A Photographic Journey Through Wonder Valley (24 Apr 2026)
- Los Angeles Times (Hugo Martin) via HeraldNet: Homestead cabins have become a cottage industry in the desert (20 Oct 2016)
- The Metropole (Urban History Association): “Jackrabbiting” Away from Urban Spaces, by Julie Haltom (29 Aug 2023)
- Desert magazine (The Desert Sun): There’s more to high desert homesteads than meets the eye, by Kristin Scharkey (Nov 2016, PDF)
- The Desert Sun (Judith Salkin), reposted on jackrabbithomestead.com: Artists embrace harsh desert (1 Aug 2009)
- High Desert Test Sites archive: Homestead Cabins (Wonder Valley section; Zittel and Trainor, 2015)
- Z107.7 FM: Wonder Valley homestead cabin total loss in fire Monday (25 Apr 2017)
- Z107.7 FM: Fire destroys abandoned Wonder Valley homestead (3 Dec 2018)
- Z107.7 FM: Wonder Valley cabin burned to the ground Friday night (6 Apr 2020)
- Wonder in the Valley (blog), reprinting Kim Stringfellow: Small Tract Act of 1938 (17 Jan 2015)
- Wikimedia Commons: File:Wonder Valley Homestead Cabin.jpeg (Ann Aldrich, 2018) — read through the Commons API
- Wikimedia Commons: File:Wonder valley cabin remnants.jpg (Nburkhart, 2017) — read through the Commons API
- Wikimedia Commons: File:Shadow Mountain Road. Wonder Valley. August 2, 2022.jpg (Hwy62revisited) — read through the Commons API
- Hero image: Ann Aldrich / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) (WAU media #11930; share image #11931).
- More photos: Nburkhart / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0, 2017; WAU media #11932); Hwy62revisited / Wikimedia Commons (CC0, 2022; WAU media #11933).
Last checked: 10 November 2026 · How we verify art