GEARY, Okla. (KFOR) — If there is one constant on the hills north of Geary in February, it’s cold wind whipping parts of the prairie that still haven’t ever seen a plow even into the 21st century.

“We’re in the middle of winter but you’re still okay,” asks a visitor to Stuart Seitter’s homestead?

“Yes,” he smiles, “But coming from south we had to figure out what cold was again.”

His ancestors bought this plot in 1905 from an Arapaho named Grasswoman.

For the past 6 months the modern-day Seitters have tucked themselves into the canyon cedars as homesteaders.

On the morning we showed up the kids had slept outside.

Daily chores include gathering up what the hens lay overnight.

Their ‘dugout’ is a 5th wheel trailer.

“You live in here and you appreciate living in a house,” Stuart tells us.

Stuart and a small group of friends are building a house up here, a new stake on their future.

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s my age,” Stuart says.
“I was 45 and thinking about my kids, and what’s next.”

He was in the oil field business in Kansas and then Texas.

The Pandemic brought some long held dreams into better focus.

Seitter admits, “It shook us a little bit, so I was chasing freedom I guess.”

A tour of their home reveals the framework so far. There is a big garage for the trailer and equipment.

There is a grand view that looks south past Geary to the North Canadian River.

The roof is a big American flag.

The kids can still climb the walls, build forts, and ride skateboards through the halls, but that is slowly changing.

“I trust that it’s going to work out.” he says.

There is no timeline for ‘proving up’.

Someday soon, they insist, they’ll park the trailer and move inside.

They can already see it even if we can’t, a modern day homestead on family land that’s been waiting for them a long time.

“Yeah,” he smiles. “I think we’re going to make it.”