I apologize if this sounds stupid, but when I think about the past it seems like things shouldn’t have worked the way they did, but they still did anyways.
They didn’t have computers or cloud networks to record who owned what. So, how was it all tracked? Was it possible for someone just walk out west, stake a claim on a piece of land, build a house and live there for 30 years while everyone just kind of accepted it?
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There were land deeds and other forms of contract in writing. They documents were signed by the proper authorities and parties involved, and copies of these documents were stored in appropriate archives.
Let’s say that Johnny moved west and decided to squat on a piece of private land in the desert of Nevada. The land owner might have someone hired to survey and watch over the land. This warden sees Johnny there. He goes to Johnny and asks him what he is doing there. Johnny says that Bob sold him the land, and that he now owns it. The warden, not knowing for sure, could write a letter to Bob, who lives in New York.
> Hello Bob, this guy called Johnny built a house on plot 321 in Nevada. Does he own this land?
A couple of weeks later, the warden receives a reply from Bob saying that he never sold the land. At that point, the warden either gets rid of Johnny himself, or gets the local government to evict Johnny.
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