Claim clubs, also called
actual settlers' associations or
squatters' clubs, were a nineteenth-century phenomenon in the
American West. Usually operating within a confined local jurisdiction, these pseudo-governmental entities sought to regulate land sales in places where there was little or no legal apparatus to deal with land-related quarrels of any size. Some claim clubs sought to protect
squatters, while others defended early land owners. In the twentieth century,
sociologists suggested that claim clubs were a pioneer adaptation of
democratic bodies on the
East Coast, including
town halls.