Public Lands

I

Introduction

Public Lands, in United States law, term designating largely vacant and unappropriated lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) of the United States Department of the Interior. The U.S. has approximately 110 million hectares (272 million acres) of public land exclusive of its national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges, and other land set aside for particular uses (see National Park Service). Most of this BLM-administered land has never been privately owned.

II

Acquisition of the Public Domain

The developing nation acquired its first public domain following the end of the American Revolution. At that time certain of the original states ceded their claims to lands beyond the Allegheny Mountains to the federal government. These claims, based on colonial charters, had been a source of contention and bloodshed between the colonies long before the American Revolution. After the war, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, having no claim to western land, proposed that the landed states cede their western lands to the federal government (see Northwest Territory). Maryland refused to ratify the Articles of Confederation until it was assured that this would be done. New York renounced its claim to western lands in 1780, and eventually other states followed its example. With the cession by Georgia in 1802, state cessions to the federal government reached a total of more than 96 million hectares (236 million acres). The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 added some 215 million hectares (530 million acres). Other acquisitions include the following: Red River Basin (1808), Spanish Cession (1819), Oregon Compromise (1846), Mexican Cession (1848), lands purchased from Texas (1850), Gadsden Purchase (1853), and Alaska Purchase (1867). Through the course of the nation’s history 729 million hectares (1.8 billion acres) of land have at some time been a part of the public domain.

III

Disposal of the Public Domain

The first significant legislation pertaining to the disposal and use of public land came in 1776, when the Continental Congress offered land grants to induce soldiers to desert from the British army. Later in the same year, Congress promised land bounties to its own soldiers as partial payment for military service. Military land grants were continued through the Mexican War. Only a small part of the land conveyed by military warrants, however, was ever occupied by the returning veterans. Land warrants were purchased for a mere fraction of their face value by speculators. It was not until 1969 that the last of the outstanding warrants were cleared from the public land records of the nation.

In the early years of the American republic, many national leaders saw public lands as a source of government revenue, and public policy was directed toward the sale of land. At the same time, many private citizens believed that vacant land belonged to the person who occupied and cleared it. So-called squatting, or unlawful occupation of land, was a common practice of the day, and conflicts often arose between those who held legal claim to land and those who occupied it. The policy of selling public land was never highly successful and failed to raise the revenue expected. Grants of public lands were awarded by Congress to encourage the construction of canals, wagon roads, and railroads, and to reclaim swamplands. The Land Ordinance of 1785 provided for the reservation of one section in each township for future use or support of public elementary schools. Other grants were made to colleges to promote the teaching of agriculture and the mechanical arts (see Land-Grant Colleges). Beginning with the creation of Yellowstone National Park in 1872, many of the national parks, forests, and wildlife refuges were carved from the public domain.

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A general change in the policy of public land disposal came with the passage of the Homestead Act in 1862 (see Homestead Laws). Designed to encourage agricultural development, the law allowed the head of a household to claim up to 65 hectares (160 acres) of public land for an initial fee of $12 and a closing cost of $6. In return, the homesteader was required to meet residency and cultivation requirements before a patent to the land was granted. By 1932 more than 1 million settlers were drawn to the public land in search of farms, and more than 109 million hectares (more than 270 million acres) passed from public to private ownership. By 1962 all agricultural land had passed from public ownership, and in 1976 the Homestead Laws were repealed by Congress.

IV

Rules for Administering the Public Lands

Article IV, Section 3, of the U.S. Constitution authorized Congress to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other properties belonging to the United States. The Land Ordinance of 1785 provided for the survey of the public lands. The administration of public lands was later charged to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, created in 1789. In 1812 Congress established the General Land Office within the Treasury Department to oversee public-land disposal. The General Land Office was transferred to the Department of the Interior on its establishment in 1849.

In 1934 Congress passed the Taylor Grazing Act to provide for the leasing of public land for livestock grazing and established the Grazing Service as an agency of the Department of the Interior to administer the act. The Grazing Service was combined with the General Land Office to form the Bureau of Land Management in 1946. With the enactment of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, Congress established for the first time a comprehensive legislative mandate for retaining public lands in federal ownership and managing those lands for the public.

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