All the People's Land: The Wealth of the Nation

There was nothing but Land: not a country at all, but the material out of which Countries are made.

—Willa Cather, My Antonia (1918)

Early in 1994, the newly appointed head of the BLM made the customary courtesy call to meet the newly elected governor of a western state. The first and only real question the governor asked was, "When are you going to give us our land back?" He was not joking. With a high level of discomfort the unwelcome answer was delivered: "Governor, the land can't be given back, because it was never yours to begin with. When your territory petitioned for statehood and the Congress admitted it to the union, your state agreed to cede all claims to unappropriated public domain lands. Public ownership of these lands is rooted in the union of the original thirteen colonies." The governor's comments exemplify a fundamental and widespread misunderstanding about the law and history of the western United States.

When the Declaration of Independence was signed, the colonies of Connecticut, Georgia, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia held claims to the land between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. Maryland's legislators contended that "the lands claimed by the British Crown ... if secured by blood and treasure of all, ought in reason, justice, and policy ... be considered a common stock." Maryland had good reason to argue that this land ought to be "common stock" since Maryland had no land claims outside its boundary. Fearing that states with land claims to the west would have an unfair political and economic advantage, Maryland refused to sign the Articles of Confederation.

In 1780, New York ceded its lands west of the Appalachian Mountains. Maryland reciprocated by signing the Articles of Confederation. By 1802, all of the "land claim" states had ceded their western lands. Land claim states such as Virginia and Georgia ceded their claims under the proviso that new states formed out of the western lands would receive the same privileges as the original states. As the western territories entered the Union, lands not specifically titled to individuals or corporations by the federal government generally remained under public ownership. In exchange for extensive land grants within their territories, prospective states relinquished claims to the unappropriated lands inside their boundaries. Congress required that these agreements be reflected in each new state's constitution as "ordinances irrevocable."

Those who want the federal government to give the public lands "back" would have to get in line behind the descendants of the Native Americans and the land claim colonies such as New York and Georgia and perhaps others who ceded or lost their claims through war or treaty. As recently as the 1990s, the "Wise Use Movement" and state's rights advocates litigated their right to take over public lands. The Supreme Court has never ruled in their favor, however, and has allowed U.S. citizen ownership of public land to stand. The concept of public land, public domain, or land belonging to all the citizens of the United States is a concept basic to the formation of the Union itself. The public lands belong to all the people.

The United States encompasses a diverse 2.3 billion acres of land. The fifty states range in size from Rhode Island's 677,120 acres to Alaska's 365 million acres. Historically 1.8 billion of these acres were public domain lands belonging to all citizens of the United States. All acquisitions and cessions after the formation of the Union were part of the public domain. The peoples' land stretched from the Appalachian Mountains to the Pacific plus Alaska.

Land: The Wealth of the Nation

To the fledgling nation, the seemingly endless western lands represented wealth. Under the leadership of such visionaries as President Thomas Jefferson, the nation's land base grew rapidly during the early years. The first major addition to the public domain was the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, when 529 million acres between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains were added to the Union. By the 1850s, Manifest Destiny, the dream of spanning the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, was realized. The capstone of our public domain was the purchase of Alaska, the "northern icebox," from the tsar of Russia in 1867. Known at the time as "Seward's Folly," referring to the secretary of state, this purchase of 365 million acres cost $7.2 million, or 2 cents per acre. Table 11 and Figure 1-1 summarize the acquisition of the public domain.

Cash was scarce and land was plentiful in the formative years of the United States. The first major land policy was the Land Ordinance of 1785 that established the rectangular land survey system still employed today. The measure also called for the orderly settlement of public land. Early leaders agreed that public land should be sold to raise revenue and to reward soldiers and sailors for their service. Early surveys set aside land to be granted to soldiers. An army private who fought in the Revolutionary War was granted 100 acres of land while a major general was granted 1100 acres.

Public land policy debates extended to the earliest years of the Union. Thomas Jefferson wanted land sold to small farmers as the foundation to build a self-sufficient nation. Alexander Hamilton, then secretary of the treasury, wanted the government to sell land at wholesale prices to "the rich, the able, and the well-born," arguing that this would build a strong economic base for the nation. Subsequent laws allowed for both points of view. Wealthy speculators who often realized great profits from land resale or development purchased the best and most productive land, particularly in the East. Auctioning off the public domain favored rich businesspeople who had cash in hand. In later years, many settlers obtained land at little or no cost. Most of them cleared the land for agriculture and farming.

The Land Rush and Land Grants

The 1800s marked the great American land rush. Local land offices were established, and by 1805 hundreds of thousands of acres were sold. The sale of public land increased so rapidly that, in 1812, Congress established the General Land Office to "superintend, execute, and perform all such acts and things touching the public lands of the U.S." Within a few years the General Land Office commissioner was viewed as one of the most prestigious assignments in...