The Great Surveys: 1867-1879

Hayden (1867-1878)
King (1867-1872)
Wheeler (1869-1879)
Powell (1869- 1879)

Yellowstone National Park, 1872

The world’s first national park, set apart by Congess fromt he Public Domain, as a “public park” or pleasuring ground for the “benefit and enjoyment of the people.”

General Mining Law of 1872

"Valuable" mineral deposits were free and open to exploration and purchase. $100 assessment work yearly and at least $500 improvements before claims could be patented. Individual claimants limited to 20 acres; lode locations 1,500 feet long and 600 feet wide. Milling sites not to exceed 5 acres. Valid claims given status akin to private property. Development of minerals on public lands was given priority over potential other land uses.

Timber Culture Law of 1873

160 acres, 40 of which had to be planted in trees, later reduced to 10 acres. No residence was required.

Desert Land Act, 1877

640 acres at $1.25 per acre, no residence required, patent given after 3 years if irrigation was accomplished.

Timber & Stone Law of 1878

160 acres of land chiefly valuable for timber or stone at $2.50 per acre.

First Public Lands Commission

Fraud had been a problem since the creation of the Public Domain. By the late 1870s fraud was pronounced. Mineral, livestock, and timber companies amassed large land holdings by paying people to make entries under the Preemption and Homestead Laws, then, after claims had been patented, purchased the claims. Stock raisers used the Desert Land Law to control access to rivers and streams.

U.S. Geological Survey established, 1879

Charged with the responsibility for classifying public lands and examining the geologic structure and mineral resources and products of the public domain

Opening of Indian lands, 1887

Congress tried to satisfy would-be homesteaders' land hunger by giving individual farms to reservation Indians and opening the remaining lands to non-Indian settlers. The Great Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota, Chippewa lands in Minnesota, tribal lands in Oklahoma were opened.

General Public Lands Reform Act of 1891

Answer to widespread land fraud. Congress ended auctioning land, repeal of Timber Culture and Preemption acts. Desert Land entries reduced to 320 acres.

Forest Reserve Law of 1891

Last section of the General Public Lands Reform Act allowed the President to withdraw and reserve public lands wholly or in part covered by timber or undergrowth. Radical change from the previous disposal policies.

First Forest Reserve, 1891

Adjacent to Yellowstone National Park. By 1893, 16 more reserves were created, totaling 18 million acres.

Forest Management Act of 1897

Gave the Secretary of the Interior authority to regulate occupancy and use within the reserves, develop mineral resources, provide fire protection, permit timber sales.

Reclamation Law of 1902

Provided for federal irrigation projects in western states and territories, using proceeds from the sale of public lands. Lands selected for reclamation were withdrawn from settlement but then opened for settlers under the Homestead Act after projects were completed. Limited to 160 acres. Irrigation projects were administered by Recla-mation Service, later renamed Bureau of Reclamation.

Pelican Island, Florida, 1903

First national wildlife refuge.

Second Public Lands Commission

Found public land laws antiquated and ill-suited to conditions of the remaining Public Domain. Called for changes in the Homestead and Desert Land Laws and asked for the repeal of the Timber and Stone Law because timber companies were using it illegally to acquire large forest holdings.

Forest Service created, 1905

Within Department of the Interior, later moved to Department of Agriculture. To adminsiter national forests which had originally been “forest reserves.”

Antiquities Act of 1906

For the protection of historic and prehistoric structures, historic landmarks and other objects of historic or scientific interest on the Public Domain. Authorized the President to create national monu-ments.

Devil's Tower, 1906

First national monument, by proclamation of President Theodore Roosevelt.

Coal Lands withdrawal

66 million acres by 1906. Government reserved mineral rights, first for coal, then extended to oil and gas, later to a list of other minerals.

Forest Homestead Law of 1906

Opened agricultural lands in forest reserves to settlement.

Enlarged Homestead Law, 1909

Gave 320 acres to farmers who entered public lands which could not be irrigated. Dryland farming promotion, wet cycle, rising commodity prices led to millions of acres turned to plow. WW I and drought ended the rush.

National Park Service created, 1916

Unified the management of national parks, monuments, battlefields, etc.

Oregon and California Revested Lands, 1916

Congress revoked title to more than 2 million acres of land granted to the Oregon & California Railroad in 1869 for failure to abide by conditions of the grant. Another 93,000 acres are reclaimed in 1919 from the Coos Bay Wagon Road Grant. These revested lands were given to the Gener-al Land Office to administer because of ill will that Oregoni-ans held toward the Forest Service.

Mineral Leasing Law of 1920

Changed the disposal of oil, gas, coal, and other minerals to leasing. 10% of royalties to US Treasury, 37.5% to states, remainder to fund federal irrigation projects.

Third Public Lands Commission, 1931

Called for the cession of public lands to the states. Opposition both in the East and the West killed the recommendation.

Taylor Grazing Act of 1934

Answer to crowding and overgrazing of the Public Do-main--as early as 1870s there was more livestock than the range could support. President withdrew from nonmineral entry all vacant, unreserved and unappropriated public lands so that grazing districts could be set aside. First district established in Wyoming in 1935. Districts advisory boards were set up, Congress gave them legal status in 1939. Grazing Service was created to administer the Taylor Act.

Oregon and California Revested Lands Sustained Yield Man-agement Act of 1937

Timber sales not to exceed forest regeneration, lands could be used for grazing and recreation. Water-sheds, wildlife, and other resources to be protected.

Fish and Wildlife Service created, 1940

By the merger of the Bureau of Biological Survey and the Bureau of Fisheries.

Bureau of Land Management created, 1946

By the merger of the Grazing Service and the General Land Office. To administer what had not been withdrawn from the Public Domain under national forests, national parks, and other designations.

Wilderness Act of 1964

The Act defined a wilderness area as "where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain." Its provisions were initially not applied to BLM lands.

Land and Water Conservation Fund, 1964

Established to fund the acquisition of outdoor recre-ation areas.

Water Quality Act of 1965

Established quality standards for the nation.

National Historic Preservation Act, 1966

To inventory, evaluate, and protect cultural resources.

Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968

The Act stated that "certain selected rivers of the Nation which, with their immediate environments, possess outstandingly remarkable scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural, or other similar values, shall be preserved in free-flowing condition and that they and their immediate environments shall be protected for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations."

National Environmental Policy Act of 1970

Made protection of environment a national priority and required all federal agencies to asses the impacts of their actions on the environment and mitigate adverse effects

Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971

Provided 40 million acres to Natives, 80 million acres withheld by the Department of the Interior as potential national parks forests, wildlife refuges, wild and scenic rivers.

Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, 1980

Added 47 million acres of Alaska public lands to the national park system.

Endangered Species Act, 1973

Provided for federal listing of wildlife threatened with extinction and for the designation of critical habitat by the US Fish & Wildlife Service.

Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) of 1976

Congress established as policy to retain public lands in public ownership, to identify and inventory their resources, to provide for multiple use & sustained yield management. Homestead Laws repealed except in Alaska where it ended in 1986.

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monumet, 1996

First national monument under BLM management, 1.8 million acres in southwestern Utah

A nation may be said to consist of its territory, its people and its laws. The territory is the only part which is of certain durability. One generation passeth away and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever . . .

-- Abraham Lincoln, 1862