Cover Page

Contents

Preface
Letter

SECTION I

Orientation
Summary

SECTION II

History
Needs
Geography
Historic Sites
Competitors
Economic Aspects

SECTION III

Federal Lands
State and Interstate
Local

SECTION IV

Division of Responsibility
Local
State
Federal
Circulation

SECTION V

Educational Opportunities

General Land Office

Functions.—The General Land Office supervises the survey, management, and disposition of the public lands and public mineral lands, the granting of railroad and other rights-of-ways and easements, and furnishes certified copies of land patents and records, plats, and papers on file in the Office. It performs the same function for national forest lands, thus complementing the administrative and technical work of the United States Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture. The work of the Office is carried on by 11 divisions designated as Accounts, Administrative, Homestead, Indian Lands, Law, Mails and Files, Mineral, Patents, Posting and Tract Book, Reclamation and Land Grant, and Survey.

The public domain or original public-land States im the United States proper contains 1,442,200,320 acres. The 378,165,760 acres of Alaska are also a part of the public domain. The area in the United States proper has been disposed of as follows to June 30, 1933:

As a practical proposition the work of this Office is mainly with the "pending entries", "withdrawn lands", "unappropriated lands", and with surveying and mapping the Government lands. On June 30, 1933, there were 136,266,570 acres of unsurveyed land in the United States proper and nearly all of Alaska is still unsurveyed.³¹

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³¹ Ibid, p. 19.

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The Public Domain.—The term "public domain", as used by the General Land Office, embraces all of the area that was once public land or in the control of the Federal Government, including Alaska. In popular use, however, this term usually means vacant, unreserved, and unappropriated Federal lands.

The lands, for which title has passed from the United States, were disposed of as follows:

Approximately 70 percent of the public domain has passed into private, corporate, and State ownership. Title to the remaining 30 percent is in the United States, but about 60 percent of this area, or 18 percent of the original public domain, has been withdrawn for national forests, Indian reservations, national parks, monuments, and other purposes, so that at present only about 12 percent of the original public domain is now unappropriated and unreserved.

The unappropriated and unreserved public lands, as of July 1, 1934, were distributed, by States, as follows:

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¹ Figures from the Commissioner of the Land Office.

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The area of 8,370,989 acres of the public domain reserved for national parks and monuments in continental United States (June 30, 1933), represents about 5 per cent of the area of the remaining unappropriated and unreserved public domain, and only about one-half of 1 percent of the area of the original public domain.

In general, recreational use of the unappropriated public domain is rather thinly spread out over a great area, and there are comparatively few areas where the recreational use is concentrated. Most of the unappropriated and unreserved public domain consists of areas unsuited for agriculture, forestry, and other commercially profitable enterprises. Free grazing has resulted in the overgrazing of parts of the area. Much of the area is arid, untimbered, and low in recreational possibilities. Parts of the remaining public domain available for general use are, however, suitable for camping, hunting, and other recreational uses. This use is unregulated, except that State game laws regulate hunting and fishing. The Federal Government has done nothing to stimulate recreational use of the public domain.

The summary of that National Conference on with the public domain, portion of the report to the Outdoor Recreation, dealing is as follows:

The recreational values of the public domain are indeterminate. The vacant lands east of the one-hundredth meridian may be dismissed from consideration from a national viewpoint though they may well embrace values, particularly for wildlife conservation, worthy of inquiry and possible acquisition for State or county administration under the provisions of the Recreation Act of June 14, 1926. The vast area of unreserved and unappropriated public lands west of the one-hundredth meridian are included in every Western State and vary in extent from a little over 2 percent of the area of Washington to over 75 percent of Nevada. Approximately 40 percent of these vacant lands of the West are as yet unsurveyed and much is unclassified. So much of this land is arid or barren that opportunities for recreational use for popular enjoyment is very restricted as compared to the opportunities afforded by the well wooded and watered national forests and national parks. There are areas in southern Utah and northern Arizona of unusual scientific or prehistoric interest worthy of inclusion as national monuments. There are, too, timbered areas which should be added to the national forests as contemplated by the Clarke-McNary Act instead of being left for mutilation under the existing but archaic working of the Timber and Stone Act. The Secretary of the Interior has urged the repeal of this act as a measure for the protection of the remaining timber of the public domain, but pending the action of Congress, advantage should be taken of the positive provisions of the Clarke-McNary Act already authorized which permit the reservation of these areas. Aside from these areas and regions which should be reserved for the protection of types of big game of national importance such as the antelope and mountain sheep, the recreational values of the public domain will, in the main, find their development under State or local administration.

As the West develops in population, and use of its resources becomes intensive, there is no doubt but that numerous tracts, while relatively small compared to the great national reservations, will serve their highest usefulness for State or local recreation needs, and particularly to supplement the wildlife refuges already established. The Secretary of the Interior has authority to classify unreserved public lands when found chiefly valuable for recreation, and he has exercised this power from time to time pending disposition to States or subordinate political units under the Recreation Act of June 14, 1926. The Interior Department has no funds or personnel for field work of this character, and action is dependent upon expression of local public opinion. In addition to the recreation resources developed through this enactment of Congress, local recreation resources can and are being developed in conjunction with the development of power sites and reclamation projects.³²

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³² Joint Committee on Recreational Survey of Federal Lands, Recreation Resources Federal Lands, Washington, D. C., National Conference on Outdoor Recreation, 1928, p. 43.

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Some parts of the unappropriated and unreserved public domain are highly scenic, and, since their value for agriculture or grazing is low, it seems that their chief future value is likely to be for recreational purposes. As examples of areas of this type may be mentioned the Yampa Canyon and Canyon of Lodore in northwestern Colorado, and several canyons of the Green River in Utah, from the Flaming Gorge to Split Mountain. In southeastern Utah and northern Arizona, the Colorado River traverses a wilderness, almost uninhabited, that is spectacular in scenery and abounds in great canyons, gorges, and cliffs. As an indication of the rough topography of this area, it may be mentioned that it is impossible for automobiles to cross the Colorado River at any point between Moab, Utah, and Lees Ferry, Ariz., a distance of about 170 miles. This is one of the great wilderness areas of the United States. The San Juan River, a tributary of the Colorado, is also rich in spectacular scenery.

Areas of the public domain, such as the above regions, are now available for reservation from entry, and they may be retained in public ownership for present and future recreational use.

Other portions of the public domain would be valuable for wildlife production if the present overgrazing by domestic stock were prevented.

Continued >>>

Last Modified: Fri, Sep. 5, 2003 10:32:22 am PDT
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