Abstract
Land ownership is an important consideration in mineral acquisition, and the federal public domain represents the most important category of ownership on the basis of size. The federal public domain includes those lands that were or are subject to the public land laws of the United States. Acquisitions to the public domain have been by state cessions, purchase, and treaty. The original “public domain” included all of the United States except the original thirteen colonies, Vermont, Texas, and Hawaii and was acquired by treaties with France, England, Spain, Russia, and Mexico. The largest acquisitions were in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 (560 million acres) and the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867 (365 million acres).
“The American Colossus was fiercely intent on appropriating and exploiting the riches of the richest of all continents-grasping with both hands, reaping where he had not sown, wasting what he thought would last forever.”
Clifford Pinchot
Breaking New Ground
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References and Suggested Reading
Carpenter, W. (1974) Severed minerals as a deterrent to land development, Denver L. J., 51 (1): 1–39.
Carver, J., Jr., and Carver, C. (1976), Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976: A summary, Rocky Mount. Mineral L. Newsletter, 9 (10): 1–7.
Engdahl, D. (1976), State and federal power over federal property, Arizona L. R., 18 (2): 283–384.
Gates, P. (1968), History of Public Land Law Development, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.
Greene, S. (1976), Promised land: A contemporary critique of distribution of public land by the United States, Ecol. L. Q., 5: 707–751.
Hall, C. (1979), Mineral exploration and development in Bureau of Land Management wilderness study areas, Arizona L. Rev., 21: 351–371.
Heyman, I., and Twiss, R. (1971), Environmental management of the public lands, Ecol. L. Q., 1: 94–141.
Loesch, H. (1970), Multiple uses of the public lands—Accommodation or choosing between conflicting uses, Proc. Rocky Mount. Mineral L. Inst., 16: 1–34.
Mall, L. (1974), Federal mineral reservations, Proc. Rocky Mount. Mineral L. Inst., 20: 399–469.
Maxfield, P., Dieterich, M., and Trelease, F. (1977), Natural Resources Law on American Indian Lands, Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, Boulder, Colorado.
Lee-Martinez, M. (1981), New federal mining law abandonment provisions: a violation of due process law?, Natural Resources Journal 21: 647–670.
Peck, R., Jr. (1979), And then there were none–Evolving federal restraints on the availability of public lands for development, Proc. Rocky Mount. Mineral L. Inst., 25:3–1–3–106.
Peffer, L. (1951), The Closing of the Public Domain, Stanford University Press, Palo Alto.
Public Land Law Review Commission (1970), One-Third of the Nation’s Land: A Report to the President and the Congress, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.
Stegner, W. (1954), Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West, Houghton Mifflin, Boston.
Wheatley, C. (1979), Withdrawals under the Federal Land Policy Management Act of 1976, Arizona L. Rev., 21 (2): 311–327.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1983 Plenum Press, New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tank, R.W. (1983). The Public Domain. In: Legal Aspects of Geology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4376-9_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4376-9_14
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-4378-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-4376-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive