II The Railroad Land Grant Program 3 Over a brief period of about two decades, from 1850 to 1871, an "empire" of 223 million acres of Federal and State lands was granted to railroad companies to encourage and assist railroad construction. The railroads receiving these land grants built about 18,000 miles of road-less than 8 percent of the total railroad mileage of the country.' A total of 174 million acres of lands came from the Federal public domain, either directly or by grants channeled through the states for the specific purpose of supporting proposed rail lines.2 Federal grants of about 35 million acres were revoked or forfeited before the end of the nineteenth century because of failure to build or complete the roads as specified.3 Another 3 million acres, held by the Southern Pacific, were revested in the Government under a 1916 statute enacted because of violation of grant conditions. About 8 million acres of granted but unpatented land was returned to the Government under the Transportation Act of 1940 as a condition of partially surrendering its right to preferential rail rate reductions on Government traffic; in 1946 this right was surrendered in full.5 Thus, the net amount of Federal land received by the railroads under the land grant program was about 128 million acres. 4 The railroads comprising four present-day railroad systems, all in the West, received 88 percent of the 128 million acres of 'Vernon Carstensen, ed., "The Public Lands: Studies in the History of the Public Domain", University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1968, p. 130-146. 'David M. Ellis, "The Forfeiture of Railroad Land Grants, 1867-1894", in Mississippi Valley Historical Review, June 1946, p. 27. 'Carstensen, op. cit., p. 150-151. 'Board of Investigation and Research, "Public Aids to Domestic Transportation", House Document No. 159, 79th Congress, 1st Session, 1945, p. 110. 4 The Railroad Land Grant Program Federal lands. These four systems are the Burlington Northern, the Southern Pacific, the Union Pacific and the Santa Fe. The roads making up the present Burlington Northern, successor to the Northern Pacific, which alone received some 40 million acres, accounts for about 35 percent of the total Federal lands granted to all railroads. The Missouri Pacific and the Southern Pacific were the largest beneficiaries of the public lands granted by the states, accounting between them. for approximately one-half of the entire state total.7 In addition to the lands granted directly by the Federal Government, some of which were channeled through the states, nine states aided railroad construction by making their own grants totaling 49 million acres; Texas alone granted 33 million acres from its own public land domain which it had retained when it entered the Union." The total of the net amount of the Federal lands and the State lands granted to the railroads was 177 million acres. By comparison, the land area of the continental (48) United States totals about 1,900 million acres. Thus, the land grants enjoyed by the railroads represent 9.3 percent of the total land area of the U.S. exclusive of Alaska and Hawaii. The grants covered great portions of various states and lesser portions of others. Combined Federal and State grants to the railroads, net of all forfeitures, revocations, and revestments, encompassed 32 percent of the land area of Florida; 24 percent of the land area of Minnesota and of North Dakota; 22 percent of Washington; 20 percent of Texas; 16 percent of Montana, of Nebraska, and of Kansas; 15 percent of Iowa; 13 percent of Michigan; 12 percent of California; 11 percent of Arizona and of Wisconsin; 10 percent of Arkansas; 9 percent of Wyoming; 8 percent of Nevada and of Alabama; 6 percent of Colorado; 5 percent of Missouri and of Louisiana; 4 percent of New Mexico, of Utah, of Maine, and of Mississippi; and 1 to 2.5 percent of Idaho, of Oregon, and of South Dakota. (Table 1 and Map 1) 'Board of Investigation and Research, op. cit., p. 109-110. 'Board of Investigation and Research, op. cit., p. 111. The Railroad Land Grant Program 5 The railroad land grants noted above were in addition to the public lands conveyed for use in right-of-way construction itself and consisted of blocks of between 6 and 20 square miles. alternating in checkerboard fashion along the railroad lines. Most of the land grants were subject to a provision excluding mineral bearing lands. Exempted from this exclusion, however, were lands containing coal and iron reserves, presumably because of the connection of these commodities with the needs of railway construction and operation. The exemption of coal lands from the mineral lands exclusion was to prove extremely beneficial to such railroads as the Northern Pacific (now part of the Burlington Northern), the Union Pacific, and the Santa Fe because of the enormous coal reserves on their grant lands. To the extent that lands in the grant areas proved unavailable, typically because of prior claims of settlers or the exclusion of mineral lands, the railroads were awarded substitute grants in adjoining areas. In addition to aid in the form of the granted lands, the railroads were given virtually unlimited free access to adjacent Federal lands for timber, stone, and other materials needed for constructing the roads. They also received considerable direct and indirect financial help from the Government. Most of the lands conveyed from the public domain to the railroads were sold by them over an extended period, although mineral rights were reserved. Several million acres of grant lands are still retained today and mineral rights are owned on several million acres more. Practically all of these holdings are in the hands of the four major Western systems or their affiliates.8 The history of the railroad land grants is replete with controversies arising from railroad failures to comply with the terms of the grants, Government efforts to recapture granted lands because of such failures, the determination of the railroads to enforce their rights in the face of settler claims and Indian treaties, and recurrent allegations of exploitation, misrepresentation, and fraud. 'Ibid., p. 117. |