The Dickinson press., 1884-09-13
PUBLIC DOMAIN.
Interesting Statistics from the Public
Lands Commission.

Lands Commission.
The land Office in this city is in re.
ceipt of the most interesting and val.
liable report issued from any depart
ment at Washington for many a day.
1t is entitled ',rhe Public Domain:
Its History, with Statistics etc; was
prepared by the public land commits.
sion, and, although it contains l343
closely printed pages, there is not
''dry" line between it's covers.
Through the courtesy of Judge Luse
and Major Champlin, we are permit.
ted to make few extracts which
we present with the promise. that af.
ter more careful examination of the
report, further condensation will be
given.
LANDS FOR DISPOSITION.
The report is brought down to June
so. 1883. at which time the United
States owned a total of 92S,426,577
acres of nnsurveyed, and 271, ,3S22, ,290.43
acres OF surveyed and unsold lands; IL
grand total of 1,l99,SOS, $50. .43 acres
yet to be disposed of; an area equal
10 7,49S,S05 homesteads of 100 acres
each.
ARID REGION.
The work is profusely embellished
with maps, one of which shows the
arid region to which the Desert Land
Act applies. estimated to contain
about seven hundred millions of acres
but embracing much timber, mineral
and pasturage lands to be referred to
below. The region includes the en-
tire strip from the Missouri to with
in Il short distance of the Pacific.
TIMBER LAND.
it is impossible to state with any
degree Of accuracy the area of timber
land as yet mtaken, but a fair esti.
mate places the amount at seventy.
three millions of acres, a large nor.
ton of which twill he found to be ON
the surface above most of the gold.
silver and cinnabar lands of the pub.
lie domain. The estimate is exclu-
sive of Alaska, whose timber area. of
large extent, is still the property of
the nation, no public land laws hav.
ing been as yet extended over it,
PRECIOUS METAL.
The estimated area of the precious
metal bearing region of the public
domain. is about 64.OO0,OOO acres, ex.
elusive Of Alaska. 1t is estimated
that since the discovery of gold in
California. January 10, lS48, to June
80, 1889, there have been 100000 min.
ing locations made in the several
states and territories, yet to June 3,
1882, but 7.249 of these claims had
been patented. Under the act of '66.
20 and ~ there have been patented
as quartz or other valuable deposit
mining claims 5000 lodes containing
53.020.57 acres, and realizing 1922, ,726.
Under the placer acts of the same
years there were patented, to June
'S2, l,6SS claims, containing l4l ,95O.O3
acres. realizing ss369.o9l.
INDIAN RESERVATIONS.
The total number of Indian reser-
vatlonS in the United States, June 30.
81, was l49, containing l43,525, 900
acres, with an estimated population
Of 259.632, or about $3.50 acres to
each Indian.
Total number of reservations in
Dakota June 80, 1880, l3. Total area
in acres. 36,6lS,456. Indian popula-
tion on reservations in Dakota, 27,472,
giving about 600 acres to each man,
woman and child.
| MILITARY RESERVATIONS.
Total number of military reserva-
tions on the public domain June 30,
1883, III, containing 3,l55,l52.76
acres. Dakota contained ten reser.
vations aggregating, not including
Fort Lincoln, but including one.half
of Fort Bnford, 9S5,339.OS. Fort
Meade reserve has 1910 acres.
RAILROAD LAND GRANTS.
The area of patented OF certified
railroad land grants to June 80, 1882,
was s20,823.O6, leaving a balance to
be certified or patented of lO8.97S,-
l7l.48 acres. The estimated value of
public lands granted railroads, No
yember l, 1880, was 1891 l,8O4.6lO.l6.
FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES
Land grants to June 80, 1883, 49,
sS9,S39 acres; value ut the minimum
price of $l.25 per acre in round nun.
bers being $99,0O0,OOO, but it may be
safely estimated that these educa-
tional grant lands have realized to
the states more than $25O,OOO,OO0.
We haven't time to hunt up, Dakota's
portion, but in one place we see that
by the grant of March 2, 1851. she
received 5,366,45l acres.
We hardly knew when and how to
stop in this interesting review, but
lack of space comes to our assistance
for the present, right here.-Black
Hills Pioneer.