The General Land Office ( GLO ) was an independent agency of the United States government responsible for public domain lands in the United States. It was created in 1812 to take over functions previously conducted by the United States Department of the Treasury . Starting with the enactment of the Land Ordinance of 1785 , which created the Public Land Survey System , the Treasury Department had already overseen the survey of the Northwest Territory , including what is now the state of Ohio.
15-680: The San Bernardino Forest Reserve was established by the United States General Land Office in California on February 25, 1893 with 737,280 acres (2,983.7 km) in the San Bernardino Mountains . After the transfer of federal forests to the U.S. Forest Service in 1905, it became a National Forest on March 4, 1907. On July 1, 1908 the entire forest was combined with San Gabriel National Forest and Santa Barbara National Forest to create Angeles National Forest , and
30-862: The Taylor Grazing Act was passed in 1934 by the United States Congress , an office under the Department of the Interior was also created to manage the act. It was first called the Division of Grazing , but later was renamed the U.S. Grazing Service in 1939. Its responsibilities were to enforce the act, which leased public lands to farmers and ranchers for grazing. The Grazing Service encountered multiple problems, such as very low fees to lease land, which could not be raised due to opposition from farmers , budget reductions enacted by Congress, or unlawful use of
45-611: The surveying , platting , and sale of the public lands in the Western United States and administered the Homestead Act and the Preemption Act in disposal of public lands. The frantic pace of public land sales in the 19th century American West led to the idiomatic expression "land-office business", meaning a thriving or high-volume trade. For most of the active period of public land settlement, district land offices were
60-702: The GLO gained a focus for conservation of renewable public resources, as well as for their exploitation. On July 16, 1946, the GLO was merged with the United States Grazing Service (established in 1934 under the Taylor Grazing Act ) to become the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), an agency of the Interior Department responsible for administering the remaining 264,000,000 acres (1,070,000 km ) of public lands still in federal ownership. An early commissioner
75-401: The basic operating units that conducted the business of transferring title. All transactions relative to the disposal of public land within a declared land district were handled through its land office by officials designated as registers , who recorded land applications, and receivers , who accepted payments for land and issued receipts. The position of receiver was abolished, July 1, 1925, and
90-650: The former U.S. Grazing Service and General Land Office. The BLM retained control of its laws until 1976. In that year, Congress passed the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA). The FLPMA removed the responsibilities of the former General Land Office. It also changed fees and some regulations in the BLM's other set of responsibilities, which had been owned by the Grazing Service, and that are still used today. This United States government–related article
105-438: The functions devolved upon the register, whose title was changed to "manager" in 1946. The first of 362 district land offices was opened at Steubenville, Ohio , on July 2, 1800; the last at Newcastle, Wyoming , on March 1, 1920. The peak year for land offices was 1890, with 123 in operation. The subsequent closing of the public domain gradually reduced the number of land offices, until, in 1933, only 25 offices remained. The GLO
120-514: The lands. Hoping to better control improper use of the lands, the Grazing Service moved its headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Salt Lake City, Utah . With so much conflict surrounding the Grazing Service, the Secretary of the Interior combined the Grazing Service and the General Land Office to form the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in 1946. The BLM was given the responsibilities of
135-530: The name was discontinued. On September 30, 1925 San Bernardino National Forest was re-established from parts of Angeles and Cleveland National Forest . The reserve was the fourth one established in the state and was created on the same day as the Trabuco Canyon Reserve. And, like the other reserves, the San Bernardino Reserve's purpose was the protection of watersheds and water resources. It
150-485: The newly created Forest Service , under the Department of Agriculture . Beginning in the early 20th century, the GLO shifted from a primary function of land sales to issuing leases and collecting grazing fees for livestock raised on public lands, and royalties from minerals off lands recently withdrawn from disposal under the Withdrawal Act of 1910, as well as other custodial duties. Thus, beginning around 1900,
165-693: The official survey records of the GLO and BLM on a township basis. The GCDB data are available for download by the public in GIS shapefile format from the GeoCommunicator Land Survey Information System website. The GCDB coordinates are also available to the public in the GCDB flat file and GCDB coverage formats via the National Operations Center website. United States Grazing Service The United States Grazing Service (USGS)
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#1732855996085180-554: Was John McLean , later an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States . The BLM makes images of GLO records (federal land patents, survey plats and field notes, land status records, and tract books) issued between 1787 and present publicly available on its website. Since 1990, the BLM's Geographic Coordinates Database (GCDB) program has endeavored to generate coordinate values for each established PLSS corner using
195-665: Was bordered by the San Gabriel Reserve on the east at Cajon Pass and extended over all of the San Bernardino Mountains to the Mojave Desert . United States General Land Office Placed under the Department of the Interior when that department was formed in 1849, it was merged with the United States Grazing Service (established in 1934) to become the Bureau of Land Management on July 16, 1946. The GLO oversaw
210-575: Was established in 1934 as part of the Taylor Grazing Act . This act was designed to control the destruction of public land due to overgrazing , which had become a problem across western states like Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. The USGS oversees grazing on these lands and regulates the amount of livestock that can be grazed to ensure that the land remains healthy and productive. The USGS also serves as an advocate for ranchers, helping them access permits, utilize water rights, comply with local regulations, and even negotiate grazing leases on public lands. When
225-552: Was placed under the Secretary of the Interior when the Department of the Interior was formed in 1849. Reacting to public concerns about forest conservation, Congress in 1891 authorized the President to withdraw timber lands from disposal. Grover Cleveland then created 17 forest reserves of nearly 18,000,000 acres (73,000 km ), which were initially managed by the GLO. In 1905, Congress transferred responsibility for these reserves to
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