The
Land Ordinance of 1785 and the
Northwest Ordinance of 1787 provided for the survey and settlement of the lands that the original
Thirteen Colonies ceded to the federal government after the
American Revolution. During the Revolutionary War, military
bounty land was promised to soldiers who fought for the colonies. After the war, the
Treaty of Paris of 1783, signed by the United States, the
Kingdom of Great Britain,
France, and
Spain, ceded territory to the United States. In the 1780s, other states relinquished their own claims to land in modern-day
Ohio. Land was sold so that the government would have money to operate. In 1812, Congress established the
United States General Land Office as part of the
Department of the Treasury to oversee the disposition of these federal lands. By the early 1800s, promised bounty land claims were finally fulfilled. These included, among others, the
Homestead Act of 1862 and the Desert Lands Entry Act of 1877. These include cash entry, credit, homestead, Indian, military warrants, mineral certificates, private land claims, railroads, state selections, swamps, town sites, and town lots. The
Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 allowed leasing, exploration, and production of selected commodities, such as
coal,
oil,
gas, and
sodium to take place on public lands. The
Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 established the
United States Grazing Service to
manage the public rangelands by establishment of advisory boards that set grazing fees. The
Oregon and California Revested Lands Sustained Yield Management Act of 1937, commonly referred as the O&C Act, required sustained
yield management of the timberlands in western Oregon. The
Sagebrush Rebellion movement in the
Western United States in the 1970s and the 1980s sought major changes to federal land control, use, and disposal policy in 13 western states in which federal land holdings include between 20% and 85% of a state's area. Supporters of the movement wanted more state and local control over the lands, if not outright transfer of them to state and local authorities and/or From 1990 to 2018, the overall acreage held by the federal government decreased by 4.9% (i.e., from to ). Over that time period, the federal acreage held by the Bureau of Land Management and Department of Defense decreased by 10.2% and 56.8%, respectively, and the federal acreage held by the Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service increased by 0.8%, 2.7%, and 5.0%, respectively. Over the 1990–2018 time period, the largest decline in federal acreage was in Alaska (a decrease of 9.4%, or ) and in the 11 contiguous states of the West (a 3% decrease in federal land, or ). ==Primary federal land holders==