View source for United States General Land Office

{{Short description|United States government agency (1812–1946)}}
{{Distinguish|Texas General Land Office}}
{{Infobox government agency
| agency_name     = General Land Office
| type            = 
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| logo            = File:General Land Office logo.jpg
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| formed          = 1812
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| dissolved       = 1946
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| jurisdiction    = [[Federal government of the United States|Federal government]]
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| parent_department = [[United States Department of the Interior|U.S. Department of the Interior]]
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The '''General Land Office''' ('''GLO''') was an [[Independent agencies of the United States government|independent agency of the United States government]] responsible for [[Public domain (land)|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.<ref>''A History of the Rectangular Survey System'' by C. Albert White, 1983, Pub: Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management : For sale by Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O.,</ref>

Placed under the [[United States Department of the Interior|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.

==History==
[[Image:Meridians-baselines.png|275px|thumb|right|This [[Bureau of Land Management]] map depicts the public domain lands [[surveying|surveyed]] and [[platted]] under the auspices of the GLO to facilitate the sale of those lands.]]
The GLO oversaw the [[surveying]], [[platted|platting]], and sale of the public lands in the [[Western United States]] and administered the [[Homestead Act]]<ref>{{cite web
| url         = https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/homestead-act/
| title       = The Homestead Act of 1862.
| first       = Lee Ann
| last        = Potter
|author2=Wynell Schamel
| date        = October 6, 1997
| work        = Social Education 61
| pages       =359–364
| access-date  = April 4, 2010
}}
</ref> and the [[Preemption Act of 1841|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 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 [[register (General Land Office)|registers]], who recorded land applications, and [[Receiver (General Land Office)|receivers]], who accepted payments for land and issued receipts. The position of receiver was abolished, July 1, 1925, and 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.<ref>[https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/049.html#49.9 National Archives. "Home > Research Our Records > Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States > Records of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) > 49.9 Records of District Land Offices 1800-1980"] {{PD-notice}}</ref>

The GLO was placed under the [[United States Secretary of the Interior|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 of the United States|President]] to withdraw timber lands from disposal. [[Grover Cleveland]] then created 17 forest reserves of nearly {{convert|18000000|acre|km2}}, which were initially managed by the GLO. In 1905, Congress transferred responsibility for these reserves to the newly created [[United States Forest Service|Forest Service]], under the [[United States Department of Agriculture|Department of Agriculture]].

Beginning in the early 20th century, the GLO shifted from a primary function of land sales to issuing [[lease]]s and collecting [[grazing fee]]s for livestock raised on public lands, and [[royalties]] from [[mineral]]s off lands recently withdrawn from disposal under the Withdrawal Act of 1910, as well as other custodial duties. Thus, beginning around 1900, 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 {{convert|264000000|acre|km2}} of public lands still in federal ownership.<ref>
{{cite web
| url         = http://www.access.gpo.gov/uscode/title5a/5a_4_8_4_.html
| title       = Title 5 App. USC. § 403 Bureau of Land Management
| author      = United States Congress
| author-link      = United States Congress
| year        = 1946
| archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20061004072211/http://www.access.gpo.gov/uscode/title5a/5a_4_8_4_.html
| archive-date = October 4, 2006
| access-date  = April 4, 2010
}}
</ref>

An early commissioner 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.<ref>{{cite web
| url         = https://glorecords.blm.gov/
| title       = General Land Office (GLO) Records 
| author      = BLM
| access-date  = April 4, 2010
}}
</ref>
Since 1990, the BLM's Geographic Coordinates Database (GCDB) program has endeavored to generate coordinate values for each established [[Public Land Survey System|PLSS]] corner using 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.<ref>{{cite web| url       =http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/more/gcdb.html| title       =GLO Geographic Coordinate Database| author       =Bureau of Land Management| author-link       =Bureau of Land Management| date       =November 18, 2009| archive-url       =https://web.archive.org/web/20100417224625/http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/more/gcdb.html| archive-date       =2010-04-17| access-date       =April 4, 2010| url-status       =dead}}
</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Credit Island Iowa 1838.jpg|Example of a portion of an 1838 GLO map, [[Credit Island]], now [[Davenport, Iowa]]
File:US_General_Land_Office_Deed_1845.jpg|An 1845 [http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/details/patent/default.aspx?accession=IL4550__.374&docClass=STA&sid=br5fiei2.41k#patentDetailsTabIndex=0 GLO land patent] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726133842/http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/details/patent/default.aspx?accession=IL4550__.374&docClass=STA&sid=br5fiei2.41k#patentDetailsTabIndex=0 |date=2011-07-26 }}
File:US GENERAL LAND OFFICE Geodetic control point Douglas WY.JPG|A GLO survey marker from 1913 in [[Douglas, Wyoming]]
File:General_Land_Office_Survey_Marker_Sahuarita_Arizona_2014.jpg|GLO marker from 1941 near [[Sahuarita, Arizona]]
</gallery>

==See also==
*[[List of commissioners of the General Land Office]]
*[[Beginning Point of the U.S. Public Land Survey]]
*[[Louisiana Purchase State Park|Beginning Point of the Louisiana Purchase Survey]]
*[[National Irrigation Congress]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|author=Malcolm J. Rohrbough|title=The Land Office Business: The Settlement and Administration of American Public Lands, 1789-1837|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rwo56CSIevwC&pg=PA51|year=1968|publisher=Oxford U.P.|isbn=978-0-19-536549-8}}

==External links==
* [http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/ General Land Office Records: The Official Federal Land Records Site] ({{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130316121905/http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/ |date=2013-03-16 }}), at the Bureau of Land Management

{{DOI agencies}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:General Land Office, United States}}
[[Category:United States General Land Office|*]]
[[Category:1812 establishments in the United States]]
[[Category:1946 disestablishments in the United States]]
[[Category:Defunct agencies of the United States government]]
[[Category:Government agencies disestablished in 1946]]
[[Category:Government agencies established in 1812]]
[[Category:Real estate in the United States]]
[[Category:Surveying of the United States]]
[[Category:Surveying organizations]]
[[Category:United States Department of the Interior agencies]]