Actually, the United States 'owned" Nevada, California, Arizona, & New Mexico since 1848, when they paid $15,000,000 for it in the Treaty of Guadelupe-Hidalgo, after we whipped Mexico's ass in the Mexican War. It was incorporated into the Territory of Utah in 1851 and became the Territory of Nevada in 1861. The concept of Federally owned land is not a new one, and the Feds did not just sneak into Nevada and steal it. They've probably owned it since 1848.
~snip~ ...If you study the history of the cattle in the West, Ranchers have been required to pay grazing fees to graze on Federal land gong back to the beginning of the cattle industry in this country.
Very interesting post 308rajincajun. Very interesting. And it gets to an issue that is
VERY rarely discussed when American history comes up: How did ownership of land in the US come about. IOW who was allowed to purchase or was granted ownership of lands that had never been "owned".
We have a myth in our shared history that says "Well settlers moved in and took it a quarter section at a time!"
Sometimes that is true and sometimes it is not. Some of the ways land rights have been granted is very unsavory. Criminal even. And it has been contentious from day one. Hell, Davy Crockett himself lost his seat in congress (for the most part) by taking on very powerful forces that were guiding land rights allocation in ways he thought were unethical.
But some here are right, we easterners probably don't understand the mindset of those who are up in arms over this.
Will
