Published in two volumes, Part IV: A Guide to Records of the Department of the Interior for the Territorial Period, Section 3 highlights records of the General Land Office, the Federal agency responsible from 1812 to 1946 for supervising the surveying, management, and disposition of the public domain the execution of all laws relating to public lands.
The textual, cartographic, and photographic documents described in this essential guide show the manner in which the General Land Office accomplished its mission and the impact of Federal Government policies on the people and lands of the contiguous states between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean.
Included are descriptions of records pertaining to land-grant railroads, Indian and forest reserves, mining claims, and private land claims in areas acquired by the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican War, as well as the land entry papers documenting the thousands of individual transactions transferring the public lands to private ownership. These records are an invaluable source of information for environmental and family historians as well as the historians of our Nation's westward expansion.
Other titles available in The Trans-Mississippi West series are:
* Part I: A Guide to Records of the Department of State for the Territorial Period
* Part II: A Guide to Records of the Department of Justice for the Territorial Period
* Part III: A Guide to Records of the Department of Agriculture for the Territorial Period
* Part IV: A Guide to Records of the Department of the Interior for the Territorial Period
Section 1, Records of the Offices of the Secretary of the Interior and the Commissioner of Railroads
* Part IV: A Guide to Records of the Department of the Interior for the Territorial Period
Section 2, Records of Select Agencies
The 1,130-page two-volume set is available in softcover for $49 (plus shipping and handling) from the National Archives Trust Fund, 1-800-234-8861. The volumes can also be purchased online from the National Archives e-Store.
