by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow
As appearing in the Daily Sentinel
The U.S. government paid $55 million for the entire West. That’s less than a sixth of the annual budget of Grand Junction. In five separate treaties, the U.S. acquired the whole country from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.
The 1803 Louisiana Purchase cost $23.2 million for all or parts of 14 states. In 1848, Mexico was paid $15 million, for Arizona, New Mexico, California, Nevada, Utah and Western Colorado. The $10 million Gadsden Purchase bought the land south of the Gila River, and Russia was paid $7.2 million for Alaska. In two other treaties, the U.S. acquired Minnesota, North Dakota, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Western Montana, without spending a cent.
Expanding the nation to the Pacific Ocean became an 1840s rallying cry, “manifest destiny.” But what did the U.S. government plan to do with all that land?
That is the subject of one of today’s most fascinating legal cases, the just-filed Utah v. U.S. Utah demands that the federal government turn over to the state all remaining “unappropriated” federal lands, that is, lands not designated by Congress as national forests, parks, monuments, wilderness areas, defense installations or tribal lands. In other words, the 18.5 million acres managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
