“Our Public Lands” are a fact of everyday life in most far western states. How did the words “our” and “public” come to identify lands now largely under the administration of the United States Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, National Parks, and various wildlife reserves? Why not simply say, “federal government lands?” That’s an option, but “our lands” can be applied, too. In a republic, the people are ultimately the owners and directors of the government nation. Notice the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution begins with, “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union.” 

Even before the writing of the Constitution in 1787, the American revolutionary government under the Articles of Confederation claimed ownership of the western lands to the Mississippi River, as recognized by Great Britain in the Treaty of Paris that ended the successful American Revolution in 1783. From that point on, and in the prior colonial period, Western lands have played a significant role in the history of the American people. Let’s see how this story unfolds in a time span of more than 250 years as we attempt to understand how Western lands became “Our Public Lands.”