46 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



SWAMP LAND GRANTS 



In the first place, certain acts had been passed, not directly relat- 

 ing to timber lands, yet of great importance in promoting forest 

 destruction. Of these, one of the most important was the Swamp Land 

 Act of 1850, granting swamp lands to the various states, on condi- 

 tion that the states would drain and reclaim them/® This act, with 

 subsequent enactments, was the means of divesting the United States 

 of over 63,000,000 acres of land — much of it timber land. Florida 

 received over 20,000,000 acres under this act — over half the entire 

 area of the state ; Michigan received over 5,600,000 acres ; and Minne- 

 sota over 4,000,000 acres." 



The immense swamp land grants were secured largely by fraud, 

 for the advantage of private individuals having political influence 

 with the officials of the various states. Some of the states hired agents 

 to make surveys, giving them as much as 50 per cent of the land 

 they could secure from the Federal government. A great deal of the 

 land was not really swamp land and never needed drainage. Thus, of 

 Floritia's vast grant, a great deal was not in the southern part of the 

 peninsula, where the lands were in fact swamp. Instances were even 

 found in which swamp land claims and desert land claims appeared 

 side by side.^* 



Almost none of the swamp land granted to the states was ever 

 reclaimed, and most of it was soon improvidently disposed of and 

 taken up by private holders. Thus, Florida disposed of 4,000,000 

 acres of her swamp land in one sale, at twenty-five cents per acre. 

 In all, about 16,000,000 acres of the Florida grant were taken up by 

 railroad, canal, and drainage companies. Michigan offered her tim- 

 bered swamp lands for sale in unlimited quantities, at $1.25 per acre, 

 and granted much of the land which remained unsold to railroad, 

 canal, wagon-road and drainage companies. Nearly 900,000 acres in 

 the Upper Peninsula found its way into the hands of one company — 

 the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company; and most of the rest was taken 



76 Stat. 9, 520. 



"!' Report, Public Lands Commission, 1905, 156: Report, Commissioner of Cor- 

 porations on the Lumber Industry, I, 253, 254; III, 206-236. 



i& Reports, Sec. of Int., 1885, 198, 199; 1890, XIV, XV: Reports, Land Office, 

 1886, 38, 39; 1888, 42-45; 1889, 29: Proceedings, Society of Am. Foresters, Nov., 

 1905, 56, 57: Donaldson, "Public Domain," 220, 221. 



