THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 71 



West of Denver, the situation alters. All the 

 Rockies, the Sierra, and the Cascades, with their 

 flanking and intermediate plateaus and deserts, once 

 solidly Public Domain, are now patchworked with 

 reserved federal lands of all varieties and kinds, to- 

 gether with private lands acquired by homesteading, 

 gift and purchase. Most of what is left is desert, 

 but roads have saved or developed for the motorist 

 much that is enjoyable for recreation and useful in 

 other unindustrial ways. The scenic, educational 

 and inspirational values of a great proportion of 

 these lands are extremely high. 



In the eleven far western states of Arizona, 

 California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New 

 Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, 

 11,378 miles of federal-aid roads have been con- 

 structed at a total cost of $182,363,675, nearly a 

 half from the national treasury. These are in ad- 

 dition to National Forest and National Park roads, 

 both of which have had generous annual pro- 

 grammes. Besides which, all the states have devel- 

 oped their own extensive road programmes, most of 

 them, notably California, having spent millions in 

 new highways and improved surfaces during the 

 same period. 



Before we reach the Rockies travelling west- 

 ward, let us consider the Badlands region of the 

 Dakotas, Nebraska and Montana, most of which is 

 in the Public Domain. Except in river bottoms and 

 around widely separated water sources, this remark- 



