Government (26)
A different view of land distribution in a relatively new (25 year old) territory, from “Illustrated New Mexico” by William Gillet Ritch, New Mexico Bureau of Immigration, 1883:
Manifest Destiny continues to have a negative impact on the Western States
Contributed by Mike Scarborough
How Manifest Destiny continues to adversely affect the Western States
The following figures reflect the amounts in acreage and percentage of land owned by the federal government in the ten states with the most government land:
State Acreage Percentage
Alaska 171.8 million 47.0%
Nevada 56.1 million 79.3%
California 44.8 million 44.7%
Utah 33.9 million 64.3%
Idaho 33.0 million 62.3%
Oregon 31.8 million 51.64%
Arizona 31.3 million 43.1%
Wyoming 31.0 million 50.0%
New Mexico 26.2 million 33.7%
Montana 25.5 million 27.3%
Washington 12.0 million 28.0%
The following figures reflect the amounts in acres and percentage of land owned by the federal government in the eleven states with the least government land:
State Acreage Percentage
Iowa 29.6 thousand .08%
Delaware 1.9 Thousand .15%
Connecticut 6.9 thousand .22%
Rhode Island 3.1 thousand .49%
New York 196.6 Thousand .64%
Kansas 349.7 thousand .67%
Maine 193.2 thousand .97%
Nebraska 514.9 thousand 1.05%
Ohio 279.6 thousand 1.07%
Massachusetts 52.1 thousand 1.04%
Texas 2.0 million 1.2%
Is it any wonder that the Western States are so poor? Consider how much better off we would be if the government only controlled one percent of the land in these states. Severence Tax revenues? Property tax revenues? Other income syphoned off by the federal government which is unavailable to our states during the past 100 years?
