Seldom Was Heard an Encouraging Word

Download or read book Seldom Was Heard an Encouraging Word written by Dennis McLane and published by . This book was released on 2018-12-20 with total page 571 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of homesteaders and settlement on the public lands of the United States has been told by many. It seems from those stories that settlement was done in a very orderly fashion, but that was not the case. This book tells the untold stories of squatters, speculators, and timber thieves and the government agents that were employed to combat their illegal activities. The homestead acts were supposed to be about fair opportunity for all. But many would abuse and misuse the land entry laws for their own greedy gain. The first western cattlemen got used to controlling vast areas of public rangeland. When the settlers came, some of them fenced them out and interfered with the "Federal purpose" of settlement. The General Land Office surveyed the lands, opened them for settlement, and received the claims of the settlers. The General Land Office special agents were to make certain that all requirements of the land entry laws were lawfully obeyed. The vast public timber lands were subject to timber barons finding ways to steal the timber right under the nose of the government. Later, the timber barons found ways to manipulate the land entry laws to acquire huge tracts of the public timber lands for their own ownership. Eventually, this would lead to massive land fraud and in some cases resulted in the indictment of a senator, a congressman, and the Commissioner of the General Land Office. The book goes on to recount the struggles of the General Land Office and the Grazing Service to establish control over the public lands. These two agencies would merge to create the Bureau of Land Management. The BLM would struggle for many decades attempting to find effective ways to see that the public lands laws were obeyed. After much and heated debate, eventually the BLM would be granted law enforcement authority by the Congress. There would be few public land issues that would carry greater controversy and political sensitivity. A foundation of special agents and rangers would be built to serve the investigative and enforcement needs of the BLM. These government agents worked hard to accomplish the protection goals of the BLM, but would be subject to extraordinary scrutiny along the way.