The Chamberlain–Ferris Act (39 Stat. 218) of June 9, 1916 was an Act of the United States Congress that ruled that 2,800,000 acres (11,000 km2) of the original 4,000,000 acres (16,000 km2) granted to the Southern Pacific Company (successor to the Oregon and California Railroad) in California and Oregon were revested to the United States, and put under the control of the United States General Land Office, which was to dispose of the lands and timber through auction sales.[1] The lands were named the Oregon and California Railroad Revested Lands (better known as the O&C Lands).
The bill was sponsored by Senator George E. Chamberlain of Oregon and Representative Scott Ferris of Oklahoma,[2] both Democrats.
The results proved disappointing, and the act was repealed by the subsequent Oregon and California Revested Lands Sustained Yield Management Act of 1937 (43 U.S.C. § 1181f) of August 28, 1937, which authorized the Secretary of the Interior to establish sustained yield units on the land, 2,700,000 acres (11,000 km2) of which was still unsold. This act established the O&C administration to manage the lands.[1]
As of 2006, 2 million acres (8,100 km2) of the revested lands are managed by the Bureau of Land Management and 500,000 acres (2,000 km2) are managed by the United States Forest Service.[1]
See also[edit]
- Oregon land fraud scandal
- 64th United States Congress (1915–17)
- 74th United States Congress (1935–37)
References[edit]
- ^ a b c Gerald W. Williams (2006). The Forest Service. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 340, 344. ISBN 978-0-313-33794-9.
- ^ Richardson, Elmo (1980). "The Chamberlin-Ferris Act". BLM's Billion-Dollar Checkerboard: Managing the O&C Lands. Santa Cruz, California: Forest History Society (United States Government Printing Office). p. 25.
External links[edit]
- Legislative history of O&C lands
- "It's not welfare". The Register-Guard. March 26, 2007.
- Text of the statute