Land Sale of The Century

When people first came to the West, particularly from the owned and fought-over farmlets of Europe, and saw so much land to be had for the signing of a paper and the building of a foundation, an itching land-greed seemed to come over them. They wanted more and more land—good land if possible, but land anyway . . . The early settlers took up land they didn't need and couldn't use; they took up worthless land just to own it. —John Steinbeck, East of Eden

The advertisements are not conspicuous. They do not cover billboards or blare from the television set. They appear instead as small-print public notices in local newspapers or obscure items in official Government publications. Taken together, though, their import is unmistakable: the U.S. Government is about to hold its biggest real estate sale since the opening of Oklahoma.

From amber waves of grain to purple mountain majesties, America is selling a little bit of almost everything under its beautiful for spacious skies. Want a lighthouse overlooking one of the most spectacular stretches of California's rugged coastline? Just such a property is going on the block. A piece of prime bottom land in the Midwest? The Government is prepared to part with several hundred acres worth. Looking for privacy? Uncle Sam is offering mountaintops and ranger stations in Montana and New Hampshire.

Nor is this all. Uncle Sam is selling off prime property in the heart of New York City and on the outskirts of Philadelphia, a piece near the Las Vegas Strip and a chunk of Waikiki Beach. It is unloading Air Force bases, military ammunition plants, and dozens of dams and water projects. For those who might want to acquire apparently useless land for the simple satisfaction of owning it, the Government is offering— at bottom dollar, if necessary—watersheds, flood plains and deserts.

The scope of the proposed sales is enormous. By the beginning of next year, the Reagan Administration hopes to dispose of 307 parcels totaling 60,000 acres. And this is only a sampler. Within the next five years, the Administration intends to get rid of 35 million acres by Executive Order. This is 5% of the Government's land holdings and constitutes an area the size of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts combined. If the first five-year plan is successful, the Government may decide to sell more in the future. Both President Reagan and his Interior Secretary James Watt are convinced that the U.S. owns far more land than it needs or can manage. And both believe that unneeded land should be turned over to private owners.

The Government should find no shortage of buyers. Land has always been an important part of the American dream. The settlers began by clearing the forests around Jamestown, Va., 350 years ago. Then they crossed the continent like a slow but inexorable army, laying claim to property to build homes, to grow food, to graze cattle, to protect water supplies. Their eagerness was understandable. Never mind how large and grand the continent of North America was, the amount of land was finite. Once it was occupied, there was no way to create any more.