Public land state
In the United States, a public land state is one where the federal government originally owned most of the land. Those lands were later transferred to private owners or to state or local governments. A private land state is one where the federal government was not the original landowner, and public lands are now mostly owned by state or local governments.
Public land states came from big historic land deals: the Northwest Territory after the Revolutionary War, the Louisiana Purchase, lands won from Mexico after the Mexican War, and Alaska bought from Russia.
Private land states include the original 13 colonies plus Vermont and Texas (which were independent republics when they joined the United States), Kentucky and Tennessee (lands once claimed by Virginia and North Carolina), Maine and West Virginia (carved from Massachusetts and Virginia), and Hawaii. The National Archives does not hold land grant records for these states; their records are in state archives. Some sources also call Texas a public land state because much of its land was originally Mexican public land claimed by the Republic of Texas.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) divides public land states into two groups, East and West, for records. East: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin. West: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 12:31 (CET).