3 ms·

How did these checkerboards come about? I've noticed them on maps before when looking for public land in the US.

by prawn 3y ago

not2b 3y ago
It has to do with the way the federal government granted land to the railroads to incentivize them to lay track. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkerboarding_(land) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkerboarding_(land)
nine_k 3y ago
IIRC, it was a way to push settlers farther to the West. Looked like a clever idea at the time, likely.
lolinder 3y ago
Railroad grants. The theory was that by granting land to railroads instead of money it incentivizes them to build the railroad well. By keeping half the land for the government the government profits from the increased value too. They just didn't think this far ahead.
- s1artibartfast 3y ago
  I think it was a sound policy. The problem is that the government never decided to sell the land. If they fold it to individuals, those people can put in easements to access their land but that never happened
- wkat4242 3y ago
  But how were the railroads supposed to lay track from one of their squares to the next without this "corner crossing"?
  - mannykannot 3y ago
    The land on which the railroad was built was handled separately. This was land in the vicinity of the proposed railroad, which would increase significantly in value if and only if a functional railroad was completed.
- saghm 3y ago
  That explains why it was split up, but not why in a square grid. It sounds like the "corner" issue could have been avoided by using a hexagon pattern, right? That way corners are only shared by sections that also share a side. Then again, I haven't been able to convince my friends that using a hexagon grid for our tabletop RPG games is worth it despite the advantages seeming obvious to me (no need for weird rules about moving diagonally), so I suppose this would have been a hard sell to the late 19th century government as well.
  - Gibbon1 3y ago
    In the 19th century no one would so daft as to think ownership of a random plot of land would give you the right to keep people from traversing it. Someone cutting down your trees, hunting, grazing their cattle or sheep, mining, farming it, yes. Just walking across it? They'd think you were a loon.
    - xref 3y ago
      I don’t know, blocking people off “your land” goes back centuries. Probably millennia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclosure_Acts https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclosure_Acts
      - saghm 3y ago
        Yep, this law was mentioned in the article as something the defendants cited
    - zirgs 3y ago
      Many European countries still have freedom to roam. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam
      - vidarh 3y ago
        And having grown up in Norway, I feel Americans talking of "land of the free" while allowing landowners to block off even their own land is offensive on the face of it. The ridiculous lengths these hunters had to go to in order to avoid straying onto private land is antithetical to freedom (you still need hunting licenses in Norway; and permission to hunt on private land so there are still potential issues, but worrying about a few meters and the accuracy of GPS to avoid even crossing a tiny little portion of private land is not one of them).
- mcv 3y ago
  But how do you build a railroad from one square to another without part of the railroad ending up on any of the squares you don't own? Also, isn't this somewhere in the mountains where there are no railroads?
  - db48x 3y ago
    The land wasn't granted to build railroads on, it was granted in payment for the railroads. Towns would naturally spring up near the railroads, and both the government and the railroad companies could then sell the land to people who would live on it, farm it, ranch it, etc.
defrost 3y ago
Came about from the Land Ordinance of 1785 introduction of the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) used by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management). Office types gridded up manifest destiny using squares within squares and created a pre GPS coordinate system for coding up space (within central north america). See (as starting points). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Land_Survey_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Land_Survey_System https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/do-us-topos-and-national-map-have-layer-shows-public-land-survey-system-plss https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/do-us-topos-and-national-map-have-... While I'm not from that part of the world I spent a few years writing interop transformations betwixt all manner of "coord systems" across the globe that predate WGS84 et al. The PLSS grid explains the locations of many midwest US roads and townships, and "checkerboard ownership" (families | businesses buying land to surround other land and then deny access to land not paid for) was one form of early system gaming.
- kristjansson 3y ago
  The checkerboard pattern was explicitly the form of land grants to railroad companies to compensate them for laying track across the country. Early national equity compensation :)
  - defrost 3y ago
    Sure .. after the land parcels and ennumeration scheme had already been laid down .. and not limited to rail grants - there was a general US pattern of checkerboarding all land grants to disperse development. The foundational aspect to the question posed is that land was gridded in abstract from afar before any aportions were made, a secondary aspect was that in some regions large tracts of those squares were initially granted to various railroads on an "every second large chunk" basis, another aspect was that in the days of open cattle grazing early land cattle barons realised they didn't have to own land to graze on it and they could control access to unowned land by only paying for surrounding land or for "chokepoint" land in rough terrain. A 'final' aspect to the story is the creation of the US National Parks movement which started a wave of "freezing" as yet unsold land as permanently held as not for private use. A key point is that the Land Grant Act of 1850 granted checkerbordered land to railroad companies within at most 50 miles of planned rail routes .. however that practice wasn't limited to rail grants - Tribal lands were also checkerboarded by the Dawes Act and public land was released on a checkerboard basis. You can see the checkerboard ownership even in early cattle country that had no history of railroad grants - the large squares were the unit of sale and typically the early sales were for homesteads in the midst of unclaimed land with the next sale not being "right next door" but for another homestead block in the midst of unclaimed land. It's the appeal of owning your house, shed, assets, yards, etc. while not having to pay to own the land your cattle are moved through for seasonal pastures. Eventally all land would presumably have been purchased .. but the National Parks started freeing things up. There's more on this (but not the complete picture) in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkerboarding_(land) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkerboarding_(land)

How did these checkerboards come about? I've noticed them on maps before when looking for public land in the US.

by prawn 3y ago

How did these checkerboards come about? I've noticed them on maps before when looking for public land in the US.

It has to do with the way the federal government granted land to the railroads to incentivize them to lay track. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkerboarding_(land) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkerboarding_(land)

nine_k 3y ago

IIRC, it was a way to push settlers farther to the West. Looked like a clever idea at the time, likely.

lolinder 3y ago

Railroad grants. The theory was that by granting land to railroads instead of money it incentivizes them to build the railroad well. By keeping half the land for the government the government profits from the increased value too. They just didn't think this far ahead.

s1artibartfast 3y ago
I think it was a sound policy. The problem is that the government never decided to sell the land. If they fold it to individuals, those people can put in easements to access their land but that never happened
wkat4242 3y ago
But how were the railroads supposed to lay track from one of their squares to the next without this "corner crossing"?
- mannykannot 3y ago
  The land on which the railroad was built was handled separately. This was land in the vicinity of the proposed railroad, which would increase significantly in value if and only if a functional railroad was completed.
saghm 3y ago
That explains why it was split up, but not why in a square grid. It sounds like the "corner" issue could have been avoided by using a hexagon pattern, right? That way corners are only shared by sections that also share a side. Then again, I haven't been able to convince my friends that using a hexagon grid for our tabletop RPG games is worth it despite the advantages seeming obvious to me (no need for weird rules about moving diagonally), so I suppose this would have been a hard sell to the late 19th century government as well.
- Gibbon1 3y ago
  In the 19th century no one would so daft as to think ownership of a random plot of land would give you the right to keep people from traversing it. Someone cutting down your trees, hunting, grazing their cattle or sheep, mining, farming it, yes. Just walking across it? They'd think you were a loon.
  - xref 3y ago
    I don’t know, blocking people off “your land” goes back centuries. Probably millennia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclosure_Acts https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclosure_Acts
    - saghm 3y ago
      Yep, this law was mentioned in the article as something the defendants cited
  - zirgs 3y ago
    Many European countries still have freedom to roam. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam
    - vidarh 3y ago
      And having grown up in Norway, I feel Americans talking of "land of the free" while allowing landowners to block off even their own land is offensive on the face of it. The ridiculous lengths these hunters had to go to in order to avoid straying onto private land is antithetical to freedom (you still need hunting licenses in Norway; and permission to hunt on private land so there are still potential issues, but worrying about a few meters and the accuracy of GPS to avoid even crossing a tiny little portion of private land is not one of them).
mcv 3y ago
But how do you build a railroad from one square to another without part of the railroad ending up on any of the squares you don't own? Also, isn't this somewhere in the mountains where there are no railroads?
- db48x 3y ago
  The land wasn't granted to build railroads on, it was granted in payment for the railroads. Towns would naturally spring up near the railroads, and both the government and the railroad companies could then sell the land to people who would live on it, farm it, ranch it, etc.

defrost 3y ago

Came about from the Land Ordinance of 1785 introduction of the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) used by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management). Office types gridded up manifest destiny using squares within squares and created a pre GPS coordinate system for coding up space (within central north america). See (as starting points). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Land_Survey_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Land_Survey_System https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/do-us-topos-and-national-map-have-layer-shows-public-land-survey-system-plss https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/do-us-topos-and-national-map-have-... While I'm not from that part of the world I spent a few years writing interop transformations betwixt all manner of "coord systems" across the globe that predate WGS84 et al. The PLSS grid explains the locations of many midwest US roads and townships, and "checkerboard ownership" (families | businesses buying land to surround other land and then deny access to land not paid for) was one form of early system gaming.

kristjansson 3y ago
The checkerboard pattern was explicitly the form of land grants to railroad companies to compensate them for laying track across the country. Early national equity compensation :)
- defrost 3y ago
  Sure .. after the land parcels and ennumeration scheme had already been laid down .. and not limited to rail grants - there was a general US pattern of checkerboarding all land grants to disperse development. The foundational aspect to the question posed is that land was gridded in abstract from afar before any aportions were made, a secondary aspect was that in some regions large tracts of those squares were initially granted to various railroads on an "every second large chunk" basis, another aspect was that in the days of open cattle grazing early land cattle barons realised they didn't have to own land to graze on it and they could control access to unowned land by only paying for surrounding land or for "chokepoint" land in rough terrain. A 'final' aspect to the story is the creation of the US National Parks movement which started a wave of "freezing" as yet unsold land as permanently held as not for private use. A key point is that the Land Grant Act of 1850 granted checkerbordered land to railroad companies within at most 50 miles of planned rail routes .. however that practice wasn't limited to rail grants - Tribal lands were also checkerboarded by the Dawes Act and public land was released on a checkerboard basis. You can see the checkerboard ownership even in early cattle country that had no history of railroad grants - the large squares were the unit of sale and typically the early sales were for homesteads in the midst of unclaimed land with the next sale not being "right next door" but for another homestead block in the midst of unclaimed land. It's the appeal of owning your house, shed, assets, yards, etc. while not having to pay to own the land your cattle are moved through for seasonal pastures. Eventally all land would presumably have been purchased .. but the National Parks started freeing things up. There's more on this (but not the complete picture) in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkerboarding_(land) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkerboarding_(land)