“There’s a reason western states never took over big swaths of land - no one wanted it.”
I’ve often wondered if this should be re-visited, now that ranching has somewhat modernized. These ranchers are paying grazing fees, and successfully raising cattle...so it seems that given a large enough tract of land, homesteading is possible.
It seems that many of these ranchers have already fulfilled the requirements of the 19th century land claims: improve the land and make it productive. Shouldn’t the goal be to liquidate as much federal land as possible, to the ranchers who are already using it, and have the land enter the local tax rolls.
I know the federal government would have no interest in this...but it seems logical to privatize as much land as possible.
“no one wanted it”
Eco Nazis want it to keep people out of it, in their war against humanity.
Has cattle grazing technology really changed much over the centuries? I guess you can now ride the range on an ATV instead of a horse, but it doesn't seem to me that the economics have fundamentally changed.