Well said, Dave. Though I lived in OR 15 years I couldn’t remember the details on the railroad land. Our property abutted BLM and I believe that BLM land was some of that old railroad land.
Do you know if when the feds got that land it all became BLM?
Now that the BLM owns all the land they are continuously closing more and more of it to people. This starts by putting up “wilderness study area” signs, then after studying it for two years they close it, and put gates across jeep roads, etc. They have been closing off entire valleys and desert areas that have only minimal use and roads through them.
Clearly they want a depopulated giant area, the “Buffalo Commons” that seemed like a bad joke when we first heard it proposed. Eastern Oregon is slated to be a big part of that.
Yes, I think BLM is the default owner for all Fed land, until it is “promoted” to National Monument, National Forest, or National Park, at which point it moves from the BLM to the Foreset Service or the Park Service.
I don't know for sure, but I think a lot of it did become BLM land.
Essentially, this was the old bait & switch. Rural counties were promised Federal payments to make up for the lost property tax revenue, and now that the deed is done, and can not be reversed, years later the Feds unilaterally stop the payments.
Oh, and the story now is that somehow we are "profligate" and "overspending" because we did not replace the Federal money with local taxes. Well, the place where we really went wrong was in believing the Federal Government in the first place. There originally was no limit on the time for the Federal payments.
All these people from other states who feel so smug & superior should think about what happens when a county loses 50-70% of its taxable area to the Feds. And for a nice double whammy, they take all of the industrial jobs out of your county by shutting down most of your primary industry (logging & lumber).