Under what Constitutional clause does the federal government get to own State lands or any land outside of DC at all?
"Section. 3.
Clause 1:
New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.
Clause 2:
The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State."
What you have here is a problem in logic. As we all recall the various states that agreed to form the Confederation known as the United States of America agreed to ceed their "territorial claims" to the federal government. When the Constitution of 1790 was adopted, the federal government came into possession of a great deal of land ceeded by the states, or, in some cases, taken from England as previously unorganized territory.
The Constitution refers to this territory when it comes to forming new states. At the same time it does not prohibit the federal government from continuing to do what it had been doing ~ to wit, owning public lands.
The Founders themselves bought and sold public lands and knew the difference between unorganized territories and states. They started the system ~ before this Constitution was created ~ and continued it.
Jefferson had some critics who thought he'd overspent on the purchase of the Louisiana Territory. However, he had some inkling of the value ~ as well as where it was located.
Just looking at an old Spanish boundary stone that the DAR had mutilated by grinding it down and carving their inscription in it about the Santa Fe Trail. Pretty obviously this was a Spanish boundary stone erected between the Louisiana Territory AND Spanish Territory to the West ~ presumably before Napoleon conquered Spain and took the territory.
I thought it interesting that Spain had already marked the bounds. No doubt they had some ideas in mind themselves!
A lot of the state land around here was property that was foreclosed on during the depression according to the old timers. Lots of old house and barn foundations all over the place out there.
There are even a few abandoned roads out there. The old timers say they just closed them 30 or 40 years back and they became overgrown. I only knew about them because I found a few old road signs standing out in the middle of nowhere.