Western Land Marketing by the Northern Pacific Railway

Abstract

THE NORTHERN PACIFIC Railway's land grant holdings west of the Idaho-Montana border, including the states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, were referred to from almost the very beginning as the western district. A western land agent, supervised by the land commissioner, was placed in charge of the sale and leasing of lands in that area, and records of all transactions were kept separate from those of the eastern district. Although much of the good agricultural land had already been disposed of in this area by 1900, the acreage included a great deal of grazing land, as well as enormous amounts of timber. The agricultural lands which still remained after that date were often sold in small tracts to actual