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Show 32 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT 7, 1953, for the leasing of oil and gas, sulfur, and other mineral rights to the lands in the continental shelf beyond the 3-mile limit. The scramble for concessions in the next 7 years brought into the Treasury §434,731,000 and by 1966 the return from the outer continental shelf had reached $1,138,740,993, with prospects of much more to come.81 Nearly a century has passed since the first major withdrawal of public lands for a national park and three-quarters of a century 81 Though the outer continental shelf brought more into the Federal Treasury than any other public land source, the Bureau of Land Management gave but slight space to the mapping and leasing of the area. Public Land Statistics, 1966, p. 171. The New York Times of May 12, 1968, reported that $603,204,-284 was bid for drilling rights in the outer continental shelf off the coast of Santa Barbara, California. On May 22, 1968, the Times reported sales of leases off the Texas coast amounting to $602 million. has lapsed since the adoption of the measure authorizing the creation of national forests. Few could have foreseen how far withdrawals for parks and forests would go or that extensive purchase programs would be undertaken to supplement the withdrawals. Many westerners in Congress and outside still are critical about the large proportion of the resources of their states which are held by the Federal government, but find the revenue sharing a major benefit and have never looked with disfavor upon the allocation of funds derived from sale and royalties of public land resources to reclamation development. Many Americans take great pride in the national parks, enjoy the recreational facilities in the national forests, and in large numbers tour the giant dams and reservoirs of the Reclamation Service. National pride in the possession and enjoyment of these facilities seems to be displacing the earlier views. |
