How Does the United States Govern Its Land?

1. How Americans altered their landscape

    Land and economic growth

    How the U.S. government took control of most of the nation's land

    The Homestead Act

    The Pacific Railroad Act

2. How Chicago altered the landscape of the American Midwest

    Location, Location, Location

    Grain Production and the Transformation of the Prairie

    Timber Production and the Transformation of the Forests

    Cattle, Hogs, and Mass Production

    The Transformation of Rural Life

3. The Public Lands Today

    The Battle over Public Lands since the 1970s

    Forests & Fire