286 The Environmental Debate
1828 First attempt at federal forest management undertaken with live oaks on Santa
Rosa Island, Florida; now Naval Live Oaks Reservation, part of Gulf Islands
National Seashore.
1832 George Catlin proposes a national park.
1841 Preemption Act allows settlers to squat on public lands and, if the land is put up
for sale, to have first right of purchase at $1.25 per acre.
1844 William Cullen Bryant proposes a great municipal park.
New York Sportsman’s Club, first sportsmen’s club founded to protect and
preserve game for hunting.
1848 Gold discovered at Sutter’s Mill, California; marks the beginning of the California
gold rush.
American Association for the Advancement of Science founded.
1849 U.S. Department of the Interior established and given authority to administer
public lands.
1850 Swamp and Overflow Act (Swamplands Act) deeds to the individual states swamp
and overflow lands within their boundaries and encourages the building of levees
on and draining of these lands.
1859 Edwin Drake drills first oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania.
1862 Homestead Act gives settlers free land on the condition that they inhabit it and
cultivate it.
1864 Act Granting Yo-semite to California on condition that California set aside the
valley “for public use, resort and recreation” creates first state park.
George Perkins Marsh publishes Man and Nature.
1865 Work begins on Central Park in New York City, the nation’s first “rural” city park.
1866 General Mining Act establishes that public mineral lands should be free and open
to exploration and occupation.
1869 John Wesley Powell descends the Colorado River and travels through the Grand
Canyon.
1870 Timber and Stone Act permits sale of uncultivable public lands containing timber
and stone but not minerals.
1871 U.S. Fish Commission established.
1872 Act to Set Apart Land near the Head-Waters of the Yellowstone River as a Public
Park creates first U.S. national park, Yellowstone, which was also the first national
park in the world.
Mining Act allows private acquisition and exploration of public lands containing
mineral deposits.