How many acres did the government grant to the railroads from 1850 1871?

From 1850 to 1871, the railroads received more than 175 million acres (71 million ha) of public land – an area more than one tenth of the whole United States and larger in area than Texas. Railroad expansion provided new avenues of migration into the American interior.



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From 1850 to 1871, Congress provided grants of land (In Wisconsin, 6-10 square miles of land for each mile of track). These are the land grant routes. Congress also provided right-of-ways through public lands both before and 1871. Congress retained a reversionary interest in land grant rights-of-way.

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