To: Bread Upon The Water who wrote (240794 ) 12/30/2013 12:52:26 PM From: bentway Read Replies (3) | Respond to There doesn't seem to be a lot of easily accessed info on early American subsidies as a stand-alone subject, but I can think of a couple right off the top of my head.en.wikipedia.org The government backed bonds were to be issued at $16,000/mile for track laid at level grade, $32,000/mile for track laid in foothills and $48,000/mile for track laid in mountains. The two railroad companies sold similar amounts of company-backed bonds and stock.In addition to government bonds, a 400-foot (120 m) right-of-way corridor (along with additional lands needed for all sidings, stations, rail yards, maintenance stations,) etc. on which to build the railroad were made by the Congress. Extensive land grants of alternate sections (one section is one square mile) of government-owned lands along the tracks for 10 miles (16 km) on both sides of the track — 6,400 acres (2,600 ha) per mile (1.6 km) of track — were also granted to be used and/or sold by the companies. Grants were not allowed or given in cities or at rivers or on non-government property. While some of this land had potentially exploitable minerals, was good farm or forest land, and quite valuable, much of it was essentially valueless desert. Provisions in the Pacific Railroad Acts were made for the telegraph companies, who had just completed the First Transcontinental Telegraph in 1861, to combine their lines with the Railroad's telegraph lines as they were built. Railroad-allocated land not sold in three years was to be sold at the prevailing government price for homesteads: $1.25 per 1 acre (0.40 ha) if there were any buyers. Had the bonds not been repaid (which they were with interest), the Acts provided that all remaining railroad property, including trains and tracks, were to revert to the U.S. government for disposal."en.wikipedia.org Land run (sometimes "land rush" ) usually refers to an historical event in which previously restricted land of the United States was opened to homestead on a first arrival basis. Lands were opened and sold first-come or by bid, or won by lottery, or by means other than a run. The settlers, no matter how they acquired occupancy, purchased the land from the United States Land Office . For former Indian lands, the Land Office distributed the sales funds to the various tribal entities, according to previously negotiated terms. The Oklahoma Land Run of 1889 was the most prominent of the land runs while the Land Run of 1893 was the largest."
