The Creation of Capitol Lands
By the 1870’s, Texas was in need of a new Capitol. Being cash-poor and land rich, the Sixteenth Legislature set aside 3,000,000 acres of the public domain in 1882 to pay for the Capitol building and appointed a Capitol Board composed of the governor, comptroller, treasurer, attorney general, and land commissioner. These 3 million acres, now known as Capitol Land, are located in the Texas Panhandle counties of Bailey, Castro, Dallam, Deaf Smith, Hartley, Hockley, Lamb, Oldham, and Parmer.
Land Grants in Texas
In our previous Tobin Talk post comparing the survey in east Texas to west Texas, we discussed how land was originally given out to the state's first settlers. These grants formed the irregular survey lines that make it so difficult to map oil and gas leases and well spots in Texas. In this post, we talk about the different kind of land grants or "headrights" that were given in order to encourage more folks to settle Texas.