A register (formally, "Register of the Land Office") was the top official for a district land office of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

General Land Office The General Land Office (GLO) was an independent agency of the United States government responsible for public domain lands in the United States. It was created in 1812 to take over functions previously conducted by the United States Department o ...

. Registers were nominated by the president, with approval of the senate. For most of the active period of

public lands In all modern states, a portion of land is held by central or local governments. This is called public land, state land, or Crown land (Australia, and Canada). The system of tenure of public land, and the terminology used, varies between countrie ...

settlement in the United States, district land offices were the basic operating units that conducted the business of transferring title. All transactions relative to the disposal of public land within a declared land district were handled through its land office by officials designated as registers, who recorded land applications, and receivers ("Receivers of Public Monies"), who accepted payments for land and issued receipts. The position of receiver was abolished, July 1, 1925, and the functions devolved upon the register, whose title was changed to "manager" in 1946. The

first First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

of 362 land offices was opened at

Steubenville, Ohio Steubenville is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Ohio, United States. Located along the Ohio River 33 miles west of Pittsburgh, it had a population of 18,161 at the 2020 census. The city's name is derived from Fort Steuben, a 1 ...

, on July 2, 1800; the last at

Newcastle, Wyoming Newcastle is a city in and the county seat of Weston County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 3,374 at the 2020 census. Geography Newcastle is located at (43.853183, -104.209343). It is situated at the southwest edge of the Blac ...

, on March 1, 1920. The peak year for land offices was 1890, with 123 in operation. The subsequent closing of the public domain gradually reduced the number of land offices, until, in 1933, only 25 offices remained. These functions were gradually merged into other operations of the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...

. Research Our Records > Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States > Records of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) > 49.9 Records of District Land Offices 1800-1980"">National Archives. "Home > Research Our Records > Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States > Records of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) > 49.9 Records of District Land Offices 1800-1980"

References

{{reflist Bureau of Land Management personnel Real estate in the United States