General Land Office - Definition and Overview

The General Land Office, a former agency of the United States government, was created in 1812 to take over functions previously conducted by the United States Department of the Treasury relating to the public domain. It surveyed and sold the public domain in the West and administered the Homestead Act and the Preemption Act. It later became part of the Department of the Interior. From 1900, it focused on conservation. On July 16, 1946, it was merged with the Grazing Service, established in 1934, to become the Bureau of Land Management, an agency of the Interior Department. An early commissioner was John McLean, later associate justice of the United States Supreme Court.