Clerks and Cowboys: The General Land Office and the Shaping of the United States
Event Date: Sep 12, 2012
Event Time: 2:45 pm - 4:00 pm
Location: Glenn Miller Ballroom
Session 1: Clerks and Cowboys: The General Land Office and the Shaping of the United States
When the public thinks of the history of the American West, images of trappers, prospectors, and cowboys rush to mind, but the land office clerks, along with the members of Congress who wrote the land laws, were far more consequential (and often quite colorful) characters. Three historians will explore the origins of the General Land Office, as well as the most famous land law of all, the Homestead Act.
Anne Hyde
Professor of History at Colorado College