Was never Idaho land

Sun., Oct. 26, 2014

Regarding Doug Paterson’s Oct. 8 letter: The federal government cannot “return” land to the state of Idaho, because it was never Idaho’s to begin with.

When the Territory of Idaho was carved out of Washington Territory in 1863, virtually all the land belonged to the feds and thus became part of Idaho, but not owned by the territory. Statehood in 1890 did not confer ownership.

Ted Wert

Sagle, Idaho

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