ABSTRACT
The story of the Maine lands offers an opportunity to study the movement of land into private hands at a time when lands were a drug on the market. Maine, faced with internal pressures and competition from outside, was forced to resort to many different methods to attract settlers to its lands. The history of the disposal of the Massachusetts public domain is really a story of the Maine public domain, since Maine split off from Massachusetts to become a separate state in 1819 and 1820. The slow disposal and the failure to attract many immigrants revived earlier attempts at obtaining a land grant for a railroad to connect Maine with the Maritime Provinces. “The short route to Europe,” as it was called, might provide an answer to the question of land disposal. The railroad attempted to enlarge its grant by claiming lands set aside for other purposes.
