After the Louisiana Purchase, the United States became a nation with millions of acres of arable, but largely unoccupied land. In response, Congress took steps to encourage Americans to "homestead" - take up residence and agree to live on and work a piece of land. In exchange, settlers would frequently receive the land for free or at very low cost. This property then went from government control to productive use.

Many governments today are beginning to consider the implications of having large tracts of land essentially sitting idle. A piece of land owned by the government - even if it's put to some productive use such as timber harvesting or grazing - does not pay the full compliment of property taxes privately-held property does.

This is a huge issue particularly in the West, where government can own 50 percent or more of all the available land base. Some Oregon counties are 75 percent government owned, dramatically lowering the economic capacity of those areas.

During the land rush of the 1800s, the first properties to be claimed were the best, most easily farmed or ranched. In the past 150 years, the technology available to turn a seemingly barren piece of ground into a livable homestead has improved dramatically. Perhaps a new generation of Americans should be given the chance to claim government-owned land as their own and to turn now-fallow tracts into economically productive, privately-owned land.