Beginning of Essay
History of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), an agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, manages the remainder of the public domain -- a once vast expanse of land held in ownership by the United States Government fo ....

Middle of Essay
.... a government reorganization in 1946, is a successor to two former Federal agencies -- the General Land Office and the U.S. Grazing Service. Most of the lands managed by the BLM are located in 12 Western States, including Alaska, although small parcels are scattered throughout the East. Besides protecting and managing the public lands for a variety of uses, the BLM also maintains custody of nearly nine million pages of historic land documents. These documents include copies of homestead and sales patents, survey plats and survey field notes. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM has about 9,000 employees, most of whom work in field offices throug ....