Wallace D. Farnham, "Pacific Railroad Act of 1862", 1962

File — Box: 19, Folder: 32

Identifier: II

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Series: Section II of the collection, housed in boxes 6 through 20, contains documents that provide an overview of Madsen's career as an administrator, historian, and university professor. His military service is documented in boxes 6 and 7, which contain a copy of the two-volume history of the United States Third Army while under the command of General George S. Patton, Jr. Madsen's predecessor in the historical division oversaw the preparation of this official account of the activities of Patton's army, of which less than 300 copies were printed. Documents pertaining to Madsen's activities as assistant director of training for the Peace Corps and as director of training for Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) are located in box 8. This material includes correspondence, newspaper clippings, speeches, pamphlets and brochures, newsletters, observation notes and articles related to the "war on poverty". Peace Corps and VISTA materials are filed separately. Correspondence and memoranda for both organizations are located in folders 1-5. Additional Peace Corps material can be found in folders 7-19, with VISTA material following. These materials are in rough chronological order. Articles related to the role of education in the "war on poverty" are located in folders 30-37. Box 9 contains a few documents resulting from Madsen's years as a professor of history at the University of Utah. Most documents date from the early 1970s. This box also contains seven folders of material pertaining to the Shoshone-Bannock tribe of Fort Hall, Idaho. Personal notes, memos and correspondence on matters related to the University of Utah history department are housed in box 10. ACCESS TO THE MATERIAL IN BOX 10 REQUIRES THE PERMISSION OF THE MANUSCRIPTS DIVISION HEAD.

Documents pertaining to Madsen's work as a consulting historian are located in boxes 11 through 20. Madsen provided background information on nineteenth-century land grant legislation in the case of Anschutz Land and Livestock Company vs. The Union Pacific Railroad. The Anschutz family had acquired large tracts of land from Union Pacific. The railroad had retained rights to coal, iron, and "other minerals." Philip Anschutz attempted to question the validity of the Union Pacific title to the mineral rights on public lands granted to the railroad in the nineteenth century. The case turned on the question of whether oil and gas, not specifically mentioned in the deed, were to be considered minerals. This linguistic ambiguity provided a wedge for the Anschutz legal team to open the question of the original intent of the contractual parties. Reasoning that the Land Grant Acts of 1862 and 1864 were designed to support construction of an intercontinental railroad and open public lands to settlement rather than to enrich railroad magnates, lawyers for Anschutz intended to argue that reservation of the mineral rights by the railroad violated congressional intent and public policy at the time the original deeds were transacted. Madsen's research was directed toward assembling information on the prevailing nineteenth-century perception of what constituted a mineral, what the rights and responsibilities of recipients of public lands were thought to be, and what public land policy was intended to accomplish.

This material begins with correspondence detailing legal strategy and the research requirements necessary to lend weight to various lines of argument the legal team wished to pursue. Also included in box 11 are copies of legal documents filed and supporting documentation. Box 12 contains photocopies of documents from land grant cases where elements of the decision were thought to support arguments to be made in the Anschutz case. Boxes 14 through 18 contain the research produced by Madsen in accordance with his research outline of November, 1978 (located in box 14, folder 1). The documents in these boxes are arranged according to the fourteen record series identified by Madsen in his index to documents related to Union Pacific land grants (located in box 14, folders 2-4). The Serial Set of Congressional Documents noted here refers to the compilation of government documents prepared by and for the use of the legislative branch. These documents were published under the title The Congressional Globe until March of 1873, when the title was changed to The Congressional Record. The material here typically consists of photocopied documents with Madsen's underlining and margin notes. Folders retain the original Madsen titles. Boxes 19 and 20 contain copies of articles related to land grant policy in the United States written between 1883 and 1979. These articles are arranged chronologically by publication date and thereunder alphabetically by author. These files provide an overview of the major issues in land grant legislation and the relevant historiographical debates on the role played by the railroads in the development of the United States as a continental nation and the associated evolution of public land policy.

Dates

1962

Language of Materials

From the Collection: Collection materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.