How we acquired our landed estate

the long version

"How we got our land is the core of our history, beginning with the Thirteen Colonies and continuing with the Louisiana Purchase (4 cents an acre for 529,911,680 acres), Florida, the Northwest Territory, Alaska, Texas, the Pacific Southwest, the Gadsden Purchase, and others -- until the national domain extended from sea to shining sea and beyond the seas. By Karl S. Landstrom, lands officer, Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior"--Page 19.