[Scoundreller]

> Most of this land in the lower 48 was gone by 1900 or so and this is what people are referring to when they talk about the closing of the American frontier.

Well, sorta. The feds still own 30-85% of each Western state:

https://assets3.bigthink.com/system/tinymce_assets/944/origi...

[amyjess]

Mostly because that land is so inhospitable that nobody wants it.

[njarboe]

Lots of national forest land that many people would love to be able to live on. Check out the prices around Aspen which is surrounded by National forests.

[Scoundreller]

I’m really not familiar with the geography, or its history, but the feds only kept 2% of Texas. I’ll assume the rest became private.

[boomboomsubban]

To put it as succinctly as possible... Oil.