ABSTRACT The pre-1860 history of federal and state efforts to privatize public lands in Michigan is covered under six operational and policy themes: (1) quieting Native American claims to their lands, (2) surveying and platting the state's land, (3) reviewing the federal and state offices administering the privatization process, (4) analyzing federal and state land policies, (5) discussing the role that speculators had in the privatization process, and (6) reviewing the effects that privatization had on the settlement of the state. Privatization was both a partial success and a deeply flawed process.
