Background
Previous to the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, the General Mining Act of 1872 authorized citizens to freely prospect for minerals on public lands and allowed a discoverer to stake claims to both minerals and surrounding lands for development. This open-access policy enabled a major oil rush in the West, in 1909 prompting U.S. Geological Survey Director George Otis Smith to warn Secretary of the Interior Ballinger that oil lands were being claimed so quickly they would be unavailable within a few months. Ballinger notified President Taft who promptly created the first American oil reserve by executive order on September 27, 1909, withdrawing 3,041,000 acres (12,310 km2) of public lands in California and Wyoming from further claims, and reserving the oil for use by the United States Navy. Congress ratified the president's authority to set aside federally owned lands with the passing of the Pickett Act (36 Stat. 847) in 1910. The Supreme Court further affirmed the president's constitutional power to withdraw public land from use in United States v. Midwest Oil Co., 236 U.S. 459 (1915). . Following these events, Congress enacted the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 which dictated a system of leasing and development for mining interests on federally owned lands.
Read more about this topic: Mineral Leasing Act Of 1920
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