As of June 30, 1966, the world's largest land owner was the United States Government, with a holding of 765,291,000 acres (1,185,787 square miles) including 529,000 acres outside of the United States. The total value at cost was $69,357,000,000.

When Willem Verhulst bought Manhattan Island, New York, before June, 1626, by paying the Brooklyn Indians (Canarsees) with trinkets and cloth valued at 60 guilders (equivalent to $39), he was buying land now worth up to $425 per square foot for 0.2 of a cent per acre - a capital appreciation of 9,000,000,000-fold.

The greatest land auction ever was that on September 11, 1969, for 179 tracts of 450,858 acres of North Slope, Alaska. The highest single bid was one of $72,277,133 by Amerada Hess and Getty Oil.

The historic example of low land values is the Alaska Purchase of March 30, 1867, when William Henry Seward, the Secretary of State, agreed that the United States should buy the whole territory from the Russian Government of Czar Alexander II for $7,200,000 -- equivalent to 1.9 cents per acre.

(Reprinted from the Mississippi Real Estate Hot Line.)