Abstract
Maine's public lots were originally reserved from conveyances of townships of public domain and were held by the state for the benefit of schools in the towns which would or could someday be created among the unorganized townships of the state. Many towns came into existence and inherited their public lots for the purposes for which the lots were reserved. Unlike many other states, however, almost half of the land area of Maine has never been incorporated into towns. Because of the great number of townships which have never been incorporated into towns, there are now approximately 400,000 acres of public lots owned by the state. These lands are situated in eight counties across the northern and eastern areas of Maine at the rate of 1,000 acres per township. Most of the townships are totally uninhabited today. This article is an analysis of some of the more significant actual and potential legal rights and responsibilities of the state with respect to these lands. It does not, as indeed it could not, purport to answer every question about these diverse and peculiar public lands. Instead, it focuses primarily upon certain fundamental problems and questions raised by the Articles of Separation (a part of Maine's Constitution), the deeds of public domain reserving the public lots, and the deeds granting the right to cut and carry away timber and grass from the public lots.
First Page
217
Recommended Citation
Lee M. Schepps,
Maine's Public Lots: The Emergence of a Public Trust,
26
Me. L. Rev.
217
(1974).
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.mainelaw.maine.edu/mlr/vol26/iss2/3