Unorganized territory
Encyclopedia
An unorganized territory is a region of land without a "normally" constituted system of government. This does not mean that the territory has no government at all or that it is unclaimed territory. In practice, such territories have always been sparsely populated.
Historically, the term "unorganized territory" was applied to an area in which there was no effective government control of affairs on a day-to-day basis, such as the former U.S. territories where the government exerted only transient control when its forces were actually present. In modern usage it indicates an area in which no local government exists, or exists only in embryonic form. In such case, the territory is governed by the possessing nation or constituent unit.
The term has several denotations and connotations depending on the exact usage and context. These lightly governed regions were common in the 19th-century during the growth of United States. Large tracts such as the Louisiana Territory
, Missouri Territory
and the Oregon Country
were established by congress. Later, a portion of a territory would organize and achieve the requirements for statehood, leaving the remainder unorganized.
(MCD) states (Arkansas
, Indiana
, Iowa
, Louisiana
, Maine
, Minnesota
, North Carolina
, North Dakota
, Ohio
, and South Dakota
) where portions of counties are not included in any legally established MCD or independent incorporated place. The U.S. Census Bureau recognizes such separate pieces of territory as one or more separate county subdivisions for statistical purposes. It assigns each unorganized territory a descriptive name, followed by the designation "unorganized territory." Unorganized territories were first used for statistical purposes in conjunction with the 1960 census.
At the 2000 census
there were 305 of these territories within the United States. Their total land area was 85,392.23 square miles (221,164.87 km2), or larger than the entire state of Idaho
. There was a total population of 247,331 on these lands. South Dakota has the most unorganized territories, 102, as well as the largest amount of land under that status, 39,784.78 square miles (103,042.114 km2), or 52.428 percent of the state's land area. North Dakota follows with 86 territories, 20,358.27 square miles (52,727.67 km2), or 29.515 percent of its land area. Maine is next with 36 territories, 14,052.47 square miles (36,395.73 km2), or 45.534 percent of its land area. Minnesota has 71 territories, 10,552.05 square miles (27,329.68 km2), or 13.255 percent of its land area. The other states have very insignificant amounts of unorganized territory. The unorganized territory with the largest population is Camp Lejeune, North Carolina
, a United States Marine Corps
base with a census population of 34,452 inhabitants.
An unorganized territory is also a United States territory for which the United States Congress
has not enacted an organic act. In this sense, unorganized territories are lands possessed by the federal U.S. government but which are not within any of the states
of the Union and have not been "organized" into self-governing units. Currently, all federal unorganized territory is considered to be an Insular area
, administered by the Office of Insular Affairs
, U.S. Department of the Interior. American Samoa
is technically unorganized, in that Congress has not passed an organic act, but is effectively self-governing, under terms of a constitution last revised in 1967, except that its inhabitants aren't U.S. citizens. As of 2006, Palmyra Atoll
is the only unorganized incorporated U.S. territory.
At various times during the nineteenth century, large parts of the Great Plains
were unorganized territory. After acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase
from France in 1805, the entire region had been part of the Louisiana Territory
until 1812 and the Missouri Territory
until 1821. In 1821 the Missouri Compromise
create the State of Missouri
from the territory, and the rest of the region was left unorganized. The Kansas-Nebraska Act
of 1854 created the Kansas
and Nebraska
Territories, bringing organized government to the region once again. The creation of Kansas and Nebraska left the Indian Territory
as the only unorganized territory in the Great Plains.
In 1858, the western part of the Minnesota Territory
became unorganized when it was not included in the new state of Minnesota
; this area was organized in 1861 as part of the Dakota Territory
. On May 2, 1890, the western half of the Indian Territory was organized as Oklahoma
. The remainder was incorporated into the State of Oklahoma
upon its admission to the union in 1907.
Alaska
was an unorganized territory between its acquisition by the United States in 1867 and the creation of the Alaska Territory
in 1912.
In modern parlance, such territory would be considered incorporated territory
(i.e., part of the United States proper), yet not organized territory. However, the distinction between incorporated and non-incorporated territory did not arise until the territorial acquisitions following the Spanish-American War
in 1898.
, such as Northern Ontario
where there is no region-wide level of government
. In Quebec
, territory not within the border of a municipality of some sort is unorganized territory.
Historically, the term "unorganized territory" was applied to an area in which there was no effective government control of affairs on a day-to-day basis, such as the former U.S. territories where the government exerted only transient control when its forces were actually present. In modern usage it indicates an area in which no local government exists, or exists only in embryonic form. In such case, the territory is governed by the possessing nation or constituent unit.
The term has several denotations and connotations depending on the exact usage and context. These lightly governed regions were common in the 19th-century during the growth of United States. Large tracts such as the Louisiana Territory
Louisiana Territory
The Territory of Louisiana or Louisiana Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 4, 1805 until June 4, 1812, when it was renamed to Missouri Territory...
, Missouri Territory
Missouri Territory
The Territory of Missouri was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 4, 1812 until August 10, 1821, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Missouri.-History:...
and the Oregon Country
Oregon Country
The Oregon Country was a predominantly American term referring to a disputed ownership region of the Pacific Northwest of North America. The region was occupied by British and French Canadian fur traders from before 1810, and American settlers from the mid-1830s, with its coastal areas north from...
were established by congress. Later, a portion of a territory would organize and achieve the requirements for statehood, leaving the remainder unorganized.
U.S. Census Bureau
Unorganized territories, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, occur in 10 minor civil divisionMinor civil division
Minor civil division is a term used by the United States Census Bureau to designate the primary governmental and/or administrative divisions of a county, such as a civil township, precinct, or magisterial district...
(MCD) states (Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, North Dakota
North Dakota
North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, and South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
) where portions of counties are not included in any legally established MCD or independent incorporated place. The U.S. Census Bureau recognizes such separate pieces of territory as one or more separate county subdivisions for statistical purposes. It assigns each unorganized territory a descriptive name, followed by the designation "unorganized territory." Unorganized territories were first used for statistical purposes in conjunction with the 1960 census.
At the 2000 census
United States Census, 2000
The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...
there were 305 of these territories within the United States. Their total land area was 85,392.23 square miles (221,164.87 km2), or larger than the entire state of Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
. There was a total population of 247,331 on these lands. South Dakota has the most unorganized territories, 102, as well as the largest amount of land under that status, 39,784.78 square miles (103,042.114 km2), or 52.428 percent of the state's land area. North Dakota follows with 86 territories, 20,358.27 square miles (52,727.67 km2), or 29.515 percent of its land area. Maine is next with 36 territories, 14,052.47 square miles (36,395.73 km2), or 45.534 percent of its land area. Minnesota has 71 territories, 10,552.05 square miles (27,329.68 km2), or 13.255 percent of its land area. The other states have very insignificant amounts of unorganized territory. The unorganized territory with the largest population is Camp Lejeune, North Carolina
Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune
Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune is a United States military training facility in North Carolina. The base's of beaches make it a major area for amphibious assault training, and its location between two deep-water ports allows for fast deployments.The main base is supplemented by five satellite...
, a United States Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
base with a census population of 34,452 inhabitants.
United States territory
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
has not enacted an organic act. In this sense, unorganized territories are lands possessed by the federal U.S. government but which are not within any of the states
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of the Union and have not been "organized" into self-governing units. Currently, all federal unorganized territory is considered to be an Insular area
Insular area
An insular area is a United States territory, that is neither a part of one of the fifty U.S. states nor the District of Columbia, the federal district of the United States...
, administered by the Office of Insular Affairs
Office of Insular Affairs
The Office of Insular Affairs is a unit of the United States Department of the Interior that oversees federal administration of several United States possessions...
, U.S. Department of the Interior. American Samoa
American Samoa
American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa...
is technically unorganized, in that Congress has not passed an organic act, but is effectively self-governing, under terms of a constitution last revised in 1967, except that its inhabitants aren't U.S. citizens. As of 2006, Palmyra Atoll
Palmyra Atoll
Palmyra Atoll is an essentially unoccupied equatorial Northern Pacific atoll administered as an unorganized incorporated territory by the United States federal government...
is the only unorganized incorporated U.S. territory.
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
were unorganized territory. After acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of America of of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana in 1803. The U.S...
from France in 1805, the entire region had been part of the Louisiana Territory
Louisiana Territory
The Territory of Louisiana or Louisiana Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 4, 1805 until June 4, 1812, when it was renamed to Missouri Territory...
until 1812 and the Missouri Territory
Missouri Territory
The Territory of Missouri was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 4, 1812 until August 10, 1821, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Missouri.-History:...
until 1821. In 1821 the Missouri Compromise
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was an agreement passed in 1820 between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress, involving primarily the regulation of slavery in the western territories. It prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30'...
create the State of Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
from the territory, and the rest of the region was left unorganized. The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening new lands for settlement, and had the effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing settlers in those territories to determine through Popular Sovereignty if they would allow slavery within...
of 1854 created the Kansas
Kansas Territory
The Territory of Kansas was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Kansas....
and Nebraska
Nebraska Territory
The Territory of Nebraska was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until March 1, 1867, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Nebraska. The Nebraska Territory was created by the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854...
Territories, bringing organized government to the region once again. The creation of Kansas and Nebraska left the Indian Territory
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
as the only unorganized territory in the Great Plains.
In 1858, the western part of the Minnesota Territory
Minnesota Territory
The Territory of Minnesota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 3, 1849, until May 11, 1858, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Minnesota.-History:...
became unorganized when it was not included in the new state of Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
; this area was organized in 1861 as part of the Dakota Territory
Dakota Territory
The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North and South Dakota.The Dakota Territory consisted of...
. On May 2, 1890, the western half of the Indian Territory was organized as Oklahoma
Oklahoma Territory
The Territory of Oklahoma was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 2, 1890, until November 16, 1907, when it was joined with the Indian Territory under a new constitution and admitted to the Union as the State of Oklahoma.-Organization:Oklahoma Territory's...
. The remainder was incorporated into the State of Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
upon its admission to the union in 1907.
Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
was an unorganized territory between its acquisition by the United States in 1867 and the creation of the Alaska Territory
Alaska Territory
The Territory of Alaska was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 24, 1912, until January 3, 1959, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Alaska...
in 1912.
In modern parlance, such territory would be considered incorporated territory
Incorporated territory
Territories of the United States are one of the four types of political division of the United States, overseen directly by the federal government of the United States and not any part of a U.S. state. These territories were created to govern newly acquired land while the borders of the United...
(i.e., part of the United States proper), yet not organized territory. However, the distinction between incorporated and non-incorporated territory did not arise until the territorial acquisitions following the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
in 1898.
Canada
Unorganized territories also exist in certain regions of CanadaCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, such as Northern Ontario
Northern Ontario
Northern Ontario is a region of the Canadian province of Ontario which lies north of Lake Huron , the French River and Lake Nipissing. The region has a land area of 802,000 km2 and constitutes 87% of the land area of Ontario, although it contains only about 6% of the population...
where there is no region-wide level of government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
. In Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, territory not within the border of a municipality of some sort is unorganized territory.
See also
- Organized territory
- Incorporated territoryIncorporated territoryTerritories of the United States are one of the four types of political division of the United States, overseen directly by the federal government of the United States and not any part of a U.S. state. These territories were created to govern newly acquired land while the borders of the United...
- Types of municipalities in QuebecTypes of municipalities in QuebecThe following is a list of the types of local and supralocal territorial units in Quebec, including those used solely for statistical purposes, as defined by the Institut de la Statistique du Québec....