The California State Lands Commission Records consist of 43 cubic feet of textual records with selected photographs and maps interfiled reflecting the Commission's management and supervision of California's state owned lands. There are 0.25 cubic feet of VHS Video tapes and 0.25 cubic feet of additional audio visual material including floppy disks, photographic slides, and negatives that have been separated from various series and removed to the cold storage media vaults for preservation purposes. The records date from 1940-2000 and document the work of an agency functioning in the State of California continually for the last seventy-three years and continuing in existence today.

The formal administration of state public lands began in 1858 with the creation of the State Land Office for the purpose of "ascertaining, protecting, and managing the title and claim of the state to any lands within its limits, derived by grants from the United States, or in any other manner." The Surveyor General, a statewide elected official whose Office was established by the 1849 California Constitution, served as ex officio Register of the State Land Office (Chapter 176, Statutes 1858). The State Land Office and the Office of Surveyor General were replaced, and their duties, powers, purposes, responsibilities and jurisdictions transferred to the newly-created Division of State Lands within the Department of Finance in 1929.

44 cubic feet

For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the California State Archives. Permission for reproduction or publication is given on behalf of the California State Archives as the owner of the physical items. The researcher assumes all responsibility for possible infringement which may arise from reproduction or publication of materials from the California State Archives' collections.

While the majority of the records are open for research, any access restrictions are noted in the record series descriptions.