Bastrop Land Grant
In 1795, Philip Hendrick Nering-Bogel (the Baron de Bastrop) entered into a contract with the Spanish government in Louisiana to receive roughly one million acres in the Ouachita Valley (present-day northern Louisiana) to settle European families and build flour mills. 1
The venture collapsed when Spain failed to provide promised funding, leading Bastrop to sell and transfer portions of the claim around 1800–1804.After the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, the validity of the grant was challenged in U.S. courts for decades. In December 1850, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the original agreement did not grant formal title to Bastrop. Congress later passed relief acts for long-term settlers who had lived on and cultivated the land for 20 years 2