These states sold the land tracts to private parties to raise funds for canal construction.
[1] The federal government initiated donations to the states for internal improvements with the Ohio Enabling act in 1802.
States wanted to build canals to connect the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River basin.
The 500,000-acre (2,000 km2) grant was applied to construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal in the eastern half of the state.
[7] The United States granted more than one million acres (4,000 km²) for military wagon roads in the nineteenth century.