(BILLINGS, Mont.) – To satisfy a debt owed to Montana for well over a century, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is taking the final steps needed to convey 5,816.63 acres of land to the State of Montana.

Under the Enabling Act of 1889, which admitted Montana into the Union, the state was entitled to receive sections 16 and 36 in each surveyed township. Some of those lands were already settled by homesteaders or set aside for other uses, such as Indian reservations and forest reserves. To fulfill the entitlement, Congress allowed the state to submit applications for other lands, with the...