Quick Facts
Quick Facts About the University Lands
Brief Timeline of PUF Lands
The lands for Texas' Permanent University Fund (PUF) "consist of three grants that were appropriated from the public doman for the establishement and support of a University of Texas."1
| December 20, 1833 | President Mirabeau B. Lamar made an address to the Third Congress of the Republic of Texas, urging the Congress to establish the foundation of a vast system of education. |
| January 26, 1839 (Grant #1) | Set aside fifty leagues (approx. 220,000 acres) of land for the establishment and endowment of a university. See the map, Location of the Original Fifty Leagues. 2 |
| 1876 The State of Texas Constitution (Grant #2) | Called for the creation of the University of Texas (UT); appropriated 1 million arcres of land for the establishment of a Permanent University Fund (PUF). |
| 1883 (Grant #3) | Added an additional 1 million acres to the PUF lands. |
| 1923 | Discovered oil from the first completed well, Santa Rita No. 1, in Reagan County. |
| 1929 | The Board for Lease of University Lands was created by the Texas Legislature, transferring oil and gas management authority to the Board from the Texas General Land Office. |
| 1949 | The management authority for all minerals other than oil and gas was transferred from the Texas General Land Office to the University of Texas System Board of Regents. |
See also: History of the UT System -- Chronology of Events
Acreage of the University Lands
See also: Area Map of PUF Lands
See also: Area Map of PUF Lands
Since 1929, the equivalent of all 2.1 million acres of PUF lands has been leased and re-leased 2.2 times for oil and gas exploration by the Board for Lease of University Lands.
| County | Acre | County | Acre | County | Acre |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andrews | 293,029 | Crane | 65,244 | Crockett | 368,523 |
| Culberson | 46,421 | Dawson | 163 | Ector | 6,317 |
| El Paso | 11,745 | Gaines | 2,805 | Hudspeth | 493,405 |
| Irion | 25,353 | Loving | 25,881 | Martin | 16,687 |
| Pecos | 190,863 | Reagan | 218,105 | Schleicher | 61,835 |
| Terrell | 61,885 | Upton | 86,429 | Winkler | 49,036 |
| Ward | 81,047 | Total Acres: | 2,104,772 | ||
1 Haigh, Berte R. Land, Oil, and Education (El Paso: Texas Western Press, the University of Texas at El Paso, 1986), iii.
2 Ibid., 9.
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