A simple connection links the identity of the land to a useful purpose. Backroom deals and political machinations give the land, instantly, a new identity, independent of its history. This is land laundering.

Exxon -- the former Humble Oil Company -- donates land to Rice University, which in turn offers it to the government: land available, of suddenly impeccable pedigree, located, conveniently enough, in Vice President Johnson's home state of Texas.

With the change of title, rice fields and cattle pastures have instantly become a "campus" of an august institution: an ideal place for the space effort's headquarters. As happens so many other places, the land is scraped clean and given a new identity. The signs go up, the bulldozers and earth movers come out, and the land is made new.