# Looters of the Public Domain/Chapter 27

Chapter XXVII
WHILE to Ethan Allen Hitchcock, late Secretary of the Interior, unquestionably belongs the distinction of having inaugurated the crusade that has resulted in the complete subjugation of the plunderers of the public domain, it was Lewis E. Aubury, the State Mineralogist of California, who was among the first to call public attention to the gigantic depredations. And it is one of the ironies of fate that the overpowering avarice of these looters was responsible for their own untimely downfall. It was the fuse that ignited the chain of mines whose explosion has destroyed the strongholds of fraud.
Not content with grabbing all the vacant timber lands of Northern California that they could lay their hands on, with that reckless abandon creditable to a buccaneer of old, they overstepped the bounds of discretion, and seized upon the holdings of many poor old miners who had been in peaceful possession of their claims for a quarter of a century or more, and who felt secure in their property rights by reason of having complied with the laws in relation to assessment work upon their mineral entries, even though their claims were not patented.
It may be asked how it was legally possible for a person to be deprived of his property, or even assailed in his rights, after having worked a mining claim in good faith for upwards of 25 years, and it is this phase of the situation that I shall take the liberty of explaining. Under the present system, whenever a township is surveyed by the Government, it is supposed to be segregated in accordance with its well-known characteristics. For instance, if some portions were known to be mineral in character, they were returned as such, and title thereto could only be obtained through the mining laws of the United States, unless the mineral character of the land should be subsequently disproved in the course of an official investigation. Other parts of the township were returned as agricultural in character, title thereto being acquired under the homestead laws, while still other tracts might have been subject to overflow at the time the State was admitted into the Union, in consequence of which they were declared to be swamp and overflow lands, and subject to sale by the State by virtue of its sovereignty. In like manner the 16th and 36th sections of each township are returned as school lands, the proceeds of their sale going towards the maintenance of the public school funds of the State wherein the lands are situated. In fact, all the lands in the newly-surveyed townships are classified, and become subject to sale upon the basis of whatever return is made by the United States Surveyor-General for the district.
Practically all the public land surveys are made under contract, and by men who are generally unfamiliar with geological conditions. Thus, unless a tract is ​well-known to be mineral in character, and is notoriously operated for mining purposes at the time of survey of the township, it is just as liable to be returned as agricultural land as anything else, because the deputy surveyor, upon whose field notes the Surveyor-General always bases his returns, is usually in a hurry to get over as much ground as possible, and consequently pays no heed to geological conditions, even if he knew anything about them.
Under these circumstances, whenever mineral is found upon land that has been returned as agricultural, the process of acquiring title is very peculiar. In accordance with the mining laws of the United States, he is obliged to file his claim to the desired portion with the County Recorder of the County where the land is situated, and no record of his claim appears in the local United States Land Office until after the issuance of patent. By the performance of $100 worth of assessment work each year upon his claim, the locator can hold the same indefinitely, and these conditions prevailed to a large extent in Northern California in 1902, at which time the great rush by Eastern syndicates to grab up the valuable forests of that region had reached flood tide.
By reason of the lands having been returned as agricultural or timbered at the time of survey, and of the fact that there was no record in the Land Office of any unpatented mineral entries, the records of the Land Offices indicated that the tracts were vacant, and subject to location accordingly. Great train loads of "dummy" locators were brought out from the East to file on these lands under the timber and stone act of June 3, 1878, and in the grand scramble that ensued they went pell mell after everything" in sight in their efforts to get ahead of the other fellow, paying no heed to the clause in their applications requiring personal knowledge of the tract, and swallowing the required non-mineral affidavit with as much gusto as an ostrich would display in digesting a tomato can. Their operations finally became so emboldened that numerous complaints began to reach the California State Mining Bureau, and as time progressed the volume of these complaints increased at a corresponding ratio.
During this period I was employed upon the Los Angeles newspapers, and it was while thus engaged that State Mineralogist Aubury made a trip to that city for the purpose of conferring with me upon the subject of suppressing the wholesale depredations. He was aware that I had had considerable experience in public land matters, and besides we were friends of long standing. As a result of his visit, I proceeded northward under a commission as "Special Agent of the California State Mining Bureau," with power to investigate conditions and report my findings to Mr. Aubury. I took the field October 8, 1902, and in less than 30 days had submitted a report that revealed an awful state of affairs, the publication of which had the effect of opening the eyes of Secretary Hitchcock to the true situation. I drove for more than 600 miles through the mountainous districts of Northern California in a light buggy, in the course of which I traversed portions of Yuba, Butte, Sierra, Plumas, Lassen, Tehama, Shasta and Siskiyou counties.
While the looters of these magnificent forests had been swift in their operations, like any raiding organization, they left a well-defined trail behind them, and this it was an easy matter to follow. In fact, their work was so "raw," to use a common expression, that a blind man could not have failed to become cognizant of what was going on, and why they were allowed to operate in this fashion for such a length of time under the very nose of the Government, can only be explained upon the hypothesis that Binger Hermann was at that time Commissioner of the General Land Office.
by Mrs. Coult, his mother-in-law, who was not only chief clerk of the Land Office, but also the sister of Charles E. Swezy, an attorney who had for years dominated the affairs of the Governmental institution, and had practically, run things to suit himself.
My investigations indicated that out of a total of 170 forest reserve lieu selections filed at the Marysville Land Office since the Act of June 4, 1897, had gone into effect, aggregating 29,005.59 acres, Swezy had appeared as attorney of record for 160 thereof, embracing an area of 27,079.16 acres. Nearly all these ​selections had been made in the interest of Thomas B. Walker, a multi-millionaire lumberman of Minneapolis, Minnesota, who was reputed to be an intimate associate of James J. Hill, the great Northern Pacific railroad magnate. Swezy admitted to me that he had also filed forest reserve selections in the Susanville Land Office covering 70,000 acres, and 14,000 acres in the Redding district, or more than 110,000 acres altogether within a few months in behalf of Walker, who was likewise employing the services of other land agents in his efforts to grab all he could of the public domain, besides purchasing private holdings wherever obtainable within the scope of his operations. I traced fully 500,000 acres into Walker's hands, and my researches were only stopped by the Oregon Boundary. How much he got hold if in that and other heavily timbered states is a matter that would probably stagger the imagination, but it stands to the everlasting shame of the nation that grafting members of both branches of Congress have manipulated the public land laws in such a way as to equip the organized wealth of a single person with the power to acquire a territory so vast in extent that the feudal barons of old would appear like petty larcenists in comparison.
After gathering a sufficient amount of data at the Marysville Land Office tor all necessary purposes, I proceeded to Oroville, where I hired a livery rig, and for nearly a month occupied my time in traveling through the region mostly affected by the operations of the land-grabbers, in the course of my investigations, visiting the following places: Mooretown, Merrimac, Magalia, Inskip and Chico, Butte county; La Porte, Quincy, Crescent Mills, Taylorsville, Greenville, Prattville, Humbug Valley and Longville, Plumas county; Gibsonville, Table Mountain and Poker Flat, Sierra county; Yuba Dam, Yuba county; Red Bluff, Tehama county; Redding, Shasta county, besides other points of minor importance.
At nearly all of these places I remained long enough to listen to the grievances of the miners, and to make personal inquiry therein, as I had no desire to base m}' conclusions on hearsay evidence. I found that in practically every instance the State Mining Bureau had been correctly informed as to the character of the alleged interference with the rights of the miners, although it was soon apparent that the complaints of the latter in no material sense measured the extent of the depredations, much of which was uncovered by my subsequent examinations of the Land Office records of the Marysville, Susanville and Redding land districts. For example, I would note carefully the exact location in each section of the different unpatented mining claims, and after going over the land office records would compare the various forest reserve lieu selections under the Act of June 4, 1897. the timber and stone Act of June 3, 1878, and the State lieu selections, with the descriptions embraced in the unpatented mineral entries that I had obtained from the county records, and the result was appalling.
Aged and discrepit miners, who had earned a livelihood from their holdings for years, and who had, in many cases, reared large families thereon, found themselves in the merciless grasp of these inhuman plunderers, and liable in the sundown of their lives to be deprived of property that had been their only source of income for a score or more of years. General indignation prevailed when the real situation of affairs became apparent, and at several places, notably Gibsonville, Sierra county, and towns throughout Indian Valley, Plumas county, there existed a strong inclination in the direction of reviving the old lynch law spirit.
At Mooretown, Butte county, situated many thousands of feet above sea level, occurred one of the most prophetic episodes I ever experienced. It was somewhere near the middle of the month when I reached there, and the night was particularly brilliant under the radiant glare of a full October moon. Suddenly there was a darkened aspect, and in a seemingly magical way, as hardly any of the mountaineers had been made aware of the approaching phenomena, the heavens took on a murky appearance, and in an incredibly short space of time the lunar orb, which only a few moments previously had appeared so attractive to the eye as it floated majestically across the skies, was enshrouded by a pall of inky blackness, bringing me to a full realization of the fact that we were passing through the famous total eclipse of the moon of that year, and the event, unheralded as it seemed to be in a way, certainly made a deep impression upon me.
"It is the hand of destiny," I thought. "A shadow on the wall of coming events from Washington."
By the time I reached Quincy, the county seat of Plumas county, the whole country was ablaze with the report that President Roosevelt had issued an executive proclamation making provisional suspension of a vast extent of territory for forest reserve purposes, covering hundreds of square miles, and embracing millions of acres in the very heart of the affected district, and I felt absolutely certain that his action meant the beginning of the end of the reign of the looters, and that the Chief Executive of the nation, inspired by the instincts of providential power, had cast a mantle of suspension over this vast area that promised to eclipse every fraudulent effort to acquire its titles.
Under the provisions of the order of suspension, all further entries of public lands in the Susanville district were prohibited until such time as the Land ​Department in Washington had been afforded opportunity for makings investigation. It was a bitter pill for the timber thieves to swallow, and they did so with equal grace to that displayed by a shark in becoming reconciled to the unexpected loss of its prey.
Indignation meetings were cleverly arranged by those mostly interested in the operations of the looters, at which resolutions were adopted protesting against the action of the President in creating the reserves. The leading spirits at these demonstrations included the editors of local newspapers who had prospered inordinately under the stimulus of innumerable timber land notices; timber cruisers who were being paid enormous fees for their services, and hotel keepers and liverymen, temporarily intoxicated by the tonic of the wealth produced by the activity of the men who were robbing themselves and their children of their most magnificent heritage. They were bartering their birthright for a mess of pottage, but blindness to every consideration except selfish greed led them to kiss the chastening rod.
One of their principal arguments was that the creation of these forest reserves would ruin the mining industry, and it appeared to be a trump card in the game, because nearly everybody in that region was more or less interested in mining. Believing that the State Mining Bureau was primarily responsible for the changed conditions, as its representative I came in for a goodly share of censure, so that when I reached Greenville, in Plumas county, George Standart, one of their leading agitators, was waiting for me, primed with reasons why the reserves should not be created.
We engaged in a wordy combat to a finish in front of the local hotel, before an audience that represented practically every interest of the community, and I let him harangue the crowd to his heart's content upon the theory that the creation of the forest reserves would prevent further filing of mining locations. It was the one string to his oratorical fiddle, and he played upon it with an artistic zeal that would have done credit to a better cause. In words of pathos, he painted a dire picture of the people being shut up in these reserves like caged animals, and denied the right to acquire title to their mining property, or even explore undeveloped territory.
After he had finished with his masterly effort, I produced a small paper-covered volume that came from the Government printing office in Washington, and proceeded to read a few chapters from its pages for the edification of those gathered around me, with the result that my opponent received more than his full measure of ridicule from those who had previously championed his contentions. The pamphlet contained all the laws relating to the establishment of forest reserves, in which the fact was emphasized repeatedly that title to mining ground can be acquired in any forest reserve of the country, and prospecting prosecuted unmolested, where no other industry would be permitted to flourish excepting under annoying restrictions.
In view of the circumstances, it dawned upon the crowd that forest reserves were the most effective means of protecting them from the encroachment of the timber thieves, and they lost no time in making themselves heard upon the proposition. Eventually it became generally recognized that the policy of President Roosevelt in establishing these reserves was based upon sound principles of public welfare.
the Big Meadows of Plumas county, and here was where all the energies of the grabbers were concentrated, so that it was no wonder that in a very few months the public domain within a comparatively small territory was despoiled to the extent of a quarter of a million acres before the ravenous appetites for plunder had been half satisfied.
The United States Land Office was located in Susanville, and to show what effect the boom in timber lands had produced upon the business of the office, it is only necessary to refer to some of the financial returns. Within a period of nine months during 1902, 503 entries under the timber and stone act of June 3, 1878, had been filed, covering more than 80,000 acres. In addition, selections under the forest reserve lieu land Act of June 4, 1897, were made, amounting to 108,425.57 acres, while State lieu selections embracing more than 70,000 acres were also recorded, the whole aggregating a total area far in excess of 250,000 acres in a single land district since the rush began. The cash receipts of the Susanville Land Office for the quarter ending October 1, 1902, were $61,826.07, as against $4,613.62 for the preceding quarter, a gain of $57,212.45. Strange that all these facts did not arouse the suspicion of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, but then it must be understood that Binger Hermann at that time filled the position of Commissioner.
The town of Susanville was thronged with strangers upon my arrival, and they made no secret of their presence. All were there for the purpose of filing timber claims and afterward disposing of them in accordance with a prior arrangement, although the Act of June 3, 1878, under which they had made their locations, distinctly provides that the entryman must take the land up for his ​own use and benefit, and for the use and benefit of no other person or persons whomsoever, and that he has made no contract or agreement to sell the same. The 500 and more who had filed entries under this Act also made affidavits to this effect, and each and every one violated their oaths in almost the same breath they were given.
Whole families came to the Land Office with that object in view, and I encountered one instance where a man, his wife and four grown children had located timber claims and afterwards borrowed $2,500 from a local bank to make payment thereon, giving mortgages on the lands as security. This family had only a short time previously been refused credit for a sack of flour at the grocer's, and under ordinary circumstances the banker would have ordered them all ejected from the financial establishment for their audacity in seeking to borrow money upon such flimsy security, but upon this special occasion the eminent financier looked pleased to see them, and shelled out the coin with an eagerness that betokened its own conclusion. He had reason to be gratified with their patronage, too. because in his coffers was a certified check for an amount covering any sum that he was liable to be called upon to meet in the way of drafts of this character, and besides he was paid a handsome bonus for his services in acting as a "go-between" in the transaction that involved the commission of a direct fraud upon the Government. and of which he was fully cognizant at all stages of the proceedings to acquire these illicit titles.
Immediately after the issue of the final certificate, the tract became negotiable, and the entryman had no sooner emerged from the Land Office after making payment, than he was approached by an agent of the syndicate with an offer to purchase. In every case about the following stereotyped conversation would take place:
"I see that you have just paid up on your timber claim—would you like to sell it?" inquired the suave agent.
"I hadn't thought much about it," responded the timber claimant, with an air of assumed surprise, although it was notorious that he had filed on the land for the benefit of the agent's principals, had borrowed money from the bank with which to pay for it. that he knew had been deposited there by the man who was now negotiating with him. and he was aware also that his whole conversation on the subject with this individual was a lot of horse play that had been rehearsed beforehand many times.
"Well, I am buying up a few of these claims, and if you care to sell I will give you $600 for yours."
The bargain is struck forthwith, and they repair to a convenient notary, where the entryman transfers all his right, title and interest to some person or persons designated by the agent, and receives in payment therefor the note and mortgage he had given the bank less than 20 minutes previously, besides the difference in coin, and the iniquitous deal was concluded.
Another glaring fraud that came under my observation while at Susanville was the case of 16 locators who had gone to the Big Meadows country, a distance of 35 miles, for the purpose of making personal examination of each legal subdivision in order that they might "prove up" on their claims. The executive proclamation suspending entries in the Susanville district permitted final proofs to be made in every instance where the preliminary steps of that character had been taken, and it was essential that the two necessary witnesses should be prepared to testify that they were personally familiar with each legal subdivision contained in the particular entry for which they were witnesses. Usually where a number of persons located in a group this way, they would act as witnesses for each other, and the case at issue was no exception.
They left Susanville early one morning, and returned the following evening, having traveled 70 miles over a rough mountainous road, and during their absence were presumed to have made personal inspection of 16 quarter sections of land scattered over several distinct townships, miles apart, and situated in the ​T21N • R8E • M.D.M.
midst of the forest where fallen trees interfered with locomotion away from the roads to such an extent that it was practically impossible to make any progress with a vehicle. And yet those 16 persons went before the Register of the United States Land Office upon their return, and with hands uplifted to high heaven, solemnly swore that they had just passed over each and every legal subdivision embraced in the different entries, knowing full well that they were committing perjury, and that to do what they had just sworn they had done, would have involved at least a week's effort.
seemed disposed to know or care who or what I was, or anything about my mission, openly discussing the ruling prices for making these timber entries pretty much in the same manner that Wall street brokers would talk about the rise and fall of the stock market.
One man was particularly jubilant over the fact that he had secured the top figure—$300 bonus—not only for himself and wife, but for his two daughters as well, and was returning to his Wisconsin home $1200 better off than when he came out. in addition to having the expenses of a three weeks' vacation trip paid by the syndicate that had corrupted himself and those supposed to be dear to him.
Another person, of the Hebrew persuasion from San Francisco, was bemoaning his ill-luck in having got caught in the President's order of suspension before having a chance to locate his entire family on timber claims. It was amusing to hear him carry on about the matter, and in the bitterness of his heart, every branch of the Government, from the Chief Executive down, came in for a share of condemnation in having deprived him of the divine privileges of earning a few dishonest dollars.
county, capable of supplying the markets of the world, besides establishing the town of Stirling on its holdings. It has proceeded along scientific lines in the care and management of its property, and by purchase from private ownership, and through other sources, has acquired a body of magnificent timber, aggregating more than 75,000 acres.
Of all those who profited by the efforts to gobble up immense tracts of the public domain, it may be said in justice to the Diamond Match Company that it was the only one of the quartet of plunderers that has since proven of any special benefit to the community. This corporation has gone ahead and done something tangible, and by its fixed purpose of industry has earned the gratitude of the community, while the others have been merely a detriment to the development of the country so far as any practical benefits are concerned. Their broad domains are lying idle today, and are rendering to humanity no more legitimate returns than are embodied in the growth of a cancer.
I found conditions at the Redding Land Office similar to those existing at Susanville, with the exception that there was no suspension of public entries. In consequence timber filings and forest reserve lieu selections were pouring in by the hundreds, and an extra force was required to handle the increased business.
In Township 28 North, Range 3 East, Mt. Diablo Base and Meridian, the Curtis, Collins & Holbrook Company made a forest reserve lieu selection embracing nearly 13,000 acres, and when it is considered that an entire township of thirty-six square miles contains but 23,040 acres, it can be readily perceived that some of the big thieves of ancient history, were they in any position to express an opinion upon the subject, would feel amazed at their own moderation.
from as far as possible, I paid no especial heed to the number or extent of fraudulent timber entries in any of the land districts. It was none of my business to undertake to expose any of these fraufiulent transactions, and I exceeded my authority in doing so; but the methods of these looters were too rank to go unnoticed altogether, and I considered that one of the fundamental aids to my own cause was in pointing out the manifest weaknesses of those I was seeking to deter from menacing the mining industry.
There is nothing quite so effective in the suppression of vice or wrongdoing in any form as wholesale exposure. Turn on the light of publicity and there is a general scurrying to cover of every instinct of rascality. I never knew it to fail, and the present instance was no exception.
At Redding I wrote a full report of my observations to State Mineralogist Anbury, covering all phases of the situation, and containing about 10.000 words. It was not only given a wide range of publicity through all the San Francisco newspapers, but copies were sent to President Roosevelt, Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock, Commissioner of the General Land Office Hermann, besides various civic organizations, including the Sacramento Valley Development Association, which had all along been a staunch ally of the State Mining Bureau in its efforts to prevent the iniquitous absorption of mining claims by timber speculators, and to suppress fraudulent land operations of whatsoever character. In addition, copious extracts from the report were made by the interior press of California, and for months its contents formed the subject matter for wide discussion.
H. Burke, of Colorado, then acting as Inspector of United States Surveyor-Generals and District Land Offices, had been sent out by Commissioner Hermann for the purpose of investigating- my charges ' against the officials of the Marysville Land Office, and was desirous of consulting me upon the subject. A meeting was arranged accordingly for the next morning, and the first remark Inspector Burke made to me after our formal introduction was:
"Just see what you have gone and done, Mr. Stevens,—you are going" to make me lose my Christmas turkey!" and his face assumed a look of woe that was sad to contemplate.
Here was a man. occupying one of the most important Federal positions within the gift of political pull, who was worrying for fear he would not get home in time to partake of Christmas cheer.
As I regarded him standing there, holding in his hand a telegram from Commissioner Hermann instructing him to interview me relative to my specific charges against the Marysville Land Office, with his monstrous paunch protruding in a mute appeal for the good things of life, and overshadowing all demands of official duty, I could not help wondering if it ever occurred to him that perhaps some of the old miners up in the mountains were worrying about their homes, and I could not see how he could relish his Christmas turkey when the feast was haunted by any such apparition.
I could not help thinking about the kind of a show the miners would have in the adjudication of their rights as against the wholesale wrongs of the rich timber thieves, especially with such a man sitting in judgment upon the issues involved; and as I remembered some of the sorrowful tales that had been related to me by men who had passed the best years of their lives in developing their claims, inspired by the hope of some day striking it rich, only to be rudely awakened by the coming of the looters, it made my blood boil to think that they were at the mercy of one whose belly outweighed every consideration of justice.
Inspector Burke visited Marysville and remained one day. taking his departure with such vivid promptness that he was enabled after all to make close connections on his Christmas turkey. Whether he went near the Land Office or not, is a mooted question, but in any event he submitted a report, based upon conclusions after a few hours of observation, and passed judgment upon findings that had taken me several days to reach. My experience with matters relating to ​the public domain covered a period of more than 20 years, while all that Burke did not know about Land Office records would make a book of such huge proportions that this volume would resemble a vest pocket edition of a postage stamp in comparison. And yet, he had the audacity to say in his report to the Commissioner of the General Land Office that my charges were based upon personal prejudice against the Land Office officials.
Before he left for Marysville I had given him a written memoranda at his request, telling him where he could find each book bearing upon my charges, but if he ever went near the office he certainly made no personal examination for the simple reason that it would have been a physical and mental impossibility for him to have done so in the limited time he took from his turkey.
So far as any prejudice against the Land Officials is concerned, I never met any of them prior to my inspection, and the only acquaintance I had there was with Attorney Charles E. Swezy, hitherto referred to, who had been associated with me at Bakersfield, Cal., in the fight against the oil men, and had 1 been inclined to favor anybody it most certainly would have been one with whom I had long been on terms of intimate friendship.
Commissioner Hermann sustained Inspector Burke in his report, and then the officers of the State Mining Bureau got exceedingly busy. Most of them had personal knowledge that my charges were true, and President William C. Ralston, of that institution, declared war on the whitewashing policy of the Land Department. He went to Washington forthwith, and, accompanied by United States Senator George C. Perkins, of California, called upon Commissioner Hermann, and endeavored to dissuade him from perpetrating a wrong by upholding Burke's false findings.
They received a most frigid reception from Hermann, so it is said, and in view of subsequent events connecting the ex-Land Commissioner with Oregon indictments for complicity in the frauds, the action of Hermann is not at all surprising. It would never do to let the light of day shine on any transaction where he was liable to be concerned, and so the head of the public land service sought in every way possible to stave off what he must have then realized was the judgment day. That accounts for his motive in frowning on every effort to probe for the facts.
He reckoned without his host, however, in his dealings with Ralston. That individual, famed for his aggressive spirit, was all the more determined to sift the matter to the bottom, with the result that he succeeded in interesting President Roosevelt upon the subject. In response to the Chief Executive's direction. Secretary Hitchcock dispatched S. G. Ruby, Special Inspector of the Interior Department, and a man in whom he had the most implicit confidence, to the scene, and, after making a thorough investigation, Mr. Ruby sustained me in every particular.
One of the fruits of Ruby's report was the enforced retirement of F. E. Johnson as Register of the Marysville Land Office as soon as his term of office expired a short time after these occurrences; and the following Associated Press dispatch, taken from the San Francisco Bulletin of November 11, 1903. tells its own story as to what happened to Burke:
   LAND AGENT BURKE IS ALLOWED TO RESIGN.
   Secretary of the Interior Was Dissatisfied With the Work Done in the Marysville Land Fraud Cases.
Nor was the enforced retirement of Register Johnson and Inspector Burke the only fruits of the exposure of affairs at the Marysville Land Office. It was practically the beginning of the friction between Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock and Commissioner of the General Land Office Hermann, which culminated in the latter's expulsion from the position, and the appointment of W. A. Richards to till the place.
After Hermann's peremptory removal as head of the Land Department, he retired to private life, but at the next election sought vindication at the hands of the people of his Congressional district, which was accorded him in a manner that must have been extremely gratifying to his personal vanity, as he was elected by a large majority. The campaign was productive of some dark hints of Hermann's unworthiness, but these rumors had little effect upon the opinions of voters.
What added to the popularity of the ex-Land Commissioner was the fact that while making his canvass during the summer of 1903, President Roosevelt visited Oregon in the course of a tour of the Pacific Coast, and upon this occasion Mr. Hermann practised the clever deception that is referred to heretofore, wherein the disgraced former Land Commissioner succeeded in having himself photographed with the President on the rear platform of the Presidential train.
In the course of a recent interview with a St. Paul newspaper, Thomas B. Walker rushes to the aid of down-trodden millionaires in this fashion:
   "Hill is entitled to 10,000 times more credit for his work in the Northwest than is William Van Horne and other men who have played similar parts in Canada. Yet Van Horne and some of his associates have been knighted and honored by the British government and Hill is attacked and condemned by the farmers of the Northwest. As a matter of fact the Hill merger of the Northern Pacific, Great Northern and Burlington was the only thing which prevented St. Paul and other Minnesota cities from becoming mere way stations on transcontinental lines owned and controlled by Harriman.
   "One of the best citizens in the United States is John D. Rockefeller. He is honorable, just and fair. He is a good Christian. There is no better thumbed Bible in the country than that of the oil king. He knows and loves the Scriptures. And yet how he is reviled by the unthinking!"
It was during my trip through the northern counties of California for the State Mining Bureau that I became cognizant of one of the most brazen attempts to grab a large body of public and private land that ever came under my observation. My attention was first called to the situation while at Oroville, which seemed to have been the head center of the scheme, as the idea originated there, and it was at this place where most of its leading promoters resided. In brief, the proposition was for eight men to file on twenty acres of land each under the United States placer mining laws, pooling their issues in a single claim of 160 acres, and continuing in this manner until they had secured all the land they required for their purposes. By this method they could apparently locate the entire universe, or at least that portion of it within the jurisdiction of Uncle Sam, as the statutes governing mineral entries seemingly place no limit upon the number of claims eight persons could thus locate.
At all events, I ascertained that H. H. Yard, J. P. Cleary, W. Haines, F. E. Emlay, N. J. Conover, R. T. Hall, W. E. Allen and W. S. Jackson had already filed upon more than 100,000 acres in Butte and Plumas counties by this process, with several counties yet to hear from; and it developed afterward that they increased their holdings to upward of 265,000 acres before their lust for land had been fully satisfied.
Cleary, Haines, Emlay, Conover, Allen and Jackson were all residents of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York, while Yard and Hall claimed Oroville as their legal place of abode.
​Although the placer mining laws in themselves placed no obstacle, apparently, in the way of a group of locators securing an almost endless quantity of land by this method, as a matter of fact, the decisions of the higher courts of various States took a different view of the matter. Here is how the tribunals ruled in several well-known cases:
   "A placer location, even though taken by legal subdivisions, is required by law to be staked or marked on the ground."—Gregory vs. Pershbaker; 73, Cal., 109.
   "The location of placer claims, using the names of persons as co-locators who are not intended to have any real interest, but who are to convey the rights after location (commonly called dummy locators) is a fraud upon the Government."—Mitchell vs. Cline; 84, Cal.. 409.
   "A mere posting of notice on a ridge of rocks cropping out of the earth, or on other ground, that the poster has located thereon a mining claim, without any discovery or knowledge on his part of the existence of metal there or in its immediate vicinity, would be justly treated as a mere speculative proceeding, and would not of itself initiate any right. There must be something beyond a mere guess on the part of the miner to authorize him to make a location which will exclude others from the ground, such as the discovery of the precious metals in it, or in such proximity to it as to justify a reasonable belief in their existence."—Erhardt vs. Boaro; 113, U. S., 527.
Beginning at a point a few miles north of Oroville, the foregoing locators had filed on a strip of land for five miles on either side of the North Fork of the Feather river to its intersection with the east branch of the stream; thence along the latter to the town of Shoo Fly, in Plumas county, where Spanish Creek empties into the east branch of Feather river. Later they continued their operations by covering practically all the territory existing between that point and Beckwith Pass, in spite of the howl of disapproval that was raised against their unwarranted proceedings. It seems they took scant heed of existing rights, but filed indiscriminately over everything that came in their path, including private property of all kinds, patented ground, tracts embraced in railroad grants, besides everything else that got in their way, upon the broad and impartial basis that all was fish that came to their nets.
The locations, when actually made in the field by Surveyor B. L. McCoy and his crews, comprised the posting of notices on contiguous corners of quarter sections, along the section and township lines. The notices were on printed blanks of the simplest form, filled in with the legal subdivisions claimed, and with the names of the same eight locators constantly repeated, except in a few instances. Two witnesses were generally provided from the surveyor's crew.
A close inspection of the ground afterward by one of the field assistants of the State Mining Bureau indicated that only a limited portion of the notices were actually posted, the balance being simply "paper locations" put on record but not placed on the ground. None of the location notices recited the discovery of mineral, described corner stakes, or in fact carried out any of the technical provisions of the statutes.
While the locations were manifestly invalid, they answered the scarecrow purpose for which they were intended, and as a result the region affected by their iniquitous touch has ever since been closed to prospectors and consequent mineral development. It is seldom that an honest miner, intending to engage in the legitimate calling of his pursuit, will seek to enter a field where there is strong probability of endless litigation; so the consequences are that Yard and his associates have been permitted for the past six years to maintain a genteel system of blackmail in the interest of the Goulds.
Although the promoters of this vast system of mineral locators are known to have expended considerable money in making surveys and otherwise performing assessment work upon their claims, it soon became evident that the mining feature was not the real object of their tremendous activity, and in my report to State Mineralogist Anbury covering their operations I pointed out that what they were doing looked very much as if they were paving the way for some railway route.
As that time I had no idea of the magnitude of their scheme, nor had anybody else save those on the inside, my theory being that they contemplated the construction of some local electric line into the Big Meadows country in order to tap the rich timber belt of the region. It has since transpired, however, that Yard and his associates were acting in the interest of the Goulds, and were merely hewing a pathway for the coming of the Western Pacific, the new transcontinental line in process of construction at the present time. This feature of the situation is covered by the following special dispatch appearing in the Sacramento Evening Bee of July 1. 1905:
   OROVILLE (Butte Co.), July 1.—An important business transaction was completed here this morning, when the interests of the North California Mining Company were turned over to the Western Pacific Railway Company. The North California Mining Company was organized by H. H. Yard, who located about 800 mineral claims in Butte and Plumas Counties. As Yard was known to be Gould's head man, and Gould was known to be a main factor in the Western Pacific, the position of the North California Company has been the subject of considerable speculation.
No sooner had State Mineralogist Anbury become apprised of the situation through the medium of my report than he lost no time in endeavoring to put a stop to the scheme. He was honest enough in his undertaking, and perhaps in the next generation or so the Government may succeed in securing the cancellation of all the bogus mineral entries, but in the meantime all the mischief has been done, because, through their bold operations—paved with good intentions, but cleverly masking a gigantic fraud—the originators of the idea have warded off all interference with the plans of the Western Pacific, thus enabling that railway corporation to secure a route through the Sierra Nevada mountains second to none in the matter of economic grade.
The Lament of the Old Sour Dough
I've trudged, and I've starved, and I've frozen, All over this white, barren land— Where the sea stretches straight, white, and silent, Where the timberless white mountains stand— From the white peaks that gleam in the moonlight. Like a garment that graces a soul. To the last white sweep of the prairies. Where the black shadows brood round the Pole.
(Now, pray don't presume from this prelude That a flame of poetical fire Is to burst from my brain like a beacon, For I've only been tuning my lyre To the low, sad voice of a singer Who's inspired to sing you some facts About the improvements in staking And the men who mine with an ax.)
I've panned from Peru to Point Barrow, But I never located a claim Till I'd fully persuaded my conscience That pay dirt pervaded the same; And this is the source of my sorrow. As you will be forced to agree. When you learn how relentless Misfortune Has dumped all her tailings on me.
I worked with my pardner all summer, Crosscutting a cussed cold creek, Which we never once thought of locating Unless we located the streak; And when, at the close of the season, We discovered the creek was a fake, We also discovered the region Had nothing left in it to stake.
We traversed the toe-twisting tundra. Where reindeer root round for their feed, And the hungry Laplanders who herd them Devour them before they can breed. Here it seemed that good claims might be plenty, And we thought we would stake one—perhaps; But we found to our grief that the gulches Were staked in the name of the Lapps.
A hundred long leagues to the northward. O'er the untrodden, sun-burnished snow, We struggled, half-blind and half famished. To the sea where the staunch whalers go. ​We found there broad beaches of ruby
And mountains with placers and leads;
But all save the sky was pre-empted
By salt-water sailors and Swedes.
Then we climbed the cold creeks near a mission
That is run by an agent of God,
Who trades Bibles and prayer-books to heathens
For ivory, sealskins, and cod.
At last we were sure we had struck it,
But alas! for our hope of reward— The landscape from seabeach to sky-line
Was staked in the name of the Lord!
We're too slow for the new breed of miners,
Embracing all classes of men.
Who locate by power of attorney
And prospect their claims with a pen;
Who do all of their fine work through agents
And loaf around town with the sports,
On intimate terms with the lawyers.
On similar terms with the courts.
We're scared to submission and silence
By the men the Government sends
To force us to keep law and order,
While they keep claims for their friends,
And collect in an indirect manner
An exceedingly burdensome tax— Assumed for a time by the traders.
And then transferred to our backs.
We had some hard knocks on the Klondike
From the Cub-lion's unpadded paws,
And suffered some shocks from high license
And other immutable laws;
But they robbed us by regular schedule.
So we knew just what to expect.
While at Nome we're scheduled to struggle
Until we're financially wrecked.
I'm sick of the scream of the Eagle
And laws of dishonest design,
And Fm going in quest of a country
Where a miner can locate a mine;
So when I have rustled an outfit
These places will know me no more.
For I'll try my luck with the Russians
On the bleak Siberian shore.