The weekly tribune., 1892-02-13
MIX. sTUART's WORK.
The state Land Commissioner States tho
Difficulties Under Which He i.abor,,

The state Land Commissioner States tho
Hon. Granville Stuart, state land com
missioner, arrived in the city from Hell
ena on Yesterdays east-b bound train. Mr..
Stuart will leave this morning for Belt
creek to view forty acres of a school sec
ton. which is being claimed as coal lands
In reply to a question by a TRIBUNE rep
resentative as to the progress he is max
ing in the selection of lands granted for
various purposes to the state under the
said
"Undcr the admission act the state is
entitled 10 G22.Ou0 acres Of land. My
duty Is to select these lands and, incl
dcntally. to look over and make Il ,opo-
graphical survey of the surveyed school
lands and the aevcnty-two sections of
university lands. the latter of which
were selected in lSS.i, and to report their
location, character of soil. availability as
agricultural lands. etc. have travelled
over 5000 miles on horseback in the
work before me and expect 10 travel
many Thousand miles more before il
can be completed. have made Il
great many selections Of land, but
the present prospects are that
many. very many. of them
will not hold. The trouble is that the
Great Northern extension has iiOOled
the tlathcaa country with an army of
timber Hand locatora. who have squattcd
upon my selections about as fast az
made them. We asked Secretary Noble
to Withdraw from settlement such town
ships as | selected in the i'lathead cOun-
| try, but he refused. being inclined to
! give settlers tn" preference in the choice
! oi lands.
During Governor Ioolc's recent visit
! to Washington he succeeded, however.
! in pcrsuadinG the secretary to Withdraw
six townships from the northern portion
o. the Flathcad valley. subject to the
claims Of those already upon the lands.
! There are but few. however upon them,
ana we are sure of that much anyway.
But do no. think We will get one-tcnth
| of the other selections made. have
| been in the country about forty years.
| but have never seen during that time
such ii scramble for lands as is now be-
ing made on the line OF the Great North
crn west Of the range. il is astonishing
how they are squattcd upon. They are
wanted for the timber upon them. for it
would take an ordinary lifetime to make
the lands iii for farming: they are
covered with such dense growth of
timber.
The fact is Montana was about year
too late in being admitted as state. If
we had been admitted before. our sciec-
Il Il l.
drawn for surveys in advance OF the
present rush Of timber land seekers.
There is. however. nothing to do now
but to make the best of the situation
and select the remaining 100000 acres
due as best We may. Next season
/ shall look over the
northern and eastern portions of the
state. There are some fine agricultural
lands in those sections which may be
obtained for the state
Mr.. Stuart added that the difficulties
in the work before him were increased by
the evident reluctance of the govern
mcnt to pay Il living price for surveying
lands in the state. II the lands were
surveyed, or if the interior department
would withdraw from settlement the
lands selected, the situation would be
simplitied. As it is. every selection |
now make on unsurveycd lands may be
jumped or squattcd upon by settlers and
the state has no redress. 1t must be
content with what il can get. In con
clusion Mr. Stnart said consolation
may be found in the fact that Montana
is a big state 1t contains somewhere
near 93,O0O,O00 acres of land and it will
he surprising if 100000 acres of pretty
good land cannot be found and credited
up to the state before the inevitable. ir
rnprcssiblc land hunter fastcns upon it
all Mr.. Stuart is looking extremely
well and rs enjoying excellent health
which he attributes to his constant out
door work The gentleman is a faithful
officer and is doing good work for the
state.