The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-06-28
70 SAVE SWAMP LANDS
t,rsV CASE TO BE BROUGHT IN
FEDERAL COURT BY STATE
OFFICIALS
QUESTION OF MILLIONS
Settlers Permitted to Contest Title
to Property Granted the State
by Federal Govern
ment.

For several months contests against
state swamp lands have been flowing into
The attorney generals Office at the rate
of several a day. Hundreds of contests
have been instituted in the Duluth land
Office district against the states right to
swamp lands, on the ground that the
lands are not swamp. Gov. Lind, State
Auditor Dunn and the attorney general,
after several conferences, have decided
to bring q case in the FEDERAL courts to
test and decide for all time the states
title to these lands, and Gov. Lind yes
terday sent a long communication to At
toruey General Douglas, giving detail
cd history of the grant by which the state
acquired its swamp lands, and request
ing The state legal department to take the
matter into the federal courts as speed
ilv as possible. The state has tried
large number Of cases where the claim
has been set up by the contestant that
the lands We're not swamp, and, with
few exceptions, the state has lost, the
contestants proving that the lands were
subject to entry. The state, however, con-
tends that the selection Of these lands
was made in good faith, and while they
may possibly not be swamp now, at the
time the selections were made they would
come under this class.
AT any rate the frequency with which
The mails have brought contests from
the Duluth land Office has weared the
state officials, and unless something is
done TO throw these cases out of the land
Office, the state viii soon loose a large
part of its valuable timber area.
Pine Of all classes has reached such a
figure that all sorts of schemes are con-
trived to rob the state OF its valuable
holdings If the land office should con-
tinUe to decide cases in favor of the con-
testants where it is proven that the land
is not swamp, the precedent would result
I'm the states losing title to $25, O0O,O00 in
timber in a few years
The matter has been appealed time
and time again to the interior depart
ment but the state has been unable to Sc
cure any satisfaction whatever, and the
department refuses to stand by its orig
inal design, providing plan for the Sc
lection of these lands and the further
protection of the state.
The contention of the state Is that as
soon as lands were selected as swamp
lands the title Immediately passed to the
state, and forever after there remained.
The Duluth land office, however, has
recognized right along contests against
these lands, although, as a matter Of fact,
the title appears clearly vested in the
state. The matter will be Immediately
taken into the courts, and the Duluth
land office will be requested to give no
decisions until the case Is decided.
The state acquired these lands through
a territorial grant of Sept %, 1850, by
which all swamp and overfowed lands,
unfit for cultivation and unsold, were
granted to Minnesota by the federal gov
eminent. Considerable embarrassment
arose in the execution of the grant as
1t was difficult to determine which were
swamp and which arid lands. AS one Of
two alternatives the state accepted the
surveyors notes on file in the surveyor
generals office as a basis for the selection
Of the lands under the swamp grant.
Under this arrangement all selections Of
swamp lands have been made and 1t
Is only Of late that the department, with
out the consent Of the state, has de-
parted from this understanding, and has
permitted contests to be instituted to
show that the lands returned as swamp
were not in fact swamp, and therefore did
not belong to the state Under this rul-
ing the state is daily losing valuable tim
Der and mineral lands In the northern
part of the state, and the state officials
believe that the time has come when the
courts should be asked to enjoin the de-
partment of the interior from recogniz-
ing contests against state land.
GOV. Lind, in his communication to the
attorney general, after citing a number
Of authorities upon the subject, closes
with the following statement:
From these decisions, as well as up
on principles of common justice and fair
dealing, it IS evident to me that when
the United States surveyor general, on
basis of the survey and field notes
on file in his office, made a selection of
LANDS inuring to the state under the
swamp land act, the state became the
owner in fee of such lands, whether
formal certificate has been issued by the
commissioner of the general land office
awarding them to the state or not, and
that it IS competent for the state to
maintain an action for trespass or eject
ment for the protection or recovery of
such lands, and I would, therefore, most
respectfully recommend that this ques-
ton be Immediately tested either in the
state or federal courts, by the institu-
ton of an action in trespass or ejectment
against any person or persons who are
interfering with that class of lands.
either by pretended contest in the
general land office or otherwise To
obtain justice in the interior department
Is cut of the question"