The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1901-07-19
mlrcHELL's BIG CONTRACT.
Has Seven Hundred Miles Of Fence to
Tear Down by August 6.

Tear Down by August 6.
Fort sill, Okla, july 19-E. f..
Mitchell, the big catpeu.an of El
Reno. has huge contract on his
hands. He must tear down 700 miles
Of wire fence, wrap it on spools and
'ellver it TO the Indian agencies and
ia the Kiowa. Comanche and Apache
countries by August 6. He now has
iO5 men and AZ teams at work and
says he will complete the contract ON
schedule time or bust gallus.'
When the Indians controlled the three
reservations they leased the lands to
cattlemen for pasturage at 10 cents an
acre year The cattlemen had to
fence the pastures, and their con
tracts provided that the fences should
80 to the Indians when their leases
expired by limitation or by the inter
ference of the federal government. In
this instance the government stepped
Ia and cancelled the leases In order
TO open the country the fences had to
come down. The Indians were not
able to take them down and in fact
didn't care to fool with them So the
government had to do it. 1t adv rtis.
ed for bids for the contract. The Of
fcials expected to divide up the work
among several bidders Mr.. Mitchell
BID for the whole thing and his bid
was the lowest The officials wanted
him to split up the work. He said he
would do it all or none and wc4iu
enter into bond to do it within tAe re-
quired time. His bid was accepted
and he "a now at work
1T is probably the largest contract
ever undertaken in this country"
said he today But / will finish it by
August g. The zoo miles Of fence has
from three to four wires, so 1 will
have to spool about $500 miles Of
wire and deliver it to the agencies
The average haul will be fifteen miles
Some Of it will have TO be hauled
thirtynye miles"
Arrangements have been made
whereby the cattlemen win have more
time to get their cattle out Of the new
country than rney expected to have
Their rights TO he lands expired on
July L. Had the contract to remove
the fences been awarded to several
different parties the cattlenen would
have been compelled to get their cattle
out within a week, as the partie<
would begin tearing down fences in
all directions. After Mr.. Mitchell got
the contract he arranged with the cat
tlemen not 20 touch the fences on two
sides Of the country until the very
last moment This win enable them
to rouna them up by easy stages this
hot weather and get them out.
or the 100000 acres of land reserved
by the government 100000 acres lie
on the Red river $4,000 acres just
west OF Duncan, $4,000 acres in the
Kelche hills and 22.5O0 acres on
Teepee creek For the temporary re-
lief OF the cattlemen the government
has given them authority TO use the re
serves until next April Today the
government agents and the cattlemen
held conference and divided up the
reserve
Frank Weaver gets the tract west
OF Duncan. Connell Bros. were allot.
ed the tract on Teepee creek. WIN.
lam Wade. suggs Bros. Tom Wagner
and Burt Burnett each gets 100 900
acres OF the big tract Indians.
squawmen and small cattlemen gen.
orally viii have the reserve in the
Keichi hills This arrangement is sat
lsfactory all around, and there viii be
no more trouble from the cattlemen.
They made hard fght for months to
keep their pastures, bat lost No one
who has gone over the new country