Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1902-06-20
RUSH FOR LAND
FORT HALL, IDAHO, RESERvA-
TlON THROWN OPEN.
Nearly 1000 Men in Line-Every Conceiv.
able Kind of transportation Used to
Reach Land Otfice-Twenty.Se Seven Fill.
ings Were Made the First Day-Numer.
Gus Contests Expected.

Rlackfoot, Idaho, June 1S.- The
Fort Hall Indian reservation, including
las, 900 acres, nearly 100000 of which
consists of fine farming land, was
opened Tor settlement at noon yester-
day. Exactly on the hour of noon
nearly 1000 people, old men, boys,
Indians who had been waiting eagerly,
some of them for weeks, for the open
ing of the reservation, rushed across
the line in wild chaotic scramble for
land and mining claims. Every con-
ceiyable kind of transportation was
used. Many had arranged for relays of
horses in order to locate and get to
.Blackfoot land Office before others
could file, paying as much as $50 for
the use of one horse for few hours.
At Blackfoot before the noon hour,
immense crowds of spectators formed
in front of the land Office and in the
windows and On the roofs of adjoining
buildings, watching for the first ar
rivals.
j. R. Mullen and F. E. Dekay, OF
Pocatello, were the first arrivals.
Shortly after l O'Clock the spectators
saw cloud of dust rapidly approach
ing on the road stretching out to the
southwest. Soon two dirty, choking
riders were made out, whipping and
spurring, running neck and neck on
horses that seemed ready to drop dead
from exhaustion. Exact y one hour
and Is minutes from the time they
had left Pocatello., 26 miles away, the
-
from their horses in front of the land
office, Mullen securing the coveted first
position. Each man had used four
relays of horses en- route. They
finished not more than Is feet apart.
In spite of the vigilance of the dep
uties and reservation police, many
"sooners" succeeded in locating claims
and lined up with the others. Land
attorneys were busy all the afternoon
initiating contests on these claims.
At 2:40 P. NJ. the special train from
McCammon, run for the benefit of
those who had located claims, arrived
in Blackfoot over the Oregon Short
Line. 1t was packed to suffocation.
Men were on top of the coaches, on the
tender, on the locomotive pilot, every
where that afforded a hazardous foot
hold. Before the train stopped they
swarmed from the coaches like bees,
and all made a rush for the land
office. For over, an hour the force of
deputies were helpless, but finally
succeeded in forming the crowd into
line. Several '.grafters'' came up on
the train and got into line for the pur-
pose of selling their places. Most of
them came to grief in short order, the
officers pulling them out of line as soon
as they made offers of that kind. Only
27 filings were made yesterday. The
filing of one claim is completed
before another is taken up, and the
work is necessarily slow. The scram-
bic will continue today and for several
days, and numerous contests will un-
doubtedly take place. Everything was
quiet last night, however, and no
armed conflict is expected. The land
Office has adopted the plan of issuing
numbers to those in line, so that
place in the line once secured is good.
Several hundred were awaiting the
opening of the land office this morning.