The Courier. (Genoa, Nev.) 1899-1904, 1903-06-05

dian Creek runs large bodies of water
the year around, measuring as high as
l65 inches at the driest period in the
history of the country, September IA,
1898.
The West Fork of the Carson river
at said date, measured above the Dia-
mond Valley bitches, contained about
ESQ inches, and averagely contains at
said period between 1000 and 1900
inches
When the plaintiffs first settled they
raised vegetables and grain from creek
waters flowing down the mountain
sides, and raised hay on the bottom
lands of the Carson river, and also
raised cattle, and required all the hay
they could cut.
The waters of the Carson river
naturally overflowed i'm the spring of
the year, and after the waters receded,
it left good hay land. As their de-
mands grew apace for more hay, and
as the country became better settled,
they improved their hay and increased
their acreage, by cutting logs and
| throwing them across the river or
sloughs, and filling in with brush, and
damming the water back some dis
tance and cutting bitches in the high
banks of the river, and spilling the
water on the land and into smaller
sloughs and leading it around over the
higher lnolls and when the price of
hay jumped IN 1860, they went wild
over it. But the dams We're not all
temporary affairs. ID. Il. Jones built
dam in 1855 that stands ut the same
place to-day. There was n number of
good dams built in 1859 and 1860 by
the plaintiffs that could turn out more
water than the West Fork ever con-
tains during the summer period of ir-
rigation. The flood of ls6l-62 washed
out all the dams, and in 1863 they were
rebuilt, more substantially.
The irrigating and eultivating sea-
sons are about two weeks longer
among the plaintiffs than among the
Diamond Valley defendants, and about
the same among the Fredericksburg
defendants as among the plaintiffs
The lands OF the plaintiffs are more
level. and easier and cheaper to get
water ON, and require less, and raise
better crops than those of the de
Pendants in Diamond Valley, and are
nearer to market, and far more invit-
ing to the settler. The roads down
Carson canyon to plaintiffs lands are
not good for heavy teaming.
The banks OF the river on the lands
of the plaintiffs, north of Settelmeyer's
south line, are generally higher than
the land adjoining, caused by the an
nual deposit of sediment as the waters
recede; so that by cutting through the
high banks, and damming and Great
ing pond back from the dam, and
tapping the bank with a ditch, great
deal of land could be irrigated after
the waters receded by comparatively
small effort The slope generally,
from the river is to the west, so that
the land irrigated is really lower at
the westermost parts of the colored
lands on the map than near the river.
All colored lands of the plaintiffs are
irrigated from the West Fork waters
and its sloughs and branches.
The Government surveys were made
in 1864, and Immediately thereafter
most of the earliest squatters applied
for their patents.
When the lands of plaintiffs and de-
PENDANTS at Fredericksburg were first
settled upon, the squatters located ac-
cording to the compass, for their north
and south and east and west lines, and
they located in the manner yet shown
by the land of Scossa Brothers, Bemis,
Deluchi and Neddenriep and Bassman
of the defendants. But after the sur
yeys were made most of them squared
their lands according to the surveys
by deciding back and forth to each
other. They also attempted to take
up land so as to run back to the river,
for the advantages the same afforded
The plaintiffs and their grantors
took up land under the Mormon law
which allowed each family section of
land.
The custom of conveying land up to
the time that the same was surveyed
almost was by bill of sale, or by barter
Il Continued on second page.