The Meeker herald. [volume] (Meeker, Colo.) 1885-current, 1903-04-04
After the Lily
Park Settlers,
The Wells-Fareo Company COM
mences its fight for the
ownership Of Lily
Park.

Denver Post.
The latest feature Of land selling In
Routt county is to enter a mans al
falfa field, take possession Of the
houses and file on the property Mt the
Glenwood land Office.
Thirty-two such cases IRE involved
in petition filed in the United
States circuit court this morning by
State Senator Edward T. Taylor of
Glenwood Springs for the Lily Park
Stock Growing association. The
point involved is an erroneous survey,
whether by Uncle Sam or by Routt
county is yet to be determined.
Thirty-two ranches that have been
cultivated and grown rich in product
during the last twenty years have
been ordered to the hills, as it We're,
bv Preston King, surveyor Of Routt
county, and settlers have taken pos
session of the green fields and irriga-
ton system on which fortunes have
been spent.
If the court decides tie survey of
the country to be correct, half of the
entire empire Of Routt will have to
be resurveyed and half the property
along the new Moffat road as well
will be in complicated mess. II
the governments figures are found
to be wrong, claims heretofore located
will be open for settlement, no mat
ter how well improved.
The case filed today is against the
following persons who have settled
on the Lily Park Stock Growing as
sociation's lands, it is asserted:
James S. Barnes, Martha A. Barnes,
Frank c. Barnes, Raymond Perkins,
Thema Lydiard, Thomas b. Blevins,
Myron Robbins, Joseph b. Moore,
William I. Mack, Reid J. Moore,
William S. Baker, Thomas Trevenen,
Guy F. Higgins, James P. Chapman,
Joseph McJunkin, Homer Walker,
Elijah b. Thompson, Frank Evans,
William q. Mount, George Wheeler,
Henry c. Wheeler, Thomas f. String,
Theodore F. Dewitt, George c. Ban
ming, Charles E. Hoban, Henry A.
Shank, Walter Ames, John H. Davis,
the unknown heirs of Carl O. Veg
rich, deceased, and Preston King az
county surveyor Of Routt county.
Beginning in 1881 and extending
over period Of two or three years,
settlers went into fertile valley at
the junction of the Bear and Snake
rivers in Routt county near the Utah
line, and soon had under cultivation
n valley from one-half to three miles
wide and about ten miles long. Then
came John w. Lowell, former state
auditor, representing syndicate of
Salt Lake City capitalists, and pur-
chased the land. There were thirty
two quarter sections of 1850 acres each,
or 5,l1O acres all told. This was
thrown into one tract, fenced in and
an irrigation canal run from Bear
river, and for twenty years the ground
has been under seed and improve
ments of various kinds added.
Preston King as surveyor of Routt
county, had occasion to set some
corners near the valley last fall and
he discovered that the government
sectional maps, under which all of
the thirty-two ranches We're patented
were erroneous. The lines were
three-quarters of n mile too far north
and a quarter of mile too far east.
This would put the Lily park COM
pany's ranches up in the hills on bar
rem ground. Knowing this, settlers
began to file on the land, until thirty
filings have been made in the Glen
wood Syringe land office. The first
named defendant was foreman for
years of the association, and he has
taken three quarter sections, one for
himself, one for his wife, and one for
a brother. They, like the others,
have gone into the alfalfa fields,
taken possession of the houses and ir-
rigation canal, and are using the land
on the authority of their entry re-
ceipts.
The association asks the court to
grant an injunction pendente lite,
after which the surveys will be taken
up. The petitioners hold that they
entered the land according to govern
ment surveys and plats, and if these
were wrong, the government should
make the matter right by resurvey-
ing and awarding the old settlers the
land on which they have spent $3.50
600 during the last twenty years.
The Lily Park Stock Growing associ-
alton is Utah concern, most of the
shares being owned by the Wells
Fargo bank of Salt Lake City.