Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1905-12-29
Thirty TIMES OVER.
SAME Lam SOLD OVER AND
ovER BY ONE PERSON.
Best Of Timber Countries Where Men
Have to Maintain Their Titles
70 Land with Long
Range Guns.

70 Land with Long
Range Guns.
Talk about rich country and wild
country" said an old resident of Wash
ineton to Star man the other day.
that region Of eastern Tennessee and
western North Carolina is it. l was
Through good part of it on horseback
recently, and you couldn't get further
out OF civilization in darkest Africa.
There is tiBber down there to burn. and
that is all they do with it. There is no
way OF getting it out. A fellow that was
with me got some of the finest timber
Iand | ever saw for dollar and a dollar
and a half an acre. But don't know
, what he is ever going to do with it.
Think am drawing on my imagina-
uop Wien tell you | saw cherry trees
down there five feet in diameter? Well.
don't blame you But it is so. and there
was more than one bay that we went
through where the cherry trees aver.
aged 3k feet. But there is no way of
getting the timber out. 1t is a 35-mile
a haul il one direction and IS miles the
other. The country is all set I'D on
edge. You can get over it on horseback.
but that is about the only way. There
are some places where the trail. such az
1t is, runs down the bed of a mountain
stream and crosses it six times in a
mile. The rest of the time it runs in the
bed OF the stream itself, and you are
lucky If your horse gets through with
out breaking O. his legs among the
powders.
There is enough water power in the
eastern edge of the mountains to run
the street cars in half dozen big cities.
B1 there is not trolley car in any of
the towns until you get down to the big
towns id the lower levels. The streams
are no good for logging, or where thew
nave been, the timber is all cut off them.
and what is left is so far back in the
nils that you couldn't get it out exceut
with an airship.
The people down there don't 20 much
on clothes. What they have in the way
OF raiment seems to be handed down
r.
from rather to son, and as far as living
Is concerned, if they can get a piece of
corn pone and a little fat pork that is
quite as much as they bargain for
But are they shrewd? Well. thew
might not shine in metropolitan society
but when it comes to doing the stranger
ana the LeVite they are right on the spot
one OF the difficulties Of buying land
down there is that the land laws and the
titles are the worst in the United STATES
was asking one of the best lawyers in
Knoxville the other day about the title
to piece Of land, and he said: Il don't
want to- boom my own stock any, but |
guess know about as much OF the land
laws as any lawyer in this part of the
world And when itcomes to lookingun
title for man in that mountain conn.
try | would rather lose the fee than take
the trouble to do it.
THAT is about right. The land titles
down there start back with 81 hts from
George III. The big proprietors thai he
granted land to in large blocks sold
snapped or gave it away in Smaller
pieces, and when the revolution came
on nall OF the holders we're kicked out
as tories and'the other half of the resi-
dents took what suited them. and often
nree or four of them took the same
piece OF land, and perhaps all of them
soid IL three orfour times. The only real
sure way to get property down there IS
70 camp on il with Winchester and
De sure your gun will carry further than
amy OF the other claimants.
Inere rs one other way of getting
money out OF it without even owning the
lald. | know one man who went down
there and sold the same piece of land
nine times to different parties and he
didnt have any title to itoriginally He
must have mad an affection for that pieca
Of land, however,, for after he ont
through with selling it over here he
went abroad and sold it some more IA
conducted the Whole operation on a Ger.
tain $50 acres of ground. He sold II in
squares and Oblongs and triangles and
when he got through think there we're
80 claims on it.'oyerlaying each other
worse than, the scales On a fish He
made a pretty fair fortune out Of that
eO acres that didn't belong to him Init
When'you get hack into the mountains
you never know when you are going ia
get INTO gust that sort of a game I
Know one fellow down there who bopgb-
tolerab'e-sized tract of lanfand he had
nine lawsuits in "A years over the title
The suits are still coming in.
"oh, no, l am not knocking the coup.
try 1t is a great region, and if tbey
could cpt some chunks out of those
mountains and transport them down TO
tidewater they would no valuoh,o
Meanwhile if you want to get in there I
. think about the easiest and cheapest
way is tunnel"
Scheme to Reduce Ardienca