The Greeley tribune., 1905-08-10
11iutah Rush a Sudden Fancy

\ remufkaDlt Ieat"'S
iro nf 4 tract of Indian lahuS lo's
,yithneld from the settlement Vi 'i'o
,,nit. man. like the Uintah reserVa'
lion is the eagerness with "illel'
rorsous who have never oeioie
thought of acquiring farming 'i"0'
n,,pifest desire to locate homesleaus'
thousands will enter the cohlpeti.
tion or lottery for rights to locate III
this coming drawing who nave ioI
Years lived near to open government
land and never thought OF MAKING d
fIing The scramble toward uliilai'
would suggest that the state OF oolo,
rodo had been completely exhausted
of goyernment lands and that thous-
ands had long been denied exercise
of their homestead rights because
there was none left for them 10 ST.
cure. l.,
In truth there are more lahos III
,ortbwestern Colorado that are open
to settlement under the homesleao
laws and lands more desirable thai'
those of the Uintah section, ana YET
the last thing nine out OF ten WIZ
are rushing to register for the reser-
walton drawing would think OF DONG
would he TO go out and file home
stead claims on these lands and make
the compliances with the laho la"s
that would give them title at lhe
end of the homesteading term.
Lands in Colorado would not en-
tail the price Of sl.25 an acre "hich
in the Uintah country must be
paid at the end of the term OF home
steading, nor would there be any OF
the grab bag uncertainty OF getting
A tract that the settler really wanted
for a home. Such lands are also to
be found lying closer to railroad
Transportation and fully as adaptable
to irrigation as are these Utah In
dian tracts.
1t must be, then, the great
American desire to gamble, to get
something for nothing, that SENDS
men who never before thought OF
wanting a homestead, to take
chances in the distribution. Pos
sibly there is another reason; that
the knowledge of where to find the
other lands is lacking. The opening
of reservation is widely advertised
and that very fact leads to the i'm
preston tina there are no lands else
where to be had and admonishes
that if the homestead right is ever
to be exercised, this opening is the
time.
Possibly every other man who is
granted the right to locate under
this drawing will avail himself OF
the opportunity, file on a quarter
section and make some show of oc-
cupying it, but the other half will
stop and wonder why they ever
entered into the competition, after a
visit to the lands conclude that they
hold nothing attractive, and turn
away crying that they are desert
lands OF no use to anybody.
1t requires some gift of foresight
to look into the future and see such
tracts as this of Uintah developed
from barren, dry and seemingly
worthless waste into such farms as
are to be seen around Greeley OF
other irrigated sections of the state
farms bordered with shade trees and
mellow in greens and golden browns
there is little in SagebruSh waste,
boundlesS and bare of homes, to sug-
gest that in few years one will
evolve from the other. And because
only a small proportion of those who
start to acquire right to these
Uintah lands will be able to look
into the future, the next thing to be
heard about the reservation will be
that it is all a fraud, a delusio1, and
holds nothing that white men want.
for If the people who are entering
for the drawing had really wanted
homesteads they could have found
them long ago in better sections of
Colorado.-Denyer Republican.
Summ or Uo oo+;o,, Do...