The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1906-11-09
MANY ''S00NE|RS''
Walker Lake, Indian Reservation
Near Thorne, New, Has Been
Opened for Settlement.
EXCITING RUSH FOR GOLD
Late Arrivals Find Best Lands Oc-
cupicd - Many irregularities He
pOrted-Indian Police Bribed
by Money and Liquor.

Thorne, New, Oct. S1.-With the
firing of a mighty blast of dynamite
from the top of Grant Peak, the
highest point in the adjacent mouls
tains, the Walker Lake Indian reser-
walton has been opened. At the given
signal, hundreds of searchers for gold
hurried helter-skelter over the boun-
Diary lines of plain and mountain and
before the great cloud of smoke which
rose into the air from the dynamite
explosion had drifted away, spec
tacu!ar race of automobiles, race
horses and vehicles was on.
Horses were ridden until they
dropped and men recounted their i'll
fortune when their automobiles be-
came stalled in the deep sands Jad-
ed and overcome by thirst, numbers
of prospectors barely summoned
enough strength to make their loca'
lions.
Those who had waited for the sig
nal from the top of Mount Grant be-
fore rushing into the reservation
found that all the most valuable
claims in the vicinity of the rich
Dutchmans, Cottonwood and numer
GUS other creeks emptying into the
southeastern section of Walker Lake
had been taken up by men who hau
rushed in the night before. Even
men who employed launches to take
them across Walker Lake from the
eastern side found that their efforts
were of no avail, as they were much
too late to be on an equal footing
with the men who had disregarded the
law.
The opening of the reservation was
not as imposing as it promised to be
numbers of miners flocked into 1T
during the night and early morning,
completely overwhelming the Indian
police, of whom there were but IA
to guard rs miles of territory. While
the opening was taking place special
agent Frank Parks, of the general
land office, was waiting for an ans
wer to his dispatch sent to the gen.
eral land office at Washington,
urging that the opening be
postponed on account of the irregu
larities that he has discovered. Parks
pointed out that the Indian police who
had been named to guard the lines
were not only inadequate and ineffi-
cient but they had taken money and
liquor as brides and were intoxicated
most of the time.
| Washington, Nov. 1.-Further re-
ports from agents of the Interior de-
partment who superintendent the
opening Monday of the Walker Lake
Indian reservation in Nevada have
convinced Secretary Hitchcock that |
the infractions of the regulations gov
'erning the opening were not serious
enough 10 warrant a recommendation
in favor Of invalidating it. This de- |
cision is considered fortunate by Of |
dicials of the land office as the law
Officers of the department have ex-
pressed the opinion that regardless of |
the action of "sooners" in crossing |
the line before the signal, the act of |
congress ordering that the reserva-
ton be thrown open to settlement |
had not been violated. That act did |
not prescribe that persons should not |
enter the reservation in advance of |
the signal and there is no law under |
which the persons may be punished. |
If authority had been given the inter
ior department it is said that Com
missioner Richards would have pro- |
vided for registration, as was done |
in August when the Shoshone reser- |
walton was opened. Special Land |
Agent Parke has reported from Haw'
thorne that there has been less COM |
plant than he had expected, and that |
already a town of two thousand pop
ulation, with restaurants, gambling |
houses and saloons has been estab- |
llshed at the mouth of Dutchman's |
creek.