The Colorado statesman., 1906-06-30
CAN DRAW
REGISTRATION FOR LANDS IN
GROW RESERVATION.
DRAWING ON JULY SECOND
Only About Half the Applicants Can
Get Land-And Only Half the Land
Is Really Valuable.

Billings, Mont. = Registration for
| Crow reservation lands closed Thurs
day and Commissioner W. A. Richards
of the General Land Office figures that
on basis of about $4,000 registrations
nearly one in every two applicants will
secure homesteads at the drawing
which begins here next Monday.
| Thls does not mean that all will
draw big prizes in the governments
distribution of land, for Commissioner
Richards thinks that not more than
half of the $500 homesteads will prove
| capable of cultivation. The really val
liable lands will all be included in the
| first 125 drawings. Then will come a
| few hundred allotments of fair ranch
land, and most of the remainder will
be merely fit for grazing purposes, so
that the prize winners will be known
a few hours after the drawing begins
Monday morning
"People should not lose their heads
over these reservation openings" said
Commissioner Richards, who has con-
Quoted all OF the government lotteries
since the first Oklahoma drawing, and
who has always done his utmost to
.counteract the mischievous effects of
over-zealous booming.
|
Grow reservation, I am convinced 1t is
about equal in value to the Shoshone
or Wind River reservation in Wyom-
ing, which will be opened in about a
month. l should say that about half
! the land on the Wind River reservation
is land that ranges from excellent to
| fair. The rest is only fit for grazing.
| There are about $500 allotments set
aside. Dividing these in half leaves
$3.50 homesteads that may be said to
be worth striving for. 1t should be re-
membered also, that the element OF
speculation cannot enter. The one
who registers must be ready to live
upon his land, or he forfeits it. Even
| if he makes the first payment of 81 per
acre and then relinquishes. his lands
go to the first claimant This is done
| to encourage bona fide settlement.
"These latter pay 81 per acre for
his land after he draws homestead.
Thus the reservation opening for the
| bulk of those who draw lands is what
| is known as a poor mans proposition.
| These things l am telling merely to
give the people a fair and just idea of
what is demanded of them in these
| openings. The greatest beneht de-
rived from reservation openings comes
| in the settling of lands outside the res
ervation AT the Rosebud reservation
for sixty days after the opening, there
were more filings on outside land than
on the lands of the reservation. Shrewd
homeseellers say they could get just
as good lands near the reservation as
on it, and they did not have to pay the
$4 per acre, nor did they have to pay
to enter drawing, where they STOOD
little chance of winning.
The Crow reservation registration
has been kept down because the gov
ernment purposely barred the large
cities as points of registration. Most
of those who registered had to pay
railroad fare, and are presumably bona
fide homeseekers.
For the same reason only the little
towns of Lander, Shoshoni, Worland
and Thermopolis have been designated
as registration places for the Shoshone
reservation opening.