The Elbert County tribune., 1907-06-13
Switched Land vaIues.

Denver.-A substitution of land
raIued at $50 per acre in place OF some
applied for at $3.50 per acre. has been
discovered in the ONCE of the State
Land Board, and when reported in due
time by Register John F. Vivian to the
board, will undoubtedly be rigid in
vestigation. BY singular coincidence
the Juggling of this land occurred I'M
nediately prior to the deals involving
Frank Gyllensten and J. M. Blee.
which were ordered investigated by
the board and the sales Cancelled.
The present discovery. however.
shows a deliberate switching of sew
sral pieces of land on an application
iled by George M. Davis of Center,
Colorado, under the date of November
l5, 1904. The application originally
called for the purchase of the south
east quarter of section 36, township
40 north, range Z east, school land;
also northwest quarter of section IL.
north township 40, range east, in
.ernal improvement land, described as
grazing land. for $3.50 an acre.
When the application came before
the board the land had been properly
1850 per acre, that being a good price
Tor 1t.
But after the application had been
passed upon upon favorably, the origi-
nal description was crossed out by pen
and ink and the following substituted;
Southeast quarter of the northwest
quarter section 8, township 40 north,
range 8 east. The latter land, COM
prising about ATS acres, was easily
worth $50 an acre, as it lies near Cen
ter, Rio Grande county, in the grain
belt, while the original land for which
1t was substituted, lies further south
east in the same county.
The substitution as shown in the ap-
plication on file in the land office was
apparently written in the same hand
writing as the original application. No
record of the valuable land ever hav-
ing been applied for appears on the
records, and the only reference to it
Is in the minutes of the nesting of
November 23, 1904. which contain the
description and have the following no
tation:
1T appearing that no good reason
existed why these lands should not
be sold, it was moved and seconded
and carried that the application be ad-
vertised and the lands sold for $3.50
an acre"
About one year later, November 8,
1905. the following record appears:
"The register reported that in COM
pliance with the order of this board and
after due advertisement Tin the Monte
Vista journal and Denver News), he
had offered for sale on November z,
the southeast quarter and northeast
2 hn H. ,at
ter of section 8, township 40 north,
and range 8 east; that Geogre M
Davis was the highest and only bidder
at $3.50 an acre, and that the land was
accordingly sold to him.
There is on the files of the land
board a record of the transfer of the
land in question to James l.. Hurt by
George M Davis. after the alleged sale
| had been consummated. Hurt had
| been leasing it at rs cents per acre at
the time it was switched onto Davis
application.
| 1t is likely that the land board will
Investigated the entire transaction and
an effort will be made to recover pos
session of the land, although Register
Vivian did not care to discuss the mat
ter in detail. He said that the state
had probably lost $4,000 through the
manipulation of this valuable land and
is unable to account for the apparent
,, boldness of the substitution. The i'm
provements on the substituted land
were placed at $1,S75, but when it was
appraised April 20. 1908. by Thomas
A. Curry for the land board, the i'm
provements were placed at S3,S00, so
there is quite a large discrepancy here
also.
At the time the land went to Davis
an application for renewal Of his lease
was on file by Hurt. The latter failed
| to get the lease, but afterwards took
the land from Davis by purchase. 1t
is believed there is now some litigation
on between these parties and that
is what led to the exposure of the sub
stitution.