The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-01-08
HERE is MONUMENTAL CRAFT
PRIVATE COMPANY OWNS ALL
THE WATER IN WYOMING.
Shoshone Lands No Good Without Ir-
rigatiOn, and Charges of Mo-
nopOly Are ProhibitiVe.

rigation, and Charges of Mo-
nopOly Are Prohibitive.
The opening to settlement by the
national government of the 1,OOO,-
600 acres of the Shoshone Indian
reservation in Wyoming, which dur
ing the summer of 1906 was her
aided as the greatest chance for
homesteaders and settlers ever occur
ing in the west, has turned out in
stead to be one of the greatest bun
co" games, a scheme of the most 81
gantic land and water grabbing, ever
known, says a Cheyenne dispatch.
Hundreds of would-be settlers who
were fortunate" enough to draw
good numbers in the government lot
terry have been forced to abandon
their property and are preparing to
leave the state.
Just who buncoed the settlers it
is hard for the victims to tell. The
but the state of Wyoming gave all
the water to somebody else. With
the Big Wind river flowing for more
than 100 miles through the coded
portion of the reservation a settler
does not dare even permit his own
horse to take a drink of water from
the river without the consent of the
new owners of the stream. With
water by the millions of gallons flow
ing by their farms, and even through
their farms, the settlers dare not
take a single drop of that water for
the purpose of irrigating those farms.
The homesteader cannot farm his
land without water, and another con-
Germ owns the water. If the home
steader, in despair, abandons his
farm the owner of the water may, in
four years, pay 81 an acre to the
government and take possession OF
the abandoned homestead-andt that
is where the big grabbing scheme
comes in.
CeOeu IJS wafer away
When Wyoming was taken into
the Union the government ceded to
the state all the water within its
borders. BY some method of proceed
ure which is not quite clear to the
settlers the state granted to the wy
oming Central Irrigation Company
the right to appropriate and divert
the entire Big Wind river. The pres
ident of the Wyoming Central lrri-
CATION Company is Joy Morton OF
Chicago, head of the Salt Trust and
brother of Paul. Morton OF rebate
fame, now president of the Equlta-
bile Life Assurance Society and re-
cent member of the cabinet and Pres
ident Roosevelt's close friend. BY the
grant of the state the Wyoming Cen
tral Irrigation Company came into
practical control Of district larger
in area than the entire state or Dela-
ware.
The company was given five years
to build it's bitches and 5 years IN
which to complete it's appropriations
of water.
Hundreds of settlers found that
they might just as well live in a
desert as in a country where they
could not use the water. But the
wyoming Central Irrigation Company
offered to sell the water to the set
tires, and here are some of the con-
ditions upon which this water is to
be sold. These conditions are from
the contract which every settler must
sign:
Every settler must pay $9S per
acre for water rights. The estl-
mated cost to the company for fur
nishing the water is $3.47 per acre.
Then the settler must pay 40 cents
per acre per year to help the COM
pany maintain its main ditch. And
the company does not agree to dellV-
er the water nearer than three miles
to the land of the settler. The set
tier must build his own ditch for
this three miles in order to get any
water at all.
The water assessment is to act as
a mortgage on the entire land or
homestead and failure to pay this
assessment is not followed by a cut