Fergus County Democrat., 1909-08-31
RAILROAD IS
SELLING Land
Union Pacific Practically Disposed of
Veritable Empire Granted By the
Government.
Others HOLDING ON
Santa Fe Company Still Holds On to
Greater Portion of Forty-Five
Million Acres.

Practically the last OF the many
millions Of acres OF land given the
Union Pacific railroad by the United
States government has been sold out
this summer, and as soon as the COM
pany disposes Of the few remaining
remnants of its once great empire it
will close its land department and
retire from this branch Of the rail-
road business. In the last few years,
that is, since the great boom in west
ern lands began, the Union Pacific
has disposed Of more than 5,0OO,OOO
acres, thus becoming the premier land
seller Of the country, Charles +.
Mainland, general land agent Of the
Union Pacific, makes this statement:
"The greater part of the vast hold
ings Of the Union Pacific has been
sold out to small owners, and there
is very little Of our great land grant
left. If we had 100000 acres believe
we could sell it out this summer, SO
great is the demand for western
lands"
The Union Pacific land grant con-
sisted of l0,4OO,0OO acres, exclusive OF
the right of way, and extended from
Omaha to Ogden and from Kansas
City to Cheyenne, via Denver, being
each alternate section in strip OF
40 miles wide between the points men
toned. For 600 miles the grant lay in
the great Platte river valley in Ne
braska, and for 500 miles it traversed
the Kaw valley in Kansas-two OF
the finest valleys in the world.
Larger Than All Scotland.
But the paltry l9,4000O0 acres, a
body Of land just little bit larger
than all of Scotland, is scarcely a
''patch" when compared with the
total of the grant to the Hartman
railroads. Roll into one big bunch
Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium and
the Netherlands, and then add to the
area Of the combined countries all the
land in Ireland, and the result will
be just few more acres than Uncle
Sam gave to the Hartman railroad
system when it was being built.
The Hartman Arant totals the
enormous area of 53,3O7 $40 acres
8l,73l square miles England covers
only 50,867 square miles. New
Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts.
Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland.
New Jersey, Delaware and West Vir-
ginia aggregate 80,950 miles-780
square miles less than were given the
Hartman roads.
The lands were divided among the
lines comprising the system, as fol
lows: Union Pacific, 100000 acres;
Kansas Pacific, 100000; Denver Pa
cihc, 100000; Central Pacific, r.
100000; St. Joseph & Grand Island.
100000, and Southern Pacific, 49,
7O7 ,S40
But the railroads of the Hartman
system were not the only ones which
received land grants from the gov
ernment to assist in the construction
of the roads. The Gould roads were
given a little matter of 25,529, ,2ol
acres-nearly as many as are contain
ed within the combined boundaries
of Denamrk and Belgium And only
a few thousand acres less than the
state of South Carolina.
Uncle Jim" Hill, the wizard Of
the north, struck Uncle Sam for TO-
3A,277 acres in the building of the
Great Northern and for 2,44l ,27O
acres in the building of the Burling-
ton.
Santa Fe Holds On.
The projectors of the Santa Fe
were given the tidy little area OF As
100000 acres for building from the
Missouri river to the Pacific coast.
and very large part of this grant is
stil1 in the hands of this railroad
For building its lines through Iowa
where land is now worth $lOO to $15C
an acre, the Milwaukee line was
handed just 3,524,00O acres of land ir
that state. And Northwestern came
in for little matter of 7,642,82l
acres as aid in building its lines to
Minneapolis and to Omaha
In the southwest the Missouri
Kansas & Texas railroad got l,520,00(
acres, the Frisco 1,86O,586 acres ane
Iron Mountain 1,178, 400 acres.
The largest grant to any one rail
road was that of the Santa Fe. o.
45,8O0,0 600 acres. 1853 square mile.
and New York state only 4o.22(
square miles.
The total amount of the land giver
by the government to western rail
roads amounts to the enormous are;
of l72,69l ,25O acres. 26o,549 square
miles. The German empire contains
only 2O8,83O square miles, and Eng
land only 5O,867 square miles, so tina
the gift of Uncle Sam to the builder
Of the western lines equals the com
bined area of Germany. England an
Belgium.
HOW DOES THIS STRYYE VnI,