The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1909-11-08

surveys, dllu W1lCl1 OClL1ClO WIN eAAAo"So
to present their application at the land
office many of them had made valuable
improvements in all cases on the
swamp land, but on the one hundred and
sixty acre tracts claimed as homestead
of which the swamp lands were a part.
In all cases where applications 3. were
found to be in conflict with the, state
swamp land grant for all or part of-the
land claimed and settlement was alleged
prior to the opening of the plats at the
land Office the settlers were allowed to
institute contests against the state and
hearing was ordered by the u. S. Land
Office to determine the respective right.
Here it should be remembered that the
legal subdivision considered in the desig-
nation of swamp land is a forty-acre
tract and that where homestead appli-
cation was in conflict with the state Or
40 or more, the applicant had the option
of dropping off those forties that were
swamp and taking only 12O or 80 acres
as the case might be, and retain per-
sonal right to enter an additional tract to
make up the shortage in his homestead.
These contests so initiated, were all against
the state, and were not commenced by
state against any settler. The institution
of a contest by settler was the only way
he had to gain the land, if entitled to it
the Land Office should not give it to him,
even if not swamp, without a hearing.
1t was for the purpose of ascertaining
the facts and presenting them at the
hearing that our party of examiners was
placed in the field. 1t has been charged
that these examiners were "sWOrn to per-
form certain work in certain way"
which charge you know to be absolutely
false. The examiners were sworn only
when called to stand as witnesses at the
hearing, and then only by the Register or
the Receiver of the United States Land
Office,
| In looking over the correspondence l
find no instructions from you as to the
manner of procedure in making these
examinations, except to confer with Mr..
W.. E. Culkin of Duluth, the special
attorney for the state in charge of the
hearing. Before entering the field each
examiner received from Mr.. Culkin type
written suggestions as to the method of
examinations, in which he emphasized
that our duty would be simply to ascer-
tain and report the facts and in his
letter of April 18th, transmitting to me a
copy of these suggestions, Mr.. Culkin
further said, "you are making this investi-
cation to ascertain the facts and you will
be required to testify at the trials in
respect to the character of the land. y
The three state examiners travelled to-
gether and in each others presence made
a careful examination of each forty,
noting the character of the soil, the
principal timber and other plant life, and
determined how many acres were swamp
and how many not swamp. Where there
was any question as to the character OF
any portion of a swamp being sufficiently
permanent to fall within the meaning OF
the act of March IL, 1850, we passed il
as non-swampy, thus giving the benefit
of any doubt to a settler in every case
The examiners found in many cases that
the lands are swamp and properly Sc
designated by the surveyors, in othel
cases they found that major portion o.
each forty to be non-swamp and have
been enormously returned by the survey
ors as swamps-in fact the examination
revealed that the u. S. surveyors ha(
been guilty of the grossest carelessness il
plating the swamp lands, and this wa.
particularly apparent on section line.
where high and dry lands, directly unde
their observations was marked as swamp
Only 73 cases were examined by THU
party of examiners, instead of Hundreds
as alleged by recent writer attempting
to furnish the public with facts. Out O
these 70 casas IS were reported non
swamp for all the lands claimed, and n,
fight made in behalf of. the state; II wer,
dropped by the contestants; and one wa
dismissed by the local land office and i
now pending at Washington on appeal
II were adjusted by mutual agreement
that is, the state dropped out forties tina
were high and dry and the contestan
acquiesced in the finding of the, exarsin
ers as to swamp forties; and in 81 case
only the state made fight. In these 8
cases the state is claiming So forties, ant
in only one of these cases is the whole
1850 acres of the contestants homeseac
application involved. In 7 of these 8
cases the contestants have built thei
cabins on swamp forties. IF
1t is unfortunate that these people
should have been allowed to settle upor
such land, and unfortunate that they
should have been brought in conflict witt
the state for tracts that are actually
swamp. Legally the attitude of the state
in defending its title to these lands il
right, without question the swamp lands
! were granted to the state of Minnesota
by the act of Congress on March IL, 1860
and being so granted they belong to all
the people of the state, and not to any
one individual who may illadvisedly, OF
otherwise, settle upon them-they must