The Glenwood post., 1910-02-12

settlement of the suit will mean the
quick development of the Redlands
district which comprises about 6,O0o
acres of fine land, the early construc
tion of the Main street bridge and
great deal of development and i'm
provement work on the Redlands side
of the Grand river.
The suit against the Redlands com
pany was first announced late In Au-
gust, 1907, when a group of individuals
set up claim to the lands on the Rel
Mesa declaring that the filing of the
first claimants were faulty. Many
sensational allegations followed. The
first hearing of the suit took place be-
fore Register Blair in Montrose in the
following September and resulted in
decision against the company. The
case was then taken to the Land Office
where another unfavorable decision
was found against the company. Then
Redlands people persevered, confident
ludt tHtS hSlt III thC anu IA
final court of appeal, before Acting
Secretary Pierce of the Department of
the Interior the decisions of the lower
courts were reversed and titles given
back to the first claimants.
The victory of the company is only
saddened by the fact that Frank Kie-
fer the original promoter of the pro
iect and its driving force from the
date of its inception. died last fall.
| Speaking of the decision, Vice Presi-
dent B. w. Kiefer stated last evening:
"The decision was expected. We
| knew that right would prevail in the
| end. The result of this suit means n
great deal for the future of the Red
lands. One thing it means is the early
construction of the Main street bridge.
Many other matters will also be taken
up and completed which have been de-
layed by this legal tangle. Within a
| few days we expect to make formal
statement to the people setting out in
full the company's position and its
| plans for the future in order that no
further misrepresentation may do us
| any HARM
President Carl Osborne of Fruita
was immensely pleased over the YER
dict.
| cit pleases me more than l can
| tell,' he said cit has been long
and terribly hard pull but we won out
| as I always felt that we would. -
The story of the Redlands case is II
story of western development in all of
| its phases.
A fertile mesa lay neglected and de-
spised for twenty years. 1t was called
the Red Mesa and many had declared
that it was doomed to be desert for
ever because of the high cost of placing
water upon it.
A daring Grand valley pioneer,
Frank Keifer, interested number of
| friends in project to redeem it. East.
ern capital was brought in and the
great bitches built, the largest power
plant on the Western Slope constructed
and hundreds of thousands of dollars
expended in an effort to make this
| rich district one of the fairest gardens
in the Grand Valley.
Thus, the profit prospering, certain
individuals believing that they saw a
chance to obtain this land, in the west.
ern vernacular "iumped' the claims
after planning one of the most re-
markable raids in the history of the
| west.
| Testimony at the first hearing
brought out the fact that a deliberate
effort was made by these men to muz
zle the press by offering the various
editors forty acre sections in case the
raid was a success. 1t is on record in
the courts that the three newspape,
editors of Grand Junction were so ap.
preached and to the eternal credit of
the then editor of the Daily News, Mr.
F.. A. Sherman, he refused the bribe
and later on the witness stand exposed
the whole nasty mess.
The original promoters in the Red
lands Land and Irrigation company
We're Frank d. Keifer, D. T. Stone
B. F. Keifer, Robert Orr. A. J. Nc.
Cune, William Osborn and others
About April, 1906, A. A. Piatt of Lar.