White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1916-06-09
Opening Col
Vile ReSer-
VatiOn

The south half of the Colville
reservation in the northern part of
the state will be thrown open for
homestead entry from July 5th to
July 22nd.
Registration for the lands will
be conducted at the cities of Spok-
ane, Wenatchee, Colville, Wilbur,
Republic and Omak.
Any person qualified to make en-
try under the general provisions of
the homestead law may register.
Persons honorably discharged
from the army or navy may regis
ter in person or by agent. All 9TH
ers must register in person.
On July 9th in Spokane the
work of drawing the envelopes
with the registrations from the box
will begin and continue uninter-
ruptedly until the job is finished.
A list of the successful applicants
will be published by the newspapers
and mailed to each of the appli-
cants.
AS several from White Bluffs and
Hanford have signified their inten-
tion of making a try for the Col
Vile land, the following by Gordon
C. Corbaley of Spokane, secretary
of the chamber of commerce, in
speaking to the immigration COM
mittee and the tourist travel bu-
reau, as reported in the Yakima
Herald, will prove of interest:
"People who go to look the res.
1ervation over are going to be dis
appointed in two respects In the
first place, the large expanse of
territory makes it difficult to find
the good sections and the rough
land around the edges creates an
unfavorable impression from almost
every gateway. In the second place,
the heart of the reservation has
been allotted to the Indians and no.
body can tell exactly just how
much good land is left for the
white settlers.
ut is reasonable to estimate that
there will be rs or 100 prizes in
the 160-acre lots, that number con-
tanning good farm land and irriga-
BILE land, although probably no
quarter section has 160 acres of
tillable land. There are probably
200 to 800 fairly desirable quarter
sections with from 20 to 60 acres
of good land in the 160 acres. The
fact that the reservation is 90 miles
by 70 miles IN extent makes it en-
tremely difficult to estimate ex-
actly.
"There are two elements of un-
certainty that may change the esti-
mates. One is the enlarged home
stead act, and we do not know how
much will come under it. 1t is es-
timated conservatively that $50 to
300 places will come under the 800
acre provision. The application of
the term timber land is a little
vague. If all land with a few
trees is treated as timber land, the
numbers given above will probably
be decreased.
con the other hand. if only tim
ber in commercial quantities is
considered as timber land, our fig
ures will be about right. If the
land is valuable for farm purposes
and has not more than $4,000 feet
of timber to the 40 acres, we be-
lieve it will be regarded as agri-
cultural land. In this case, perhaps
200 places will be added to the
original estimates.
"The government maps will not
be issued before August l, showing
the timber lands and enlarged
homestead areas so that prospective
settlers will go in state of un-
certainty.
"There are three distinct types
of land: bench land along the
Columbia and Okanogan rivers, on
which 10 to SO acres in a section
can be irrigated by pumping; the
edge of the plateau, which is typi-
cal Big Bend land and tillable, and
the rough, hilly country which is
suitable mainly for stock ranches.
The entire reservation will have to
be a stock-raising country mainly"