The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1945-01-26

!. railway company and upheld its CO..
k tention; one refused to testify for til
/. railroad; the third, the mineral e,
e pert of the commission, testified fc
Y Mr. Rowand, the mineral applicaI
: for patent.
Mr.. ]. C. Aud, one of the commits
sioners, now receiver of the Unite
States land Office at Miles City, MOI
tana, testified as follows, in part:
J 1.-THE other two commissioners, MI
, Cavanaugh and Mr.. Jones, and MI
! flanagan, who went along with us a
a representative of the Northern Pa
cific in the way of locating corner
! and helping us run lines and things O
that kind, and l believe to keep al
! eye on the work for the benefit o
the road IN P. Ry. Coz =.
But | know an examination was mad
there at that time by Mr.. Cavanaugh
who was our mineral man, and upo1
whom we depended for critical ex
animation for mineral land.
Mr.. Cavanaugh and Mr.. Jones were
with me at that time. Perhaps | car
say | am positive Mr.. Cayanaugh was
with me. | was on the mineral land
commission, the Helena commission
for two years, put in two seasons OF
these examinations and never, during
any time that I was on that commits
sion, did / ever make a report on q
piece of land that Mr. Cavanaugh had
not examined and passed upon with
me . / left the examination OF
the tunnel to Mr. Cavanaugh +.
said that we depended upon Mr..
Cavanaugh for an expert opinion on
lands of that kind
%. You did find mineral on the
land, did you?
"a We did.
20. How long were you engaged in
the classification purposes of Sections
10, 20 and 81 of Township ii, North
of Range West?
"a. I think we only required one
day.
%. Did you ever go up on Section
10 at all?
"a. No, sir Now we spent,
imagine, should suppose we stayed
there three or four hours only in that
vicinity. We ascertained beyond a
question that the northwest corner of
this township IA north and 9 west,
being sections 5, 6, 7, 8, and IS, down
to the south line of section II, was
beyond question mineral land. We
did not go up there at ALL"
Commissioner Miles Cavanaugh, the
expert of the commission,
testified, in part, as follows:
20. Do you know the lands that
are claimed by John A. Rowand, for
which he is seeking to obtain patent
from the United States government?
"a. Nothing only what heard
about it, sir.
20. Do you remember where you
were when the classification of the
land in question was made by the
land commissioners
"a. Yes, sir.
20. Please state?
"a. was in camp, l had rheuma-
ism and was laid up :. Z. About IL |
miles away. 80. did not accompany
hem on that classification II
never classified any of the lands with
Mr.. Jones and Auld :. I was not |
present at the classification. / !
lever advised them as to whether it |
vas mineral or non-mineral |
vas never on the land l never |
passed upon any ore of any tunnel
IN the land in question, because l
vas never on the land"
A Mr.. Hannegan, an agent of the
Northern Pacific Railway Company,
wore to practically the same state
nents as did Commissioner Aud. His
estimony was also denied by Commits
Toner Cavanaugh, as to his being
resent on the land in question or to
making any investigation thereof.
flanagan, the railroad agent, testi- ;
led as follows: zone of the commits
toner's seemed to be very familiar
nth the workings in that country, Z
1r. Cavanaugh." When this testi- {
lony was cited to Mr.. Cavanaugh he /;
answered on oath as follows: 81 am {
OF, sir, never was in Lincoln gulch, I
ever have been in Lincoln gulch in
ly life, until after l left the COM
lission"
The testimony of other witnesses
roved conclusively that the land for
hich patent was contested contained
mining shafts, cuts, tunnels,
filings, dumps and an arastra-a mill
NUnrkinpr GOLD L
ere mining the disputed land, both
II quartz and placer mineral at the
cry time the mineral classification
as alleged to have been made 1t |
as also clearly proven that the land |
ad been located and worked as min
al land for many years previous to
lat date. Yet it was classified as II
There is only one ex-
anatfon to account for such a CLASH II
cation. In the language of one wit II
,ss, the land was heavily timbered." II
ne railway company has a great lik- II
6 for land heavily timbered". 1t II
extremely valuable. II
Under the instructions of the Sec II
tary of the Interior and the federal III
W providing for this mineral classi-
,ation, the commissioners were in
ructed to go upon and carefully ex-
nine each forty-acre tract of land
the railway grant. The testimony
duced in the Rowand case conclu-
rely demonstrates that the commits
)ners ignored the law and instruc-
ms and classified many sections as
whole, without such examination
d investigation.
The decision of the land officials
Helena, from the evidence adduced