Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1884 — VAST THEFTS OF LAND. [ARTICLE]

VAST THEFTS OF LAND.

Many Million Acre* of the Public Domain Stolen. A Commissioner of the General Land Office, who was sent to Colorado some time ago to investigate complaints made by sett’ers against cattle companies that they had illegally fenced in public lands and had obtained occupation of large tracts by fraudulent entry, has made a report fully sustaining the settlers. Eight charges have been made against the Prairie Cattle Company, composed of Scotchmen. Tracts of 100 square miles, twenty-five square miles, seventy-five square miles, and sixteen square miles have been illegally fenced in by that corporation. It is believed that the cattle companies have fraudulently possessed themselves of nearly 6.000,000 acres of public lands in Colorado alone within the last five years. In New Mexico it is asserted that 90 per cent, of the lands held by the cattlemen have been illegally inclosed; in Dakota 75 per cent, are fraudulent. ■’lnvestigation proves that in Arkansas there have been 10 fraudulent entries, in Dakota 460, in Colorado 280 (embracing 2,800,000 acres), in New Mexico 827 (embracing 1,500,000 acres), in Minnesota 311, in Washington Territory 109, in Idaho 92, in Nebraska 170 (embracing 300.000 acres), in Montana 24, in Wyoming 24 (embracing 250,000 acres), in Alabama 153, and in Kansas the fraudulent entries embrace 600,000 acres. Over 3,000 complaints remain to be investigated. A large percentage of those who have made fraudulent entries and who have illegally inclosed these large tracts of the public domain are English and Scotch capitalists.