Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1887 — Railroad Land Matters. [ARTICLE]

Railroad Land Matters.

Washington Special,. Acting; Land Commissioner Stockslager has promulgated the orders of the Secretary of the Interior restoring to the public domain the lands embraced in indemnity withdrawals from the North ern Pacific railroad. The restored land aggregates 9,000,000 acres, exclusive of 1,090,000 acres embraced in Indiari reservations which were, therefore, not included in the withdrawals. The lands affected by the restoration are in the Ashland, Wis;, district; fi,400 acres; in Crookston, Duluth, Fergus Falls, St. Clpud, and Taylor’s Falls districts in Minnesota, 890 acres; Fargo and Bismark, Dak,, districts, 1,800 000 acres; in Bozeman, Helena, and Miles City districts, in Montana, 4,000,000 acres; in Cojnr d’Alena and Lewiston districts, in Idaho, 500,000 acres; in North Yakima, Olympia, Spokane Falls, Vancouver, and Walla Walla districts, in Washington Territory, 1,500,000 acres. oh the GerieraT Land Office has been advised of the decision of the United States District Court for Colorado, Judge Hallett, in two cases against the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Company, brought at the instance of the Land Department, for trespass in cutting timber miscellaneously on public lands. The court sustains the rulings ot the Commissioner and Secretary of the Interior in holding that timber authorized to be cut for railroad construction purposes can only be taken from lands adjacent to the line of the road. Judge Hallett defines the term “lands adjacent to the line of said road” as used in'the statute, as being such lands only as are “within” such distance from the line of the road as may be reached by ordinary transportation by wagons, and not otherwise ” The burden of proof to show that timber cut for railroad construction purposes is used for those purposes is upon the company and not upon the United States. Judgment was recommended in favor of the United States in the two suits mentioned for 140.000. Upwards of $1,000,000 are embraced in other similar suits now pending against the Northern Pacific Railroad Company - and other corporations.