Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 91, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1907 — State After Kankakee Swamp Land. [ARTICLE]

State After Kankakee Swamp Land.

If the plans of the Auditor of State John Billheimer work out ti e state will become richer by several thousand acres of reclaimed land along the Kankakee river and in the lake regions. Years ago, bj an act of congress, from 6,000 to 10,000 acres oLswamp land became the property of the state. Settlers took up portions of the surveyed land, and, as the swamps were drained, attached this land to that which they had purchased, it is said. * Auditor Billheimer pre poses to bring suit to recover for the state the land thus taken. A test case will be made against a man Jnamed Pinney, who brought 35 acres of land on the Kankakee river, in Laporte county, the rest of the sec tioj being under the waters of English lake. Since that time the lake has been drained and Pinney, it is said, now has the entire section under cultivation. The land was bought for $1.25 an acre and is now worth SSO to S6O.