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Show 602 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT Timber and Stone Entries" Year Number Acres Year Number Acres Average Price ___ __________......____ 1901 ___ __________ ........... 1902 1884 ............ 339,419 1903 1885 1027 139,301 1904 1886 429 50,693 1905 1887 655 80,622 1906 1888 2420 341,968 1907 1889 2361 334,519 1908 1890 3454 509,896 1909 1891 1849 259,913 1910 1892 1006 137,538 1911 1893 1382 182,341 1912 1894 1259 153,081 1913 1895 627 70,066 1914 1896 559 66,182 1915 1897 357 40,609 1916 1898 573 60,955 1917 1899 537 59,019 1918 1900 2385 300,019 __________ 3,031 4.022 12,249 9,435 5,188 5,037 11,092 11,719 6,007 1,453 1,343 2,189 846 791 1,145 485 907 396,445 .......___ 545,253 ______..... 1,765,222 __________ 1,206,261 __________ 6%,677 __________ 647,997 __________ 1,444,574 __________ 1,437,431 $2.50 722,893 2,49 170,989 3.28 143,456 4.02 189,198 2.12 100,532 3.10 64,082 5.60 65,634 3.34 46,191 2.96 49,905 3.11 90,625 3.25 8 Compiled from GLO Annual Reports. the total income of the General Land Office to more than $2 million or double that of the Forest Service, whose obligations were rapidly increasing. It was becoming apparent that the cumbersome setup in the local land offices, where registers and receivers performed nearly identical functions, was wasteful and unnecessary. But these offices were valuable patronage which the politicians did not wish to lose and the two positions were to be retained for many years longer. In 1916 the forestry obligations of the Interior Department were increased by the decision of Congress to place administrative responsibility in its hands for the forfeited Oregon and California Railroad lands and the Coos Bay Wagon Road lands. These lands, when granted to aid the construction of a north-south railroad from Portland to the California border, and of an Oregon wagon road in 1866 and 1869, carried with them a provision in the granting act providing that they should "be sold to actual settlers only, in quantities not greater than one quarter-section to one purchaser, and for a price not exceeding $2.50 an acre." 104 Neither company had managed its land as this "homestead" clause provided. After 813,000 acres which the Oregon and California, or its later owner, the Southern Pacific, had been sold the balance, some 2,600,000 acres, had been withdrawn from sale in 1903 to be maintained as a permanent timber reserve by the railroad. Three years later the Oregon Legislature in a memorial to Congress, protested against this action and the land monopoly it would assure. In 1908 the homestead clause was dusted off and provided the basis for a congressional resolution instructing the Attorney General to enforce compliance with the law and recover possession of the grant for the government.105 104 14 Stat. 239 and 16 Stat. 47, 94. 105 Jerry A. O'Callaghan, The Disposition of the Public Domain in Oregon, Committee Print, Sen. Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, 86th Cong., 2d sess., 1960, passim. |