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Show 732 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT actively opposed the later coal-lands withdrawals.238 The Mondell bill was replaced by S. 3551 (Senator Clark), and after its prompt passage in the Senate, was approved in the House in 1897 after very little debate.239 Apparently its main purpose was to clarify the 1896 Interior ruling. The 1897 Act provided simply that petroleum lands might be entered and patented under the placer laws. A savings clause permitted patenting of land previously "filed upon, claimed, or improved as mineral, but not yet patented . . ."240 It is unfortunate that Congress did not review the problems presented by petroleum mining when the Placer Act was before it in 1897. The act proved to be unworkable in three respects.241 In the first place, by applying to oil lands what was essentially a law for the mining of metalliferous minerals, the act perpetuated the rule that the prospector acquired no legal right to be protected in his occupancy prior to an actual discovery. But oil in the West, at least, could be found only after expensive equipment for drilling had been brought upon the land and a reservoir had been tapped, activities which to say the least could not be conducted in a clandestine atmosphere. The result was that as soon as there were rumors of oil prospecting, there converged on the scene countless "professional" entrymen whose nuisance value had to be reckoned with. Holders of military bounty warrants, railroad indemnity rights, and forest lieu rights could not be prevented from harassing prospectors because no one could demonstrate that the land was actually valuable for minerals at that time. It is true, in later years, that the oil operator was afforded some protection against this assortment of nonmineral claimants when many of the local courts re- 238 See note 201, supra. 288 29 Cong. Rec. 874, 1240, 1314, 1394, 1408-1409, 1466, 1470, 1762. ""61 Stat. 526 (1897). *1 See Ise, supra note 228, at 296, laxed the traditional rules applicable under the possessio pedis doctrine.242 Secondly, in requiring the performance of annual assessment work, the oil prospector was encouraged to mine even though there was no immediate prospect for a market. Third, the acreage limitations of the Placer Act were regarded by everyone as too small to permit efficient mining. The result was that dummy entrymen were constantly used to avoid these restrictions. Oil Land Withdrawals. From time to time after 1904, the land department withdrew from agricultural entry a substantial amount of land thought to be valuable for oil in California, Louisiana, Oregon, and Wyoming. The purpose was more to protect oil prospectors than to conserve the supply of oil for the public. Much of this land was in fact restored to entry at the insistence of the agricultural claimants. By 1909 the public had become accustomed to exaggerated accounts of the vast supply of oil in the West, and in that year, the Director of the Geological Survey reported to the Secretary of the Interior that the western oil lands were passing into private ownership so rapidly that this vital resource would soon disappear. "After that, the government will be obliged to repurchase the very oil that it has practically given away . . ."243 It was suggested that immediate action be undertaken to conserve a supply of petroleum for the government's own use. The recommendation was approved by the Interior Department, and on September 27, 1909, President Taft, without advance warning, issued the following proclamation:244 Temporary Petroleum Withdrawal No. 5 In aid of proposed legislation affecting the use and disposition of the petroleum deposits on the public domain, all public lands in the accom- 242 The cases are discussed in 1 American Law of Mining § 1.26 (Martz ed. 1960). 248 See United States v. Midwest Oil Co., 236 U.S. 459,466-67 (1915). M Id. at 467. |