OCR Text |
Show in section 12 of the Indian appropriation act for the present fiscal year. I t was amended, however, by eliminating Article 11, ahove quoted, and substituting the following paragraph: That of the lands ceded, sold, relinquished, and oonveyed to the United States by the foregoing agreement herein amended, and accepted, ratified, and c o n b e d , one mile squmre at and abont the principal hot spring thereon containetl, is hereby ceded, granted, relinquished, and oonveyed unto the State of Wyoming; said mile square to be determined as follows: .Comrneneing at a point one-fourth mile due east from seid main spring, running thenoe one-half mile north, thenoe one mile west, thence one mile santh, thence one mile mat, thenoe one-half mile north to the paint of beginning, and the remainder of the said lands, ceded, sold, relinqniahed, end con-veyed to the United States, by the agreement herein ratified and oonfirmed, am hereby declared to be pnblio lands of the United States, subject to entry, however, only under the homestead and town-site laws of the United States. It was further provided that theamended agreement should be bind-ing upon the Indians after being agreed to by them in the usual man-ner. Instructions dated June 30,1897, were accordingly given to Dapt. R. H. Wilson, United States Army, acting Indian agent, to call the Indians together in council for the purpose of securing their consent to the amendment, and July 12,1897, he reported that at a council held on the 10th of that month the Indians had given such consent. The requirements of the law having been complied with, the ces-sion is now complete, and the springs, together with one square mile embracing them, has become the property of the Stateof Wyoming,while the remainder of the tract ceded is a par6 of the public domain. These hot springs are located near the Big Horn River, about 4 miles ahove or south of the mouth of Owl Creek. The main spring is on the east side of the Big Horn. It is circular in form, about 30 feet in diameter, with a temperature of 1320 F., and discharges a volume of water estimated at 1,250,000 gallons in twenty-four hours. The water is said t6 be very beneficial for rheumatism and other ailments, and for some years past thousands of people are said to have visited the springs during the summer season to take advantage of the curative properties of the water-this in spite of the fact that there were in the vioinity no conveniences, excepting a few of the rudest sort, for the aooommo-dation of visitors. In his report submitting the agreement, Inspector McLaughlin states that there are numerous other springs in the neighborhood of the main spring, and also in the bed of the Big Horn River adjment, which are continually bubbling in the channel, while the surrounding country for a radius of 80 rods shows numerous cones of lava formation, apparently extinct springs or geysers. In the immediate vicinity of the springs there is a mountain of crystallized gypsum. He examined the country surrounding the springs very carefully, and while he found the surface very rough and broken, with numerous high buttes and deep gulches, yet the northern'slopes are well sodded and furnish very fair grazing for cattle and sheep. The monntain |