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Show I SALE OW GOWPAA STURE AND WOOD RESERVES. I The act of June 5, 1906, directed the opening to settlement of the 1 480,000 acres of grazing land and the 25,000 acres of wood land which I had been reserved to be used in common by the Kiowa, Comanche and Apache Indians in Oklahoma. The lands were to be opened to settlement by proclamation of the President and disposed of under sealed bids or at public auction, at the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior, to the highest bidder, under the provisions.of the homestead laws of the United States and regidations adopted by the Secretary of the Interior. Before the opening, allotments were to be made to Indian children born since June 6,1900, and, by the act of June 28,1906 (34 Stat. L., 550), cer-tain lessees were to be given the privilege of purchasing the tracts which they had leased. By Presidential proclamation of September 19, 1906, 2,531 tracts in these reservations were offered for sale under sealed bids. Under the regulationsprescribed by the Department bids were to be received at the local land office at Lawton, Okla., between December 3 and December 8, 1906, but it became necessary to extend the time to December 15. A total of 7,621 sealed envelopes containing bids were received, the bidders making offers on from one to 1,820 separate tracts-an average of 30 to 35 bids from each bidder and an aggregate of nearly a quarter of a million separate bids. Of the 396,139.88 acres sched-uled for sale, 175.16 acres were withdrawn after being scheduled; on 6,337.34 acres no bids were received; 638.20 acres were not awarded because the bids appeared to be too low; and 8,198.05 acres could not. be awarded because the only bidders on these lands had received other awards. The remaining 380,790.69 acres were sold for $4,015,785.25, an average of $10.54 per acre, or $1,686.40 per quarter section. I KIOWA TOWN SITES. The act of March 20,1906 (34 Stat. L., 80), provides for the estab-lishment of town sites on the Kiowa, Comanche and Apache pasture lands. Under its provisions six town sites have been selected and surveyed into lots and blocks, and the lots have been offered for sale at public auction to the highest bidder. The sites were chosen with reference to water supply and drainage and to placing the towns a reasonable distance apart. Five of the town sites are in the "Big Pasture," in the southern part of the former Kiowa, Comanche and Apache Reservation, and one is in the northwest part of Pasture No. 4. The designation, location, and acreage of these town sites and the lots sold are as follows: |