Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/277

 a grant of the lands conveyed to the Des Moines Navigation Company, to the Keokuk, Des Moines and Minnesota Railroad Company, to aid in the construction of a railroad from the city of Keokuk up and along the valley of the Des Moines River by way of the city of Des Moines and thence to the northern line of the State. On the 15th of April, 1858, the Navigation Company accepted the terms of the settlement proposed by the State and the plan of making the Des Moines River navigable was finally abandoned.

The plan of improvement contemplated the erection of fifty-seven dams and locks between Keokuk and Des Moines. Two only of the fifty-seven, had been completed; one was nearly finished, and some work and materials had been supplied for five or six more at the time the work was abandoned. The State had expended a large amount of money derived from the sale of lands before turning the work over to the Des Moines Navigation Company. That Company proceeded with the work until it had expended $332,634 and when the settlement was made with the State, April 15, 1858, the Company had received 226,107 acres of land. The remainder of the lands, embraced in the grant lying north of the Raccoon Fork, were on the 3d of May, 1858, certified to the Navigation Company in final settlement. The Company then began to sell the lands wherever purchasers could be found.

After twelve years of work and the expenditure of a great amount of money derived from land sales, no part of the river had been made navigable, excepting for small steamers during the seasons of high water. The magnificent land grant had been disposed of without any benefit whatever to the State, or to its citizens. But in the meantime, while the officers of the General Government were promulgating different opinions and decisions as to the extent of the grant, the lands of the upper Des Moines valley were in the market, being sold to settlers by the