Page:Looters of the Public Domain.djvu/386

 Unsurveved lands selected by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, in the Roseburg Land District, Oregon:

Surveyed lands selected by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, in the Oregon City Land District, Oregon:

Unsurveyed lands selected by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, in the Oregon City, Oregon, Land District:

Approximately 1,000,000 acres were in the Rainier Mountain Forest Reserve belonging to the Northern Pacific. One-half of this was covered with a heavy growth of timber, which the company sold several years ago to the Weyerhaeuser Syndicate, before their value was realized, and the balance was used as scrip. Of the above quantity, about 100,000 acres were situated within the limits of the Alt. Rainier National Park, and were absolutely worthless for any purpose whatever, except as basis for the selection of other lands. The Company selected in the State of Washington practically 100,000 acres of yellow fir timber, worth at this time at least $100 an acre, and in the State of Idaho probably 120,000 acres more of white and yellow pine timber valued at from $50 to $100 per acre, while in Oregon 320,000 acres of the finest yellow fir timber in the State was selected, having a market value of at least $100 an acre, 50,000 acres being unsurveyed and considered the cream of the selections. The remainder of their scrip, with the exception of a few thousand acres, the Company sold to speculators throughout the country at a price ranging from $5 to $15 an acre.

That the Northern Pacific Railroad Company has a fondness for grasping opportunities is shown by the fact that not much time was lost in clinching the bargain after the Act of March 2, 1899, went into effect, as the records show Page 380