Page:Looters of the Public Domain.djvu/401



N THE Spring of 1899, intense excitement was created throughout the southern portion of Cahfornia by the discovery of vast quantities of petroleum oil in the Kern River fields, adjacent to Bakersfield. At this time the conditions there regarding titles were rather peculiar. The lands upon which the oil was found had been surveyed by the Government many years previously, and returned as agricultural in character. As a matter of fact, no other return could then have been made, as there was nothing to indicate the presence of any kind of mineral in the soil, while on the contrary, there was everything to show that the land could properly be classed as agricultural, for the reason that it annually produced good crops of luxuriant grass, and was regarded generally as excellent range for various kinds of livestock.

Only during certain seasons of the year, however, could it be thus utilized, alfileria, the native grass, having a tendency to dry and disappear after reaching maturity. For this reason the land did not appeal to the homeseeker, as it was practically valueless without the aid of artificial irrigation, and there were no known methods of conducting water thereon. Therefore, although in most cases the several townships had been surveyed as early as 1855, the title to nearly all the land embraced therein was still vested in the Government, even in the face of the fact that the various vacant tracts were lying at the gates of a prosperous city of several thousand inhabitants. True, all the odd numbered sections of each township belonged to the Southern Pacific Company by virtue of inclusion within the grant limits of the railway corporation, but the other portions were as barren of claimants as the desert of Sahara.

This was the peculiar situation when oil was first found in the southeast quarter of Section 3, Township 29 South, Range 28 East, Mt. Diablo Base and Meridian. Instantly there was a rush from all directions to acquire title to lands adjacent to the point of discovery in the hope that the holdings thus secured might fall within the proven territory and enrich the owners. Railroad lands that had gone begging at $2.50 an acre suddenly achieved fabulous valuations, many transactions ultimately involving from $1,000 to $5,000 an acre, according to location, and derricks were springing up on all sides as if by magic. No wonder it was enough to inflame the imagination and cause men to do all sorts of things in order to obtain a foothold where the returns were so certain and phenomenal.

Titles to the various vacant tracts were sought in two ways: First, by applicants through the placer mining laws of the United States, in claims of twenty acres each, and almost simultaneously by claimants under the forest reserve lieu land Act of June 4, 1897. The latter were called "Scrippers," while the others were commonly known as "Mineral Locators." According to the mining laws as they had been construed by every Court in the land up to that time, no placer mining location could be made validly unless the entry was based upon an actual discovery of mineral, while the Scrippers, so called, were required to set forth in their affidavits that the land was "vacant and unoccupied" at the date of selection. Page 395