Page:Looters of the Public Domain.djvu/87

 He then gave me a letter of introduction to A. W. Bell, the United States Commissioner at Prineville, the county seat of Crook County, my intention being to have all the filings and final proofs made before that official, the Lakeview Land Office, in which district the desired tracts were situated, being more than 150 miles away. Upon my arrival at Prineville I called upon Commissioner Bell, and in response to my suggestion that he place me in touch with some person who was familiar with the financial status of everybody in the county, he introduced me to a searcher of records named J. L. McCullough, with whom I entered into a contract based on my allowing him $10 each for all the locators he secured for me. It was the understanding that these persons were to file on a timber claim and make final proof thereon, and that all so procured should be free from any judgment or lien, as such an incumbrance would cast a cloud upon any title that might be obtained subsequently.

I likewise had a clear-cut agreement with each locator, whereby I was to charge them $150 as my filing fee, with the understanding that I would find somebody willing to loan $600 on each claim at the time of making final proof, the locators agreeing to execute a mortgage on their claims for that amount as security for the loan. This mortgage was to run one year at 10 per cent interest annually, and it was provided further that my location fee was to be deducted from this loan. As an evidence of good faith on my part, I also agreed to advance the $10 advertising fee on each claim, which was likewise to be refunded at the time final proof was made.

I was particular in impressing McCullough with the idea that under no circumstances whatever were the locators to offer their claims for sale before making final proof, and that neither the person advancing the $600 nor myself had any intention of purchasing the lands after the locators had acquired final title. In general terms, I sought to create the impression that good faith was to be observed all around in the transactions involving the acquisition of title to these lands, a personal inspection thereof by the claimants before filing being one of the conditions precedent to this idea.

After giving these instructions to McCullough, I drove out to the tract of timber, pitched my tent, and awaited developments. He was so well acquainted throughout Crook County that enough locators to file on each vacant quarter desired were soon secured, and within three days he arrived at my camp accompanied by a bunch of forty-five people, which represented only a comparatively small percentage of the total. These I gathered around me close enough for all to hear distinctly what I had to say, and repeated the instructions I had given McCullough, so as to avoid any chance of a hereafter. All present seemed to grasp the situation, and to be well satisfied with the conditions.

All hands were then requested to hitch up their teams and accompany me into the woods for the purpose of making a personal inspection of their prospective claims. This proved very easy of accomplishment, as the land was perfectly level, with no brush, fallen timber or rank undergrowth of any kind to contend with, and besides the whole tract had been surveyed the year previously. The lines were still freshly blazed, and corners set with four witness trees plainly marked, so that the lines were readily traceable.

The concourse of vehicles resembled a Sunday turnout in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, only of course the equipages were not quite so swell. Some had light buckboards, others good-appearing buggies, while express wagons and heavy farm traps of all sorts were in evidence, making an imposing spectacle as we sauntered leisurely through the beautiful timber, with its picturesque surroundings.

The soil, which was of a pumice stone formation, with a solid foundation, and covered with a heavy growth of wild grass about four inches high, was very prolific. The timber embraced one of the finest bodies of yellow pine anywhere, the trees being very uniform in size, averaging about three feet in diameter, and running from 50 to 75 feet to the first limb, indicating the quantity of clear Page 81