Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/168

158. The report of the state board of its sale of swamp lands during the biennial period, 1880-2, is certainly unique : "But one certificate of sale for swamp lands has been issued by the present Board, to wit : Certificate of Sale No. 123, bearing date July 26, 1880, issued to H. C. Owens for certain tracts of swamp lands, amounting in the aggregate to 55,185.36 acres." The board goes on to assert that the applications of Mr. Owens were regularly made prior to the passage of the act of 1878 and in accordance with the requirements of the act of 1870. These applications of Mr. Owens must therefore have been among that "large lot" of unselected, or more probably among the "million acres of the unsurveyed." Mr. Owens then could hold his initial payment in reserve until his selections of swamp lands were surveyed and later selected by the agent of the state as swamp lands. The records show that up to 1887, without having paid a cent, he stood as recognized prior claimant for nearly half a million acres of land as soon as they might be ready to be sold. On that 55,000-acre lot received in 1880 he paid the required 20 per cent of the purchase price in warrants, issued under an act of 1876, which made warrants against a wagon road appropriation — principal and interest — receivable in payment of swamp lands. The state, as will be explained in connection with the discussion of the disposition of the proceeds from its different grants, indulged in some "frenzied" financiering with anticipated swamp land funds.

Before proceeding further with the "Mr. Owens" transactions with the state in swamp land purchases, he should be identified as merely the tool of a foreign syndicate that was up to this date and for a few years longer succeeding admirably towards accumulating for a song from the State of Oregon a domain of royal proportions. During the next two years, from 1880 to 1882;, Mr. Owens did not have quite a monopoly of swamp land purchases in Oregon. Still he was not interferred with to any considerable extent. During this period additional certificates of sale, for amounts exceeding 1,000 acres to an individual, were issued as follows :