REPORT

OF

THE GOVERNOR OF WYOMING.

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,

Cheyenne, September 25, 1886.

SIR: In compliance with your request of August 5, I have the honor to submit the following report of the affairs, progress, and development of the Territory of Wyoming during the past year, and offer such suggestions upon subjects relating to the Territory as I desire to call to the attention of the Interior Department and Congress.

Having made an extended and somewhat exhaustive report for the year 1885, giving a history of the settlement and advancement of the Territory, its flora and fauna, its geographical, topographical, geological, and atmospherical conditions, together with articles upon live stock and other leading interests, I deem it unnecessary to reproduce the descriptive portion of that work. I endeavor to make this report supplemental to that of 1885, recording in its pages the changes and hap penings of the last year, and adding some interesting facts of a statistical nature not contained in former reports, with a brief summary in short paragraphs of salient points regarding Wyoming.

Accompanying this report is a map of the Territory, brought down to date. It is the map of 1885 with changes in the boundary lines of three counties as made by the last legislature, and with two new railroads, built during the last year, correctly drawn in. I trust the slight alterations will cause but little delay in getting out the new map to accompany printed copies of this report.

Although I have resided within the Territory some 19 years, traveling over it extensively, and have worked assiduously to secure statistical information, I have to regret that in so great a scope of territory, with such a diversity of resources, many matters of interest and im portance have doubtless escaped my attention.

Unfortunately, Wyoming has no bureau of statistics nor depository for collecting facts and figures. No census was taken in 1885, so that the collection of statistical data is difficult and tedious, requiring patient search at various points and through numerous records, covering a period of many years. With a view of arranging a starting point in the collection and preservation of data, a number of lists and tables are introduced in this report which may serve the double purpose of present information and the accumulation of statistics for future reference. It will also form a nucleus for a "red book" for the State of Wyoming. * In publishing this report the maps referred to have been omitted.

The legislature of Wyoming, at its 1886 session, ordered from the Government Printing Office, in addition to the copies furnished by the Interior Department, 4,000 copies of the report of 1885 for general distribution. This office, therefore, as well as the Interior Department, can furnish to interested applicants copies of last year's report to accompany this of 1886; the two making a comprehensive showing of Wyoming's natural resources and present condition.

The general business depression of the country during the past year has been quite keenly felt in Wyoming. Cattle-growing, the leading industry of the Territory, has suffered severely from the unsatisfactory beef market, and the tide of immigration and settlement of public lands is being sensibly checked by the severe requirements exacted from settlers by the new rules and regulations of the General Land Office. Aside from these retarding influences, the Territory is making rapid progress.

Very flattering results attend all efforts in developing our mineral resources, and railroad building is being pushed with remarkable vigor. The Wyoming Central has entered our borders within the past year from the east, and has now completed, with trains running thereon, 80 miles of standard gauge track, and some 60 miles in progress of grading. The Cheyenne and Northern has grade completed, and has commenced track-laying on about 90 miles of railroad, with the intention of completing 100 miles the present year, and at least as much more next season. This road, which runs from Cheyenne northward, will ultimately reach the British Possessions.

The building of new railroads will open up the unsettled and undeveloped portion of the Territory and will bring an immense population, mainly settlers upon the public lands.

THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

As the settlement and increase of this Territory must depend largely upon the acquirement of land, and as nearly the entire area of the Ter ritory is comprised in the unoffered, surveyed, and unsurveyed lands of the United States and the large reservation set apart for the use of certain Indians, it becomes a matter of the greatest importance how, and when, these lands can pass from the ownership of the United States into the hands of bona fide settlers and citizens of the Territory.

Frauds have been perpetrated upon the United States ever since land laws were enacted, and doubtless will be as long as the United States has lands to dispose of. They have been perpetrated to some extent in Wyoming, and will unquestionably be in the future, here as elsewhere, unless reasonable and practicable safeguards are interposed. This question is so broad and important that it should receive the fullest investigation in the interest of both the Territory and the United States. Fraudulent transactions should be discovered and punished rigorously. The crimes of the dishonest should not, however, cast suspi cion, inconvenience, injustice, and, as sometimes happens, outrage npon the honest but poor settler who is struggling to comply with the laws of his land, and does comply as nearly as his best efforts and the physical conditions of the lands of Wyoming will admit of.

It is not fair to virtually stigmatize as a thief every settler upon the public land, nor to consider representations, made in proving up, fraudulent whenever it is sought to obtain land settled upon, because there may have been dishonest entrymen and fraudulent proofs.

As a citizen of Wyoming, and an executive officer, I most respectfully represent that I believe land matters in Wyoming are misunderstood and misjudged, in a great degree, by Congress and by the Interior Department, in whose charge these matters are placed.

Believing this, and appreciating the interest of the United States and the all-important interest Wyoming has in the public lands, I beg to respectfully suggest and earnestly urge that the situation is momentous enough to require the personal presence on the ground, for a time, of the Secretary of the Interior, or some trusted officer selected by him, to investigate the general physical conditions of our Territory with referrence to the public lands, the prevailing honesty or dishonesty of entries, the reasonable conditions that should be imposed on entrymen, the location of our lands within the arid district, the advantages or disadvantages accruing to settlers in remote districts, the classification of lands as to mineral, timber, agricultural, desert, &c., with a view of harmonizing the present unsatisfactory complications.

Investigations made by general and special land agents are necessary and useful, but they fail to entirely reach the foundation of the trouble, and such agents, from the very nature of their instructions and duties, cannot convey the information to the Land Department of the general appearance and character of our lands, and the effects of laws and Land Office rulings, which would be readily discovered by one, an officer or commissioner, whose only object would be to present a comprehensive review of the entire subject. Such officer should be a personage whose high position under the Government would entitle his report to earnest consideration by Congress and the highest officers of our Government.

Efforts of the General Land Office to protect the United States and the public domain for actual settlers and to prevent frauds are commendable, but if an overzealous course is pursued and the acquirement of land by bona fide entrymen is made so difficult as to amount almost to proscription, very great injury is done the class sought to be benefited by such efforts.

Without question, the local land officers are performing their duties conscientiously and well, under instructions promulgated for their guidance, but it is feared those well-meant, iron-clad instructions do not so much hinder frauds as they embarrass and impoverish the poor pioneer who stakes his all upon the adage, " Uncle Sam is rich enough to give us all a farm," and who, after expending time and money, finds himself unable to honestly make oath to all the questions, cross questions, and stringent requirements exacted by agents of that trustee who holds these lands in trust, and who should be willing and anxious to dispose of them as a legacy, rightfully due every lawful claimant.

The public lands of the United States should pass as rapidly as possible into the hands of private owners, provided always it is through lawful settlement and improvement. The growth and success of our country largely depend upon the development of new Tertitory.

From close observation, it is estimated that more than three-fourths of the rejected land proofs of to-day affect the poorer classes. The entries are made in good faith and are entirely free from fraud or double dealing, but parties are in many cases unable, on this arid land, to support their families, make necessary improvements, and confine themselves entirely upon the land as required. The settler frequently must leave his claim to work for wages in order to secure food and the necessary means to make his improvements.

If this be so, should there not be greater leniency and liberality?

It must be remembered that Wyoming is not a natural garden spot, and, unlike the lands of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and other States, where every acre requires but to turn the sod to grow abundant crops, in this Territory agricultural products, aside from the sparse native grasses-fit only for grazing-cannot be produced except through expensive irrigation long applied. In fact, months of patient labor must be expended in getting water upon the land, and perhaps years must then elapse before agricultural crops can be produced, if at all.

In those States, notwithstanding the land at the time it was taken up was worth more than ten times what the lands of Wyoming now are, the pre-emptor secured 160 acres of prime farming land for $1.25 per acre, while in this Territory he must pay the same for very inferior land, if more than 20 miles distant from the Union Pacific Railroad, but if within 20 miles (the Union Pacific Railroad limit) he must pay $2.50 per acre.

The United States receives full value, and generally more, for the land in Wyoming when proof is accepted, so that no loss accrues to the Government. But to the settler, his time and all his improvements are lost if he does not receive patent, and little if anything is gained over and above the price he pays if patent should be granted to the land in desert and pre-emption entries. The inherent right of the citizen to make entry of certain lands-a right that can be but once used in each class in a life-time-is very much cheapened in Wyoming as compared with the privileges formerly enjoyed by citizens who exhausted their rights in the rich and fertile States east of Wyoming.

Considering the privileges of the past, the homesteader or pre-emptor of to-day receives but a small inheritance.

Notwithstanding this, at no time in the history of our Government have the rules been as severe and so much required of the entryman in order to secure a patent, with such precarious chances of receiving the fruits of his labor, as now.

It should be borne in mind that the laws framed to cover the fertile lands of the older eastern States are not applicable to the arid lands of Wyoming, and that they should be made more generous to the settler and applicable to the arid condition of this country.

Instead of this, it is to be regretted that Congress is narrowing the privileges and seemingly begrudges the settler his portion of the public lands on the ground of the rapid decrease of the public domain, and notwithstanding this decrease is largely chargeable to Congress for its extravagant subsidies from time to time to railroads, to the several States in swamp lands, &c.

In the reclamation of desert lands, if the entryman is forced to raise agricultural crops upon his entire entry, and to harvest and measure said crop before the three years expire, he is subjected to an expense before he can receive returns that the poor man cannot meet, for preceding the gathering of crops great expense is incurred in either buying a water-right or conducting, by private enterprise, water to the entire claim. And after water is put on it requires from two to five years to thoroughly fit the land for crops, which can be easily produced each year thereafter.

The wealthy entryman can perhaps live continually upon a pre-emption claim, not being compelled to leave it to earn money for final payment, and being able to subsist without receiving benefits of a crop which can only be obtained after years of irrigation, but a poor man cannot conform to the requirements.

Likewise in desert-claims, a wealthy owner may comply with all the requirements, where the poorer man must lose the result of his efforts on account of the incompleteness of his proof as measured by the present severe standard.

Again, a dishonest settler will often make what seems to be an excellent proof because he does not value the sanctity of an oath, and, by collusion with witnesses, the answers to all questions will be favorable for proof.

An honest man is careful not to overstate his case, hence his proof makes a poorer appearance on paper, and his entry may be rejected, while his less conscientious neighbor secures an acceptance. Hence the suggestion that special agents should in all cases visit and examine lands before or when proof is offered, rather than spend almost useless time delving in old matters upon which no intelligent evidence can be adduced.

It is true that settlers are not compelled to settle upon public lands, and the Government can afford to hold them, but it is nevertheless true that the Government is of the people and for the people, and these lands belong to the settler under traditional rights, subject only to legal and proper rules and regulations. It is submitted as a principle, that an entryman should receive the benefit of a doubt in making final proof rather than to submit him to the arbitrary rule that all doubts and suspicions shall lie against him and he be considered dishonest until he prove himself the contrary.

Certain evil-disposed persons frequently write to the Department and officers making charges that cannot be sustained, merely for purposes of mischief, and oftentimes in retaliation for not being able to blackmail honorable entrymen and land owners. A few so-called land attorneys make a regular business of inciting contests for the purpose of fleecing the settler; railroading through fraudulent entries, and making it necessary for them to be employed whenever they will it, or they resort to the system of secretly "filing charges."

It is therefore suggested that the character and motives of parties filing charges be fully investigated, as well as the lands and persons of those complained of by the complainants.

Further on in this report I will submit some facts and figures showing the non-issuance of patents to settlers. (But two patents, aggregating 120 acres, were issued in Wyoming the present year.) The Government has defaulted regarding patents to a degree that does not encourage honesty, industry, and promptness on the part of the settler. The man who buys a farm from an individual and pays for it expects a deed, and usually gets one without unnecessary delay. It should be the same with the Government.

In concluding this subject, I venture to assert that the sentiment and wish of every honest settler is that land matters be fully investigated, that the investigations be without prejudice, that a desire to enter and make proof upon the public land be no longer considered prima facie evidence of an intention to commit fraud, and that patents may speedily issue upon proper proof.

FENCING ON THE PUBLIC DOMAIN AND RAILROAD ALTERNATE SECTIONS.

Permit me to direct your attention to the remarks in my last annual report (pp. 1205-1207 of your report) relative to fencing on public lands, and also to the situation of the odd-numbered or railroad sec

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