77 11 mtmrnt VOL. XXIV. LAKKVIKW, LAKH COUNTY, OltKGOX, THURSDAY, APRILS, 1903. NO. 14. REPUBLICAN CONVENTION Delegate Prom all Parts of The County Aft-ternMed in Lake view l;flday in Convention A great mim.v f th" delegates to tin i.cpillilleail 'nil II I. V Convention arrived In luk'vl'W IttMt Thursday, lint those who lived near by cniuo In Friday morning. When tin' hour of '.' p. in. arrived II was noticed that n large niiijorlty of tin delegates were oil lutliil, aii'l were houii assembled at tin court house. roiiM'iitloii was called to order li.v XV. .X. Mas sliiglll. chairman ol tin- County Ccu Irnl Committee. iro. XX'. .Noble of limine Lake pivcllicl wax i lumen t I H -pornry chairman, and XX'. V. Miller of Paisley, wiretary. Tin' rlmlr proceeded at emir In until)- tin' dlffcr i lit committees. Tin- commit tii s mi rrcilctillnlH wi'iv: E. E. Hhluiiial't, S. II. handler. S. .1. I'roHi'. This 1 1 in in It t - ft iti in I tin- f llowlug dele unti'N fiit li IimI to wiil: SiUer Lake. II, A. Ural tain, proxy E. I. I. lit.; E. It. I. nt, proxies of John Mayes, It. E. Smith. S. K. Iltislck, Johlnh I'orter, i. It. XX'ardwcll. Siimmrr Lake. .1. N. XValMuii. proxy C. Smith. . II. Ahldiidgc. I'nlhlcy. .1. N. XVatson proxy XX'. I". Tucker. M. LnurlUcii; XX. V. Miller, lieo. Cogue, John SlinmoiiN, Al Farrow, -I. M. IVticllel. I 'i imki'il ( 'h -ck. S, 1!, I han. tlrr. E. E. Khltiehail, S. II. Chandler, proxies N. It. Wilcox, i '. ('. 1 '.it t i 1 1 1 in . I il II W I ,tke. U. O. Morris, lien. XX'. Xoble, John II. Noble. Jalncs Mrl'ii'iiry, !'. E. ItllKhlil. Thomas i reck. .1. M. liaiiiiiici-Hlcy, li. I'. Earuiim, S. .1 . hut ton, S. .1 . I 'row. Ni.rlh Lnkcvlcw. .1. C. liawy, XV. S. i'.lnir. .lolin (). Hull, r. I'. I.inel.nrgei-. E. M. Crown. It. II. Ia.v. P. M. Curry, T. .1. Mast lugs. John McElhinncy. Soul h l.akr li-w. II. C. Whit worlli. li. T. Strlpliu. I-:. M. Hi-attain, S. .1. Studley, tiro. Itii'd. Han Maloy, X. Ar.ncr, C. K. A in Ii-I'mi hi , XX'. A. Mnshiugill. I news X'nlley. Dan Chandler, XX'. i. Tracy, l"nn Chandler proxy Fred Fisher. Soul h XX'arncr. I.. I Frnkcn; I.. I. Frakcs proxies of Tom Calderwood. J. E. Dunnnvln, S. E. Sloan. Nnrt h XX'arni'r. XX'. K. (tarry; XX'. K. Harry proxies of XX'. (-;. Scnuimou. Hugh A hern. Cogswell ('reck. C. ('. Catinoii, Edw. HnrUog, A. M. Smith, A. E. Follett. The chair IIkmi appointed the following committees. Resolutions: II. C. XV hit worth, XV. K. Harry, John McElhinncy. 1'criuuucut Orgnni.ntlon: II. A. Drat tain. XV. li., Tracy, L. D. Frnkes. Order of business: J. N. XVatson, C J. Llncbnrger. C. ('. Cannon. Nominations were then made for delegates to the congressional con vention nt Eugene. The following were the noinlnalloiiM with the votes they received: V. K. Harry 43, K. Al.jtrnttiild4l.lt. E. I.. Steiner 41, V. A. Mnnslnglll Hi, John .McElhln ney 111,, S, It. Chandler 1.1, J. X. Wat son 17, H. J. Slndley 1.1. Ah only 4 (lelenntcM wcl't' to Im' nelected. the Ih-rtt 4 were elected. I'.. M. lirattalii and XV. A. AinHHhiK'lU were the only I wo who could no down to the con KieHHlonal coinenllon which lntrtH nt Kunene. Weinslotk, Lubln & Co'a Catalogue. Since tli flro in .lanimry, XVIn Htock, I -ubln & Co., art located In tho former Statu l'alr J'avllion, Sixth and M. SiitH-lH, Sacramento, and arc carrying on a hirm ilty and tnall order IuihIiu'mh iih iihihiI. Send for WcIunIocIc, I.iiIiIii & Co'h. handnome new Catalogue. It Ih free to any uddrcHH and an Intercut Intf and helpful book to have, whether . yon buy from it or not. 14-2 WARNER LAND DECISION i I , March HI, l!Mi:i. 1 .1. I.. Morrow c(. al., ! v. Statu of OrrRoii ami XX'arncr Valley Stock Company I The coiumlMHloucr of the lieiicral Land oilli-c, ! Sir: I Tin' Slate of Ori'Kou and tl.e iXXarner alley Slock I oiupany ap iealed from your olllce d Ihloii of I March L. I'.MII. rejecting the StaleV ' HWamp laud M-lecl Ihiih under the act 1 of March :i, W-0 I t'J Stat., :i cmlirac ; ed In IImIm :in, 111 and ."'., of lundx de ' hcrllied In your otll' c decision, uate In towiiHhlp III! hoiiI li, raiiifi'" -I and L'.'i ent, ami tow iir.hlp in nout h, rane I '.'I cant, XV M,. I.akevlew, Orei;iiii. The former hlnlory of the contcn ! tlotiH coiiccrnlai; tiiew landf) Im more fully recited In Morrow i t. al., v. j State of (lll-tfon. 1.. !.. :i!Hi, to w hlcli, reference Ih hen made. May I HI, lv.Hi, c.N, lb., :!!i."i, the liepart Iment, for reanotiH there hinted, or dered that: All declMloiiH rcNpectiiij; the char acter of them' In m Im, or any of them, lieii-tofore rendered by the Depart ment , your olllce, or the local olllce, arc net iiHlde, with a view to a full and fair liearlnn, after due notice to all concerned which hearlui; hIiiiII In-conducted In accord ance with the htlpulullou In wrltlnir j tiled herein by coiiiihcI for the rvxpee i live partleH May I. lVMl. In addition to the IuiiiIh enilii mcccI In kuIiI IIkIh J .'Hi, :!1 and :i!. this deciKloii ami the i hearhiu: and proceeding herein de j reeled Hhall extend toami iiicludeany ' ami all oilier la Ih deHcl'llied In Hiild htlpulullou of May I. lVMi. The stipulation provided that if a ; ivhearliiK were ordered upon jK-nd-! Iiik pic ici-cdliiKH all claim aiHciMe to j the Slate and to the Warner Valley jStiM-k Company, linolx ln certain j j tlcHcrllx'd landH, hliould Im- coIihoII I dated and tried, ho far iih poHNlble, j iih one ciiHe, t he State and the hlock company to ha vet he burden of prov- Iiik; the Hwampy character of the laud, March 1.', lvio, by Kcncral evi ! deuce an to all the land, and auv furl her evidence an to xpecltlc tractn. July 17, ivci, a hearing wan had at the local olllce In w hich the partleH fully participated, andaKreut vol ume of evidence wait introduced. February .'I, l'.KKi. the local olllce found that all the land In cont rover m,v March Vi, iNHl, xva the bed of an apparently criunncnt lake. Fpon aplM-al November (I. 11XK1, your olllce decUlon revei-Ked the hx-al olllcei'H and iH'ld that "the IiiikIh Involved were not In INK) covered by the wat ern of a iiermaueiit lake," and that neither the condition of the land, nor ItH Hettlenient or other adverHO llliiiKH and clalniH thereto, are "of hucIi a charturter iih to pivvent the approval of the laud to tho State iw Hwamp land." NovemtKT 20, llKKt, thUdtn lHlon wiim nH-alUvl.and March 2, l!M)l,yourotllce vacattMlHiicli former decMon ami held that: ThelandH Included In IMh :i(), Itl and 'M, and all ot hern dcHcribed by the . . . Htipulatioii filed . . . May 4, lv.nt, xvere not iih a whole, nor iih to the greater portion of the HinallcHt leal HiibdivlHlou, Hwamp and overllowed on March 12, Istio, and that the State of Oit'Kon, and thone claiming under it, haw no title, luteiVHt or cHtnte In and to any part of Ha Id landn by or through the pro vlHlonof tho act of Maivh 12, IMill . . . . Said clalnm are hereby re jected and Hnh landH held for cancel lation. The t'ontroverny an to theHO land linn pended In one form or other, in tho Court h, In your olllce, and thin Department for many yearn, (See 5 L. I)., 3(11); 17 L. D. .r71; 111 L. 1). 254; 23 L. I)., 178; 2S L. 1)., :)IX.) .A nur- vey of TownxhlpH ".'.I Mouth, MinifeH IM ami -i ciiHt, wan made In the tleht In J ii in'. IsT.'i. Intlieii'tiiniHof whlchiwl larjite part of tlietwo towiinhlpH win ileHcrllH'd and ineaiidered iih a lake. The field notcH and wneral ilencrlpJ t Ion are very meaifer mid Rive no I Ik I) t iih to the character of tin- body of water therein npoken of iih "XVar ner Lake" and "hike." A Mirvey of Towiihlilp 40 Hoiith, rane 21 eaHt. wan made In the Held In July anil' AiikuhI, ls"!l. In the reluriiM of which a lare portion of the towtinhlp wiih ileHcrllH'd an iiiarhli or lake, and wan delliied by a meander line riintiln through "land marnhy along hike covered with IuIch and llajf yraHH;', "tulen In and along lake;" "thene IiiikIh are subject to overflow- by the creek and lake, covered with tulen., gniHH and flag;" "tuleH and Hag grnM la lake." The ineaiiili r line referred to Ih one traced through HcctloiiH il. 7. 1 l'.i, 2!, Hi. l'i. M, II. I. and 2. The general dcMcriptloii ac companying the Held lioten an to the lake or innili Ih that: The inai-hh or lake, if proiM-rly drained, Ih tli-ht -cIuhh muck land. Thin lake or mai'Hh Ih reported much lower at thin time than ever In-fore, and yet It cover a large portion of the tow nnhip. It having no outlet In filled up to overflowing; each Spring by the melting-of the hiiowm and the spring ralim. The mennder linen are run on the line of the over flow, xvhlcli In dellned by the marnh and tulcM. 1 he meamler line in thin townniiip connects w ith that In township :t!. ami together they enclose an area of about 22,hhi acres. Subsequently complaints were made by settler claimants that the surveys were fraudulent and Includ ed within the lueamler lines a large area of dry laud. They asked that t he public surveys be extended over the so-called lake, so that they have t of these parties afterwards testltied, opportunity to present proper uppli- j and the testimony of four other cations for the laud they occupied theretofore given in other proeeed aml to protect their settlement lugs concerning- these lands wan read rights. After examination and re-1 by the swamp land claiinantH. The port by a special agent. It was so testimony taken at the hearing- and ordered January 17, lss7( D. :!! I. t testimony so theretofore taken, with Such surveys were made In August ; the nttlduvli comprise that of two anil September, ls7. j witnesses who first saw the lands in Substantially all the land thus sur- J lsttf, three in five in 1 still, three vcycil xvnn claimed by the State and in ls;7, two in IsiiS, and one in Istiil, her grnntcc under the swamp land r sixteen during that decade, and grant SeptemU'r 2S, IsMi (t Stat., ! eleven othcrx from 1S71 to ls7l, in- .1101, extended to Oregon by the Act of March 12, lsiiO, Hupra, and wan In cluded In list (il, and presented IK ceinber, lsss. Many tracts were claimed by Individuals under the la ws fi ir disposal of agrlcult urn 1 IiiikIh and many controversleH over them arose In the courts and land depart ment. March 21, and Noveinlier 10, 1S1I2, your office prepared and sub mitted clear lists :t0 and 31 to the De partment for approval, which were approved April II, and IKn-eiiilier 3, lsii2, "subject to any valid adverse rights that may exist to any of the tractn therein dencrlbed", which Is the uniform character of approval given to all swamp land lists. Thin action wan revoked March 3 ls'j3. DocoinlK'r 111, lS'.l.l, upon the papers then licfore the department, it wan held that at the date of the grant all the landn In said list were covered by Lake XX'arncr and were not of the character contemplated by the swamp land grant, and thin decis ion (17 L. D. 574) directed, but not in pursuance of any consent or stip ulation of parties, that: All decisions, recommending- or holding; for cancellation entries or declaratory statements, upon the ground that the land in contest were granted to the State of Oregon an swamp and overflowed landn, by the act of March 12, IstiO, to le Met aside and annulled and the cases re-instated; ami all contests based upon said ground alone, to be dis missed .... DecemiHT 1.'', IsM, your oflhi" traiiH lilltted clear lintel, made up of 1 lie tract In lltn :Vi uml ".1 not within thean i nurveyiil In lss7. ThinxviiH n'JectMj and ciincclleil by depart mental declhion of AugUht 4, IstXi, (2:1 Is. D. 17s). which held that: The lands embraced In said listn :t0. :il and :!) were not on March 12, sim. swamp and overHowiil landn made unfit thereby for cultivation. Thin dirislou wiim recalled AugUht 11. IVM'i. ami no definite further ac tion was taken therein until the or der of May 1".. IVili. supra upon which the hearing now iM-nding was had. At the i ii 1 1 in I li mi of thin contro versy, the agricultural claimants assertiil thiit at the dale of the swamp land grant to the State the land hi controversy wan dry and suitable for agriculture without IvclamaUou. Al the recent hearing they contend that at the date of the grant the laud wan the In-d of al-u.u. or apparently icrmanrnt body of water, ami did not pass by the grant and that the lake lias since receded. licfoiv the hearing- In-gail the swamp laud claimants move a con tinuance for absence of witnesses mined in an allidavit tiled, setting forth the names of the witnesses, and facts to which they would testify. The adverse claimants admitted the IH't-sons named would no testify, and the hearing' proceeded. Theaflidavit wan to the effect that one of the parties named would tcntity that he .Aw an ui the x arner valley In isw; , t w othern that they were there in ii;r,; and six othem that they had know u the basin from IiH to 172, nUl tmt each would testify that ' t hese lands w hen first seen by them were swamp, marsh lands, covered with a rank growth of tides, flags and swamp grass, and were too wet for cultivation, but not covered by the water of a iiernmnent lake. One elusive, a total of twenty-seven wit nesses who observed tho condition of the land in those years, many of whom were familiar with them for the greater part of the iierlod cover til by the testimony. Tho agricultural claimants produc ed no evidence an to the condition of the land at or about the date of the grant, but felled upon testiinouy formerly adduced by the swamp land claimants, when tho contention wan an to the dry or the wet or sub merged condition of the land nt the time of the grant. Without giving the testimony of witnesses In detail it sutllces to say that the material facts established by the evidence are, substantially an follows: The evidence on In-half of the swamp land claimants shown that the lands lie near the south end of a depressed valley or fracture of the earths crust, about sixty or more miles long from north to south, and three to six miles wide, without drainage outlet, surrounded by walln of brown basalt, often one thousand feet high, divided Into the l'pier and Lower Warner valleys by narrows where It Is contracted by a compar atively near approach of its precipi tous sides. The floor of the valley near its south end slopes eastward and declines to the north, where its surplus water passes through tho narrows Into North Warner Valley. Tho entire basin has lieen somewhat Indiscriminately described, as- War ner Lake, Warner Lake, Warner Marsh and Warner Valley, from about JS49. The water of South Warner Valley mainly come from two streams (Twenty Mile Creek and Deep Creek) fed principally by melting snows of the surrounding mountains entering the basin near Its south end. In .Isft4, when the witnesses testifying first observed the valley, the lands In controversy an well an nearly all the floor of the basin, except small patches or I streaks of ojn'ii water, were covered by a rank growth of tuh, canes, flags, and swamp granses, the streams losing them selves in the marsh without any channels. The soil wan muck, or eat. several feet thick, formed from decay of many years' vegetable growth. Tho spongy nature of the soil, with the deuce standing and fallen vegetation. . greatly retarded H ' w water uvce ! surface of the valley towards the narrows, which had a fall of somewhat less than thirty-three feet, in a distance of about twenty nine miles, or jH-rliaps about eight een feet in the last eighteen miles. White settlers N-gan to come into the valley about the fall of ls70, and some 7,000 or S.OOO head of cattle and several thousand hogs were taken there in the winter of 1S70-77, and thence forward it was a winter range for stock. , The muck and fal- 1 Ion vegetation became more com i pacted us stock ienetrnted nud j ranged in further and further from ! the edges of the morass. Some of the waters of Twenty Mile Creek I were diverted into Surprise Valley, (California, and irrigating ditches i were taken out of Deep Creek for ! reclamation of arid lauds, the sur- plus finally discharging into IVlican Lake some miles down the valley from the mouth of the creek. From large parts of the marsh the tangled 'and fallen vegetation was burned. 1 Stock paths served the water for i channels. For some jieriods of several years there was less snow and rain-fall upon the mountains and less flow of water into the val ley. From these causes, a marked change came over the marsh and large parts of It anvery productive of hay and may be mown, and parts of it are arable. Hut at all times the iv were only comparatively small space covered by water which was tret ol vegetation, and now there are two bodies ot water In the Basin known as Cook's I-Jike and l'elican Lake, not, however, embracing any of the lands in controversy. The latter includes about three-fourths of Sec. 10 tp. :vs X., 24 E.. with a rocky or gravel bottom, devoid of vegetatlou. The former, or Cook's Ijike, is nearly two miles farther north, about two miles long and one wide, the character of the lied of which is not disclosed by theevldence. These are the ouly iiernmnent bodies of water shown by the evidence to exist in the basin. At the recent hearing the agricul tural claimants adduced only the testimony of xvltnesses on In-half of I the swamp land claimants, thereto i foiv given In cases involving siocinc i tracts, which testimony, It is claim ied, so conflicts with that given at ! the recent hearing an wholly to dis credit It. Examination shows that the discrepancies are rather as to tho terms used than to tho facts stated. At tho recent hearing the witnesses called that a swamp or marsh which they generally at tho former healing called "XX'arncr Iike or "a lake," but they usually added at such former hearing the words "or sxvampH," "or marsh," or descrlln-d It uncovered with tules, Hags, canes and water grasses, showing Its char acter. In their former testimony, tho xvltnesses describing the laud In (contluued on second pugo)