board of school land commissioners were ordered to appoint an agent to select and to offer for sale at one dollar an acre the lands selected as swamp lands without asking the approval of such selections by the national authorities.[1] A list of their selections, amounting to 174,219 acres in 1872, was filed at the local public land offices, but there the same lands were being offered to homestead and pre-emption settlement. Governor Grover had during the preceding year taken up the matter with the Department of the Interior charging that the general land office of the United States had been neglectful in the execution of the laws of Congress making this grant in so far as it related to Oregon. Special apprehension was expressed concerning the fact that the large railway land grants, which were being located at this time, would infringe upon the swamp land areas.[2] This most unsatisfactory situation was continued another two years. The agents of the state extended their selections and had filed lists amounting to 266,600 acres by the time of the meeting of the Legislature in 1874. The Secretary of the Interior, however, had no attention paid to these selections as he held that in the act of 1870 the state had not complied with the regulations of the department as to indication of mode of selection it had chosen, nor did that act provide for proof of swampy character of lands selected. That headway might be made toward securing a clear title to the lands chosen Governor Grover counselled the Legislature to pass a resolution specifically electing to select the swamp and overflowed lands by agents of the state and to instruct the board of school land commissioners to furnish such evidence, and in such manner to the Department of the Interior of the character of these lands as it should prescribe. The Legislature complied and passed[3] an act requisite for securing the selection of swamp lands in accordance with rules of the Department of the Interior.
