and thus this magnificent gift to the state passed with no adequate return into the hands of a foreign private corporation.
In the matter of the swamp-lands, nothing was done to secure them during a period of ten years,[1] it
being held that the right to them had lapsed through
neglect, and Gibbs having had enough to do to secure
the other state lands. George L. Woods, who in 1866
succeeded Gibbs as governor, made some further selections for school purposes. Not all of his selections
had been approved when, in 1870, L. F. Grover was
elected governor. The agricultural-college lands which
had been selected in the Klamath Lake basin had
been declared not subject to private entry by the land-office at Roseburg, within which district the lands lay,
and that office had refused to approve the selection.
The Oregon delegation in congress procured the pas
sage of an act confirming the selections already made
by the state where the lists had been filed in the proper
land-office, in all cases where they did not conflict
with existing legal rights, and declaring that the remainder might be selected from any lands in the state
subject to preemption or entry under the laws of the
United States; with the qualification that where the
lands were of a price fixed by law at the double minimum of $2.50, such land should be counted as double
the quantity towards satisfying the grant. This was
followed by the establishment of another land-office,
called the Linkton district, in the Klamath country,
and the approval of the agricultural-college selections.[2] The internal improvement grant[3]
was also fully se-
- ↑ The legislature in 1870 memorialized congress for an extension of time for locating the salt-lands grant. Or. Jour. Sen., 1870, 211; U. S. Misc. Doc., 20, i., 41st cong. 3d sess.; but it was permitted to lapse. Message of Gov. Thayer, 1882, 19.
- ↑ Grover's Message, 1872, p. 12–13; Cong. Globe, 1871–2, app. 702; Zabriskie's Land Laws, sup. 1877, 27, 73.
- ↑ See Appendix to Governor's Message for 1872, which contains the official correspondence on the confirmation of the state lands, and is an interesting document; also Jackonsville Sentinel from Oct. 14 to Dec. 9, 1871.
