Report on the lands of the arid region of the United States, with a more detailed account of the lands of UtahPowell, John Wesley
History
Report on the lands of the arid region of the United States, with a more detailed account of the lands of Utah
Powell, John Wesley
Irrigation -- Utah; Irrigation -- West (U.S.); Public lands -- United States; Rain and rainfall -- West (U.S.)
Section 3 declared that the river should forever remain a public
highway for the use of the Government, free from toll or other charge
whatever; and provided that the Territory or State should not dispose
of the lands at a price less than the minimum price of public lands.
The grant to Wisconsin for the improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin
Rivers, though approved the same day, was somewhat different from the
Des Moines grant. It provided that “there be, and hereby is, granted
to the State of Wisconsin”, upon the admission of Wisconsin as a State
(which, by the way, had been provided for by an act approved two days
before), “for the purpose of improving the navigation of the Fox and
Wisconsin Rivers in the Territory of Wisconsin, and of constructing the
canal to unite the said rivers, at or near the portage, a quantity of
land, equal to one-half of three sections in width on each side of said
Fox River, and the lakes through which it passes from its mouth to the
point where the portage canal shall enter the same, and on each side
of said canal from one stream to the other, reserving the alternate
sections to the United States, to be selected under the direction of
the governor of said State, and such selection to be approved by the
President of the United States”. The rivers, when improved, were to
remain forever public highways for the use of the Government, free from
toll; and the sections reserved to the United States were not to be
sold for less than $2.50 per acre.
By the second section, the legislature of the State was to accept the
grant and fix the price at which the lands were to be sold (at not less
than $1.25 per acre), and adopt such kind and plan of improvement as
was for the best interests of the State.
The provisions for the sale of the lands were the same as in the Iowa
grant, except that the sum to be realized by such sales was fixed at
$20,000.
Section 3 required the work to be commenced within three years after
the admission of the State, and to be completed within twenty years, or
the United States was to be entitled to receive the amount for which
any of the lands may have been sold; the titles in the purchasers from
the State were, however, to be valid.
The language employed in this statute was more definite than that used
in the Des Moines grant, and in it is to be found the first provisions
respecting the increase in price of the reserved sections.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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