Dodged a bullet, $7500 fine

[41mag]

"I think that if their policies toward the public are changing then whatever obligations and benefits they may have inherited under those original public land grants need to be reexamined."

agree

and perhaps a review of the Hill Timber contract circa 1880/more or less, should be made. While it did result in most of a century of special taxes funding local school districts, the fraud and deception upon which it was based remains an untold story of .gov incompetence coupled with the unending efforts of .biz greed in a land and era of opportunity.

 

[kilimanjaro]

The original land grants were made as incentive to building railroads and canal systems to open up the country. Many people don't know it, but the railroads were selling homesteads and townsites just like the government was, and a great deal of national development was performed on the basis of those transportation corridors and land grants being made.

There is no legal basis to 're-examine' any of the land grants today. Oregon had some lands revested due to non-construction of the railroads, but once the government accepted the railroads as being built and carrying freight, the grants were made and the lands became private lands. There were no obligations other than that of any other landowner, and the benefits are those that accrue to any landowner.

If you want to 're-examine' the land tenure of the successors to the original grants, then be very careful of what you wish for, because you are also a successor to a grant of title from the United States, and the people who want to shove others around on their own land will find it a lot easier to shove you around than a big corporation.

 

[41mag]

"There were no obligations other than that of any other landowner, and the benefits are those that accrue to any landowner."

Perhaps I'm in error here; it has been my understanding the Hill agreement in essence gave 'every other section' of land from Idaho to Pacific Ocean, and from some zero-point up towards Champoeg somewhere to the California line, as his payment for 'building a regularly scheduled rail line over the summit of the Santiam Pass'.

It's been maybe 50 years since I read up on this stuff and I can not tell when/if/where my notions may have varied from reality.

As I recall, Hill built a spur line 1 mile long over the summit and hired a crew to push a flatbed back & forth on a regular schedule. The Supreme Court of the US ruled he fulfilled his part of the contract, and found in his favor. Whoever drew up the .gov part of the contract was incompetent, in error, or in cahoots.

As I get it, the Timber Lands special taxes have supported local school districts up until about a dozen years ago, after the timber industry was killed off by major shifts by Clinton policies changing USDA goals along with USFS mandates.

Somebody speak up & straighten this story out where ever your information is more solid. At the time I did spend considerable time chasing down references etc, but this was in the pre-internet era & relied on printed card catalogs for research.

We do have the remnant of Hill Timber spread across the state even today.

 

[kilimanjaro]

Yup, lots of 'sticky' activities back then, the first runs of the Union Pacific across the plains were on rails tied to sleepers laid on the ground, no gravel bedding. Totally roller-coaster ride.

Bottom line is, the Supreme Court ruled on such things and that's it.

I know of townsites that were platted before the Federal government got around to issuing the underlying mineral patent. Completely invalid title, but who is going to say so today?

The purpose of the grants was to open up the country and aid it's development, and this was done. Modern considerations such as state taxes, timber sales, etc., shouldn't enter into it, the idea back then was to put all, 100%, of the Public Domain lands into private hands. Only aridity prevented this from happening before the conservation era began around 1890.

 

[IheartSig]

Yup, lots of 'sticky' activities back then, the first runs of the Union Pacific across the plains were on rails tied to sleepers laid on the ground, no gravel bedding. Totally roller-coaster ride.

Bottom line is, the Supreme Court ruled on such things and that's it.

I know of townsites that were platted before the Federal government got around to issuing the underlying mineral patent. Completely invalid title, but who is going to say so today?

The purpose of the grants was to open up the country and aid it's development, and this was done. Modern considerations such as state taxes, timber sales, etc., shouldn't enter into it, the idea back then was to put all, 100%, of the Public Domain lands into private hands. Only aridity prevented this from happening before the conservation era began around 1890.

I just wanted to thank you for your contribution to this discuscion @kilimanjaro , all your posts have been pretty informative and I learned a lot of interesting information today.