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Show WM& CLAIMS VALUABLE MaMBSSMBMaMSMBMBMBH Much of the Land, Former Indian In-dian Agent Says Is of Little Lit-tle Value; Water Front and Mineral Lands Good. '. According jto Maj. II. P. Myton, former.Indian agent at Fort . Duchesne, much of the lanc( which will be thrown open, "to settlement settle-ment in the Uintah reservation, is of but little Value from an agricultural agri-cultural standpoint, owing to the climatic conditions and probable scarcity of water. Maj, My ton says, however, that many rich mi- ) ; . ning claims will be staked out, and that some of the farming lands , will be a prize for the fortunate ones in the drawing. - . "Many of the people who are getting ready to stampede to the Uintah reservation reser-vation when it is thrown open for settlement set-tlement are going to be very much disappointed," dis-appointed," said Maj. II. P. Myton, former for-mer 'Indian agent and the first one to allot the lands of the Uncompaghre Indians, In-dians, which, strangely enough. He ad-Joining ad-Joining the present allotment. "In the first place, the man who draws lot No. 1 will lose money unless he is a resident resi-dent of Uintah county. To obtain title a person must live on the land fourteen four-teen months consecutively and must pur substantial improvements -on it. The cost of the land in $1.25 per acre and the fees; he has then 160 acres of land which .is absolutely worthless for any purpose unless, he pays to some company, about all the land is worth for irrigation. Nor is this all; about the time these Improvements are made, the greater part of the surplus water may have been diverted to Utah lake, as the Government is now tunneling the mountains with a view of taking the surplus flow of the Duchesne. ' Those Who Will Make Money. "The only men who .will make money out of the reservation will be those who file on mining claims or the water fronts controlling the grazing lands ad-Joining, ad-Joining, and the parties who get in on the ground floor on townsltes. If a person really wants good farming land he can do very much better by purchasing pur-chasing from the State near . Green River, on the Denver & Rio. Grande, or other points In Utah, where the water supply and the market are better and the land equally good. i - , "Of course there is ans opportunity for the small stock grower to file on a claim with a wetter front in the Strawberry Straw-berry valley in the western part of the reservation. The season Is so short In all parts of the reservation that it Is difficult to raise crops; frankly, it is purely a grazing country. I am led to the above conclusions, as the result of deductions growing out of many years' residence in and about that section. Snow stays on the ground till May and the winter snows begin to fall In September. Sep-tember. There Is not a day even In July and August when the mornings are not cold enough to form ice too thick to be broken by the thump of the finger. People are prone to follow the opening of an Indian reservation. It's a habit like buying a medicine fakir's ware under the hypnotism of the quartette and the glare of the gasoline gaso-line light. In this case the rank and file are going to be badly fooled and lose their time and money. Water Front Valuable. "Those who file on water fronts in the western part of the" reservation will doubtless make a few hundred dollars, as many grazers already have their herds in the lands back from the water fronts and will need the water rights to keep their stock In good condition. Relinquishments may.be worth $200 or $300 when the. water fronts go with them. "The Indians are selling this land and they' have already reserved the ' best farming sections for their own use. ' There are ditches there, but the water is all taken and the only way , the newcomers can expect to get their land under water Is to club together and form a ditch company to take In 100,000 acres or more. Because of lack of communality of Interest it -will be difficult to form such a company. And , the geography of the cduntry along the river . Is such that single-handed I effort' in the building of small ditches is wellnlgh impossible. - -, Three Ways Entering.. L . ;''; "There are three ways of "entering the reservation all of them .difficult of negotiation both physically and financially. finan-cially. From Heber to the ' western portion of the peservation Is only about twenty miles; but to reach the farming section of the reservation the eastern portion about eighty miles more of -the roughest and dustiest desert road must be traversed. The lands may also al-so be reached by taking stage from Colton, on the Rio Grande Western, end from Price.. The trip requires two days and is flesh-wasting and nerve-racking. nerve-racking. The cost of transportation by stage even now Is heavy, but it will be simply up in the clouds after the stampede stam-pede begins. The only sure way to negotiate the distance Is to own or hire private teams and carry in enough provisions pro-visions and other effects to insure comfort. com-fort. Making of Allotment. "After registration is closed, allotments allot-ments are made by drawing, each person per-son drawing a prize belnf notified at once and given a non-transferable permit per-mit to go into the reservation and make such selection or selections as he may see fit. When his time comes to file he may pay the fees and make a second trip to mark his selection with a monument monu-ment or some other contrivance to notify noti-fy others that he has made his selection. selec-tion. Then begins his residence of four-i four-i teen months.. As a farming location the lands offer many drawbacks, chief among which are distance from the railroads. Though it is understood that in time the Moffat road will pass through the reservation close to Myton. My-ton. a postoffice on the Duchesne, yet Salt Lake City will be the nearest market place1 and freight from - that point here must be figured in addition. Mineral Locations. "As to mineral locations, none may be made until after two months. And the chances for getting good Mineral claims seems to me remote when it Is considered that for three years the ' Florence and the Raven people have had their prospectors scouring the country looking for the best things. It goes without- saying that long before the newcomer has succeeded In locating a. claim, all the good ones will have i been taken Into camp. - i "I d. nexpect a verv larS "impede; "im-pede; In 1898. when I threw the Uncompaghre Uncom-paghre reservation open, there were only three claims filed in the whole ' reservation of 2,000.000 acrei la the first three months." i |