Show appeal taken on oil lands ads fw r QUESTION question INVOLVES STATES RIGHT TO LARGE TRACTS IN PASTERN UTAH ARISES ON DECISION OP 01 PICK FICH ON COMPANY PANY can oil shale be held to have been known mineral land at the time the state s title to such land lands as school sections would have attached unless they wore were known to have euch such mineral content IB is the th question which the state of utah has taken on appeal to the commissioner of the united tates general land office at washington the tendency ton dency of interior depart ment and federal court decisions dec lelone has uen to hold that unless the mineral contents of landi lands IB in known to exist in auch such quantities an to be com commercially raer valuable it ie in not mineral land within the means of the acta acts reserving mineral lands to the united states when the land la in without known mineral content four sections of each township at the time of filing of the plat of the federal survey automatically go to the state recently the register of the vernal land off office ice decided a claim of tho the watson oil company adversely to the protest of the state of utah the state appealed from that decision to the commiss commissioner loner former gov william spry the alleged errors assigned aro given in the following language the register and receiver erred first in holding that from the tes tea produced prop the lands herein involved since 1908 were known to contain oil shale in commercial quantities second in holding that oil shale in commercial quantities exists in these lands third in as burning that oil shale had at the time the title of the state of utah attached to the lands a known or recognized commercial value fourth in holding that the protest of the state of utah must be rejected it will be the contention of the if it Is expected that the demonstration Bt of the commercial value of the oil shale lands of utah Is at best beat a very recent event it if it can be said to have been demonstrated as yet except possibly in a few rare instances 11 at any rate as far back as 1908 fifteen years ago it could not reasonably be stated the state ar buee that the oil were commercially merci ally valuable A favorable decision to the state on such an issue would clear title to nn an immense amount of land in eastern utah now claimed by the state or by successors in interest of the state on tho the other hand if it is to hold that the oil underlying thousands of acres in fn that section sections and known as a matter of o f geology to lo ba 10 classed as known mineral lands Is an immense area of the rich basin lands on which the school land grant st df the federal govern ment wll wil be held ineffective if it the state wins wine tinder the state stat loading act the royalty resulting from the development of such oil will all of it colao to the if it the federal government wan only three eighths of the royalty will come to the state the re nin indor going to tho federal recia motion service orto or to the federal gov Orni nent for administration of the federal leasing act tribune |