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Show THE RICH COUNTY REAPER, RANDOLPH, UTAH World Looks at Mediterranean, Home of Impregnable Gibraltar ; And Another Fortress, Corfu ! Master Map Is Record of U. S. Growth Land Office Completes Biennial Revision; Painstaking Job. By NOAH JOHNSON WASHINGTON. Down Louisiana way someone discovered a few years ago that East Timbalier island, 65 miles off New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico, had moved approximately two and one - fourth miles during the past hundred years. Natives like you and me shook their heads and said JL et s .... .4 r..A STEP NO. 1 Whos land is it? Outside of the original 13 states, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maine, Vermont, Texas and Tennessee, the miles of books like answer is found in more than two and one-hathese in the general land office. They show transfer of more than 6,000,000 parcels of public domain as compiled under the rectangular survey system, source of basic information for the new master map. wasnt that strange. They forgot island off the view of the old fort at Corfu, strategic Greek-ownenorthwest coast of Greece near Albania. Though England warned Italy that seizure of Albania would be an invitation to war British ships stood by at Corfu when Italian troops were landed in Albania. A d i (Prepared by National Geographic Society. Washington, D. C. WNU Service.) Rock at Western End Greek Island Played Guarded Jealously Important Role in By England. Many Wars. The Greek island of Corfu (Ker-kyr- a Europes general nervousness is to the Greeks) took the leading Gaction at into translated being ibraltar, as warships gather and place in news headlines when Italy .England rushes land and air de- as a part of her Albanian adventure, fense for her sentry at the doorway seemed bent on seizing it, and when Great Britain demanded hands off. to the Mediterranean. The Rock of Gibraltar, standing guard over the strait of the same ,name which divides the continents of Europe and Africa, is one of the worlds most strategic spots. A great rugged finger pointed at Spanish Morocco from the Spanish mainland at the western entrance to the Mediterranean, Gibraltar is surrounded on three sides by water. On the fourth side, it is linked with Spain by a low, sandy isthmus and known as neutral ground, bounded on the north by what is marked on official maps as an Iron Fence and on the south by an Unclimbable Fence. Three miles long and less than a mile wide, Gibraltars towering limestone mass rears its head at its highest point nearly 1,400 feet above the blue Mediterranean. Cut The island, 40 miles long and 20 miles across at its widest point, resembles a huge cornucopia, slightly squeezed out of shape by a giant hand. Corfu lies at the head of the Ionian sea like a watch tower over the Strait of Otranto, door to the Adriatic. The northern or wide end is but two miles from the Albanian shore, while the south end is about 10 miles off the coast of Greece. Corfu should be callous to wars and rumors of wars. For 26 centuries it has played a part in many of the major political upheavals in Europe and the Mediterranean. Romans, Venetians, Genoese, Persians, the Normans of Sicily, British, French, Turks, and even Mediterranean pirates, at one time or another have had long or short control of the island. Once American Naval Base. During the World war it was an important naval base, with British, French and Italian ships thwarting any attempt of German or Austrian submarines to venture out of the Adriatic sea. The most recent military occupation of Corfu was by Italian forces. In 1923 several Italian officers were n killed near the then vague border. Italy demanded an apology and an indemnity of The $2,000,000. government of Greece submitted which were refused. For five days Italian troops poured onto Corfu. Italy and Greece came to terms before the occupation was a month old and the Fascist troops evacuated. In range of altitude, as well as in plan, Corfu resembles a cornucopia. The northern part of the island is a region of high mountains, the midsection undulating hills and the southern extremity low plains. Bathed in Mediterranean sunshine, Corfu has long been, between wars, a pleasure ground. One of the islands prominent vacationists was Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany who purchased, in 1907, the Achilleion, a palace-vill- a built for the unhappy Empress Elizabeth of Austria. Idyllic Lotas Land. Homer described Corfu as an idyllic lotus land of beautiful people and scenery, where figs, grapes and other fruits grow in abundance. One of those other fruits today is olives, which cover large areas of the island. When the Venetians held sway for 400 years from 1401, a bounty was paid for each olive tree planted. This aroused in Corfu agriculturists and their descendants an interest in olives that persists today. The town of Corfu is about midway the eastern side of the island. While there are a few reminders of the occupation of the island by its numerous landlords, the lower part of the town does take the traveler back to the Middle ages. A labyrinth of streets, some too steep and narrow for wheeled vehicles, wind through this section. French and Italian architecture predominates but there is a bazaar that recalls the flavor of the East when Turkey had her heel on Corfu and its neighboring islands and mainland Greco-Albania- counter-proposa- In one of the oldest ceremonies at Gibraltar, the key sergeant locks the Land port gate. Much activity has taken place at Gibraltar during this years repeated crises. in its rocky sides are the famous studded with camougalleries, flaged guns capable of shooting five miles across the Bay of Algeciras on the west, as well as across the Strait itself to Africa some 14 miles away. ' Still more guns, heavy artillery and guns, are even now Food set supplies and up. being munitions are being stored in the heart of the Rock, and men are working on a bombproof tunnel. Equally important in the defense of Gib, as it is familiarly called ' by those who live there, are the vast water reservoirs also chiseled out of solid rock. Holding hundreds of millions of gallons, these reservoirs are filled by a simple but ingenious of water sheds arrangement which catch rain water as it falls and direct its flow to the reservoirs. anti-aircra- ft ls about it, but Uncle Sam had to remember because someone might ask him about East Timbalier island. About the same time government surveyors discovered the Missouri river had jumped its tracks around Bismarck, N. D., just a natural phenomenon to the folks at Bismarck but a minor crisis to Uncle Sam. It messed up his land records something awful. Log Jam and Earthquake. Meanwhile, back in Louisiana again, a great log jam formed in the Red river, growing until it obstructed the stream and forced hur ried waters to drain off into bayous That was another headache for government surveyors, who had just returned from Arkansas where they found that an earthquake in 1808 had left lakes where no lakes were supposed to be. Every two years since 1882 this headache has been boiled down into lf Dept, of Intenor Photos United States without treaty, cession, purchase or other formal proceedings at the beginning. This quirk in national development grew out of the hastily drawn Louisiana purchase from France in 1803, which stated that the United States should get lands in the drainage basin of the Mississippi river. Later, when the treaty for annexation of Texas was negotiated in 1845, the east boundary of that area was set at the Sabine river. Between these two boundaries lay some 12,000 square miles of the southwestern corner of Louisiana, east of the Sabine and not part of the Mississippi drainage basin. Spain contested inclusion of this area into the Union, the controversy being settled by a treaty in 1919. This story is shown on Mr. Johnsons map. These, however, are mere historical details, which once chronicled need never be changed. Land office workmen have far more trouble watching Mother Natures constructive and destructive tasks, an unceasing process which is the major reason new maps are necessary every two years. Sometimes man conspires with Nature to complicate matters, and no more fascinating chapter of land office history has ever been written than that concerning Lake Michigan and Chicago, where changes in the shore line precipitated a lengthy battle before the United States Supreme court. Streetervilles History. This was the stirring, though unsuccessful battle of Capn George Wellington Streeter and Ma, his wife, to secure title to tracts of land built up by the restless waves of STEP NO. 3 the rate of 1,000 Multiple color presses produce the finished map at sheets per hour. a picture seven feet long and five cial records, hundreds of thousands feet high, known as the official mas- of drawings and years of wearisome ter map of the United States, In trudging by hundreds of government the office of Land Commissioner surveyors over more than 1,800,000,-00- 0 Fred W. Johnson, part of the U. S. acres of public lands. department of the . interior, workThe newest map, prepared by ormen figurately condense on the needle- der of congress, is just now com-sharp point of an engraving in- ing off the press. strument millions of pages of offi- Most Perfect Map Made. When you know the details, theres something terrifyingly grandiose 100,000 Expected at about this map. It carries a key to the identification of original titles Townsend Convention; to approximately 6,000,000 parcels Speakers Announced of land transferred to private ownership by federal patent during the Several of Americas most promi- past century. It shows outlines of nent leaders, including senators, the national rectangular survey sysupon which such land disposal congressmen and other public off- tem was As if that were not based. of will address Dr. advocates icials, Francis E. Townsends plan for na- enough, it presents a 1939 picture tional recovery, when they gather of the United States from A to Z, in their fourth national convention including state boundaries, cities, towns, rivers, railroads, national June 22 to 25 in Indianapolis. and reservations, outlying terSenators Gerald P. Nye of North parks ritories and possessions. Dakota, Claude Pepper of Florida To compile it workmen had to exand Sheridan Downey of California, amine 100,000 constantly changing Congressmen James Van Zandt of called township plats, on drawings, and Hendricks Pennsylvania Joseph in file office. Every minute land the of Florida, Gov. M. Clifford Townsend of Indiana and Mayor Reginald change had to be inscribed backH. Sullivan of Indianapolis are wards by hand on 20 permanent copamong those scheduled to speak. An- per plates from which the maps are nouncement of their participation in lithographed, obliterating old details the conclave was made by Baxter and substituting the new. When engraving was complete, artists added G. Rankine, chairman of the concolor, affording easy identification vention arrangements committee. of major features. Then workmen More than 25,000 voting delegates could lean back and watching are expected to attend the Indianap- their finished baby relax, roll off color olis convention. Visiting, presses of the geological survey at Townsendites are expected to swell the rate of 1,000 sheets an hour. the total attendance to more than History Chronicled on Map. Pioneers in a movement 100,000. to introduce a dramatic Commissioner Johnson will tell designed new social and economic plan in you that many a strange chapter m the United States, they will pour in American history can be read from from all sections of the country to his map. One of them concerns lend their support to Dr. Townsends three large tracts of No Mans for national program stability Land, later parts of Minnesota, the through old age security and elimi- two Dakotas, Colorado and Louisination of unemployment. ana, which were acquired by the non-voti- STEP NO. 4 Mounting the map last. Assembled on a background of cloth, the two halves are matched with meticulous care to insure accuracy in every detail. is Lake Michigan subsequent to early general land office surveys of the area. It was an episode in Chicagos early history fully as colorful as the legend of Mrs. OLearys cow. Moving onto the lands sometime in the early 1870s, these two picturesque characters sought sometimes at the point of a rifle to retain possession in spite of high water and the efforts of Chicago police, state and federal officials to oust autonothem from their mous principality which they named Deestrict of Lake Michigan. It comprised 78 acres of land near Chicagos business district, and allegedly started when the Capn found his boat stranded on a shallow reef. Sand drifted around, formed an island and eventually joined the mainland. To this day the lake front area is referred to as Streeter-ville- ." self-creat- ed (Released bv Western Newspaper Union.) |