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A digest of an attached detail clarifies that Acting Secretary Thomas Ryan’s memorandum was sent in mistake. The memorandum incorrectly reported President Roosevelt’s determination at the conference on October 5 regarding forest reserve lands. If Roosevelt approved the memorandum without noticing the error, Ryan is directly responsible.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-19
This report details how the Big Horn Ditch Company dug an irrigation canal in Wyoming in the 1880s that was not deep enough to irrigate the surrounding land. Nevertheless, government land surrounding the canal was reclaimed based on its alleged irrigation, which the author of the report appears to consider fraudulent. Stockholders in the company include William A. Richards, Commissioner of the General Land Office under President Roosevelt and a former governor of Wyoming. Based on this report, special agents in 1904 required that Red Banks Cattle Company, which owned the land in question and had the same major shareholders as the Big Horn Ditch Company, to deconstruct their enclosures and relinquish the land.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-10
Gifford Pinchot, Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, writes to President Roosevelt regarding forest reserves, timber and stone law, and cultivatable land.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-01-26
President Roosevelt’s administration responds to charges that the investigation of several land fraud cases is not being pursued with vigor by the Department of the Interior. The report denies these claims and presents details of indictments and convictions already achieved. A large number of parties attempted to defraud the government of public lands, and some of the cases are still underway, requiring secrecy until conviction of the guilty parties is achieved.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904