THE FRAUDULENT HOMESTEADER 



581 



thirty-seven miles from Everett. Index 

 is a picturesque mountain town, with 

 towering peaks around it, and is the 

 great gate entrance to most of the 

 claims taken in that region. Cascade 

 Bill dropped into that country from 

 California with a pretty good know- 

 ledge of the Benson-Hyde system, and 

 some ideas of his own. He located 

 with his wife on a tract of land, built 

 a cabin and several outbuildings, cul- 

 tivated a patch of potatoes, and pro- 

 ceeded to put his "system" into exe- 

 cution. 



And so it came to pass that hundreds 

 of people, mostly hard-working, ignor- 

 ant Swedes, Danes, and Germans, 

 began to swarm into Index, lured by 

 the inducements thrown out by their 

 friends already snugly settled on mil- 

 lion-foot timber homestead tracts of 160 

 acres. Cascade Bill, with his gang, 

 would meet the new victims at the 

 train upon its arrival at Index, con- 

 duct them up the trail, and over the 

 "Settlers' Bridge" (about which I will 

 tell later) constructed across the 

 Skykomish River, a beautiful mountain 

 stream, dashing in a swift, tumbling 

 fashion along the edge of the town, and 

 skirting Cascade Bill's land on the east. 

 After a three-mile walk between mag- 

 nificent firs and stately cedars, drink- 

 ing in the crystal air, and listening to 

 the lavish descriptions of the timber 

 and "chances" to make a "stake" out of 

 the homestead "business," the new 

 arrival is quite willing and anxious to 

 part with his ready cash as soon as he 

 is "located." 



After a good "feed," for Mrs. Bill is 

 a capital cook, and a sound night's rest, 

 the victim was conducted to his "land." 

 and Cascade Bill showed him what 

 were supposed to be the corner stakes 

 and witness trees. It so happened, 

 however, that the would-be home- 

 steader, knowing little or nothing about 

 such matters, was perhaps shown the 

 corner stakes of some claim already 

 settled on. The wily locator was care- 

 ful to keep "locaters" far enough 

 apart on the land, so that when the 

 cabins were built they would be at a 

 respectable distance from each other. 



Then the party would pay over to Cas- 

 cade Bill $325 as a locating fee, or 

 all the cash he had on hand, and give 

 his note with "certain agreements" on 

 its face for the balance. "It comes 

 high," says the one-eyed man, "but I 

 ain't takin' no chances for nothin'." 



A VALUABLE "CLAIM" 



ioO'acre Tract in Washington, with Five Million Feet of 

 Timber, Worth about $25,000 



And SO for years this state of affairs 

 went merrily on, and hundreds of poor 

 people were filched out of hard-earned 

 money, and located on land, some of 

 which had been "located" as high as 

 ten times before. Cascade Bill actually 

 showed fovir men the timber on the east 

 forties of his own claim, and ingeni- 

 ously piloted them around trails, cov- 

 ering the same ground until they had 

 tramped over i6o acres of land, then 

 "located" them on his own land. The 

 innocents took his word for it, and 

 built cabins which to-day stand on the 

 claim originallv squatted on by Cascade 

 Bill. 



