1899. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



21 



The Law and the Forests. 



Judge Hallett yesterday instructed the 

 jury in the United States Court to acquit 

 H. S. Tomkins, the well-known hard- 

 ware man, of unlawfully trespassing on 

 public land in Custer County and de- 

 spoiling the land of 250,000 feet of lum- 

 ber. The defendant proved that the 

 lumber was used in mines and not for 

 railroad ties. He was accordingly ac- 

 quitted. Rocky Mountain News (Colo.). 



During the present term of the United 

 States District Court several convictions 

 have been obtained of men charged with 

 cutting timber on Government land and 

 carrying it away. Albert and George 

 Rutherford were fined $990 each and 

 given one day in the county jail for 

 stealing timber in Boulder County. 

 Frank Nice, a neighbor of the Ruther- 

 fords, was given a similar sentence yes- 

 terday by Judge Hallett. J. C. Dallon 

 did not appear yesterday to answer a 

 charge of cutting timber and judgment 

 was entered against him. Denver Re- 

 publican. 



Timber Land Frauds. 



Eleven indictments returned by the 

 recent United States grand jury, which 

 were not made public when handed into 

 court, turn out to be the result of a pa- 

 tient investigation into as big a scheme, 

 if the grand jury allegations are true, 

 to defraud the Government as has been 

 called to the attention of the Land Office 

 in recent years. Thousands of Govern- 

 ment acres in Southern Colorado have 

 been despoiled of valuable timber in a 

 scheme which, it is alleged by the Fed- 

 eral authorities, is as smooth as has ever 

 been concocted. 



Deputy United States Marshal Crock- 

 er returned from Durango this morning 

 after having placed under arrest Louis 

 C. Jackaway and F. W. Stubbs, of the 

 lumber firm of Jackaway & Stubbs; Louis 

 C. Griffith, S. B. Jackaway, Edward 

 Walker, Robert D. Sisson, E L France, 

 bookkeeper; JohnW. Miller and William 



Palmquist. Indictments for two others 

 are in the deputy's possession, but as 

 the men could not be found the warrants 

 were not served. 



The nine pleaded not guilty to the 

 charge of cutting timber on Government 

 land when arraigned yesterday before 

 United States Commissioner Pengree at 

 Durango, and were held in bonds of $500 

 each. The preliminary hearing was set 

 for the first Monday in April. 



The company, it is alleged by the offi- 

 cials, was organized to operate in La 

 Plata, Archuleta, Conejos and Monte- 

 zuma Counties, where the settlements 

 are few and far between and where for- 

 ests of the choicest timber in the State 

 stretch over the mountain ranges for 

 miles upon miles. For ten years the busi- 

 ness has been carried on but under such a 

 clever cover, if the findings of the grand 

 jury are true, that it was not until after 

 months of tireless search that the mat- 

 ter was ready for presentation by the 

 special agents. 



Extensive sawmills are located fifty 

 miles west of Durango and at various 

 other points adjacent to the Rio Grande 

 Southern Railway. Large lumber yards 

 are maintained by the company in Sil- 

 verton, Durango and Ouray. The busi- 

 ness amounts to tens of thousands of 

 dollars annually and the members of the 

 company are very wealthy. 



Stacked at the principal mill west of 

 Durango are 4,000,000 feet of lumber 

 ready for shipment. From fifteen to 

 twenty men are employed by this mill 

 as loggers and choppers. 



The grand jury charges that the com- 

 pany induced men to settle on Govern- 

 ment land, taking up homesteads of 160 

 acres each and then, when the first pa- 

 pers were filed, purchasing it from them, 

 the purchase price being the pay for the 

 labor expended. These homesteads were 

 mvcr proved, for final papers were never 

 taken out. The company would cut all 

 the timber, haul it to its mills, and the 

 homesteader under another name would 



