HOSTILITY TO NATIONAL FORESTS 265 



plaints. Senator Smoot of Utah called attention in 1909 to numerous 

 attempts that had been made to gain title to timber lands in the West 

 through the mining laws; and Senator Flint of California asserted 

 that several million dollars worth of timber in his state would have 

 been taken up in this way, had it not been for the vigilance of the 

 Forest Service. In 1908, the Commissioner of the Land Office decided 

 adversely on a number of placer mining locations in the Plumas 

 National Forest, made by H. H. Yard and the North California 

 Mining Company. These locations covered timber worth several mil- 

 lion dollars. In one instance a large livestock company, in order to 

 establish a complete monopoly of the surrounding range, proceeded to 

 put mining locations and mill sites upon all the watering places, with 

 the exception of two or three which were covered by scrip location. 

 No mineral development was attempted on any of these claims. The 

 locations were upon formations containing no mineral showing what- 

 ever, and the alleged development work consisted of tunneling and 

 trenching for the diversion of water, and in the building of corrals, 

 tanks, and pipe lines for the handling and watering of the cattle. In 

 this way, waterholes were secured which gave control of approximately 

 500,000 acres of valuable range. In another instance, a certain sheep 

 owner located a mining claim covering a spring and some abandoned 

 placer diggings, and applied for a patent, claiming as his $500 worth 

 of development the work done by those who had abandoned the claim, 

 and work done by some Chinamen who had occasionally worked the 

 claim when they couldn't find anything else to do. The sheep owner was 

 trying in this way to get control of the only water supply for a 

 considerable area. 



In still another instance, certain individuals made application for 

 the patenting of some placer locations, alleging the existence of valu- 

 able minerals. Investigation showed no mineral at all except a sort of 

 shale, which the locators alleged had some value for cement making. 

 In the application, the locators alleged $1500 worth of work, and 

 investigation showed that all the work that had been performed was 

 in grading for driveways and for building locations, and that it 

 actually amounted to less than $300. It appeared also that the 

 locators had incorporated a company for the exploitation and sale 

 of building sites for summer homes, this location being in the moun- 



