I02 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



annoyance to the United States because of a confusion as to lands 

 east and west of the Rio Grande, the latter having been acquired from 

 Mexico in 1848, and the grants therein being under the guarantee 

 of the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo. In 1886 the Committee on 

 Private Land Claims recommended the erection of a special tribunal 

 to handle these claims, H. Rep. 1380; 49C.1; Serial 2439. Two 

 years later this same committee presented a second report to the same 

 effect, stating that three millions of acres of Colorado lands were claimed 

 under grants from Spain and Mexico, H. Rep. 675; 50C.1; Serial 

 2600; and finally in 1892 the same committee again reported to the 

 House on the status of litigation over the Vigil, Maxwell, St. Vrain. 

 and other grants, calling attention to the. fact that the land policy of 

 the United States had overlooked the Texan origin of the Colorado 

 lands east of the Rio Grande, H. Rep. 1253; 52C.1; Serial 3045. 



The geographical and geological foundations for the history of 

 Colorado are well laid in the government documents. In general, 

 it is necessary to call attention to the irrigation papers among the Bul- 

 letins of Experiment Stations, Department of Agriculture, and to the 

 Bulletins of the United States Geological Survey, many of which relate 

 to Colorado. There is a good bibliography of the various exploring 

 parties that have worked in Colorado in pp. 18-26 of G. H. Girty, 

 "The Carboniferous Formations and Faunas of Colorado," H. Doc. 

 4795 57C.2; Serial 4511; pp. 546. A resolution of the legislature 

 of Colorado asking for a federal department of mines, with the comment 

 of the Director of the Geological Survey upon the request, is in Sen. 

 Doc. 170; 55C.1; Serial 3563; pp. 8. The Secretary of War reported 

 to Congress in 1897 upon reservoir sites in Wyoming and Colorado, 

 giving a general history of irrigation works, H. Doc. 141; 55C.2; 

 Serial 3666; pp. no; while A. L. Fellows, in Water Supply and Irri- 

 gation Papers, No. 74, has an exhaustive description of the "Water 

 Resources of the State of Colorado," H. Doc. 200; 57C.2; Serial 

 4500; pp. 151. The economic historian will find much comfort in 

 the annual Statistics of Mines and Mining, prepared by the federal 

 Commissioner of Mining Statistics, the eighth annual being 1875, 

 H. Ex. Doc. 159; 44C.1; Serial 1691, 



