Montana Historical Society
Archives
RS 31_RS 496
Montana. State Arid Land Grant
Commission.
Montana State Arid Land Grant Commission
records
1895-1903
4.5 linear feet
This collection is a subgroup
(Commission) of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation
records, RS 496. Please see the primary finding aid for more Montana Department of
Natural Resources and Conservation records. Records of the State Arid Land Grant
Commission (1895-1903) consist of interoffice and general correspondence, two overlapping
minute books (1895-1899, 1897-1909), financial records, reports, and miscellany.
18:5-5
English
In 1894, the United States Congress passed the Carey Land Act, amending the earlier Desert
Land Act, to "aid the public land states in the reclamation of the desert lands therein, and
the settlement, cultivation and sale thereof in small tracts to actual settlers." The Act
granted to the states, free of cost, "such desert lands ... as the state may cause to be
irrigated, reclaimed, occupied, and not less than 20 acres of each 160 acre tract cultivated
by actual settlers." The state was required to file a map with the Secretary of Interior
showing which lands were to be irrigated and a plan showing the mode of irrigation and the
source of the water. To take advantage of this law, the Montana Legislature passed the Lynde
Act establishing the State Arid Land Grant Commission, consisting of five commissioners. The
irrigation work was to be paid for by the issuance of 6% warrants on the estimated value of
the completed work.
The original commissioners were E.W. Beattie, J.T. Armington, A.L. Babcock, A.J. Talbott,
and H.S. Corbett. At its first substantive meeting on April 9, 1895, the Commission set up a
committee to ascertain the location of desert lands and to hire temporary engineers to
survey and examine these lands. A second committee was formed to establish rules for the
governance of the Commission. A third committee was empowered to seek "ready money" to fund
the operation. The early survey work concentrated on the Yellowstone River Valley, since the
Northern Pacific Railway provided free rail passes to Commission members, while the Great
Northern did not.
The original legislation had extremely restrictive financial limitations that essentially
prevented the Commission from doing its work. The 1897 legislature passed SB 95, expanding
and clarifying the powers of the Commission. In April 1897 Governor Robert B. Smith
requested the resignations of all of the commission members "for political reasons". He
appointed to replace them C.O. Reed, Donald Bradford, Thomas C. Marshall, Armistead H.
Mitchell, and Joseph K. Toole. Mitchell died in 1898 and was replaced by David A. Cory;
Toole resigned in 1899 and was replaced by Joseph T. Brown.
During the course of its existence the Arid Land Grant Commission set up District 1 near
Billings, District 2 near Big Timber, District 3 on Rock Creek in Carbon County, District 4
on the Dearborn River near Augusta, and District 5 on the Sun River. Districts 1, 3, and 5
were abandoned for lack of funds and never built. The Big Timber ditch, already under
construction by Andrew Wormser's Holland Irrigation Canal Company, was brought under the
Commission but faced repeated delays and was also not completed. The Dearborn Canal, begun
by Commission members Donald Bradford and David A. Cory in 1888, became District 4 in 1900.
By 1903, only 19 of the contemplated 55 miles of ditch had been built and no farmers had
settled on the land.
The 1903 Legislature set up a committee to investigate the Arid Land Grant Commission and,
as a result of its findings, abolished the Commission. To replace it, they established the
Carey Land Act Board [former RS 32]. Please see the primary finding aid for more Montana Department of
Natural Resources and Conservation records.
Bibliography
Lesley M. Heathcote, "The Montana Arid Land Grant Commission, 1895-1903" Agricultural
History, Vol. 38, No. 2 (1964).
Records consist of originals and typescript copies of interoffice correspondence, arranged
chronologically, general correspondence, arranged alphabetically, and a letterpress volume
of outgoing correspondence; financial volumes including a cash book, a general ledger, and a
journal, plus various other financial items. There are two overlapping minute books
(1895-1899, 1897-1909) covering the work of the Commission. The second book also includes
minutes of the successor Carey Land Act Board (former RS 32). In addition there are reports
on the work of the Commission; miscellany; and clippings.
The collection is arranged by series.
This collection is open for research.
Researchers must use collection in accordance with the policies of the Montana Historical
Society Library & Archives. The Library & Archives does not necessarily hold
copyright to all materials in the collection. In some cases permission for use may require
additional authorization from the copyright owners. For more information contact an
archivist.
Item description and date. Collection Title. Collection Number. Box and Folder numbers.
Montana Historical Society Library & Archives, Helena, Montana.
Acquisition information available upon request.
In 2024, the various collections of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and
Conservation were integrated under one collection identifier, RS 496, in order to help
facilitate access, reduce redundancy in the MTHS catalog, and to follow best archival
practices.
Collections from Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation's various
Divisions and Bureaus that were previously treated as separate entities are now integrated
into this collection, RS 496. Rather than reprocessing over 300
linear feet of DNRC materials, MTHS staff decided to keep the past arrangement of those
collections/finding aids, and provide access to them via links through the central finding
aid. This decision has allowed the MTHS archival staff to maintain intellectual control over
the collection, while removing the need to reprocess it. It also keeps State Agency finding
aids at manageable sizes. Please read the scope and content note carefully to determine if
this subgroup/sub-subgroup pertains to your research needs.
Additional Processing Information
Collection was originally processed around 1978. It was reprocessed in 1993 during
reprocessing of the records of Carey Land Act Commission (former RS 32), State Engineer
(former RS 34), and State Water Conservation Board (former RS 37). There is considerable
difficulty in using the official minutes of the Commission. Two volumes of officially signed
minutes exist (1895-1899 and 1897-1909). Where the two volumes overlap, each includes
minutes of meetings that the other one skips, while minutes of the same meeting often differ
in both detail and substance. Researchers are warned that both volumes must be used in
conjunction with each other. It is not known which version is more accurate. The
Commission's financial record keeping was poorly organized. The State Examiner, in auditing
the Commission, totally re-entered the general ledger accounts. As with the minutes, the
researcher is advised to use both sets of financial records.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the Montana Historical Society
Archives catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places
should search under these terms.
Homesteading--Montana--1900-1910
Irrigation--Montana
Public lands--Montana
Dearborn Project (Mont.)
Big Timber Project (Mont.)
Montana
Irrigation
Detailed Description of the Collection
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection
Interoffice Correspondence
1 / 1
Miscellaneous (includes W.S. Fortiner, Thomas C.
Marshall, C.O. Reed, Donald Bradford, J.K. Toole)
1897
1 / 2
Miscellaneous (includes W.S. Fortiner, Thomas C.
Marshall, C.O. Reed, Donald Bradford)
1898
1 / 3
Miscellaneous (includes Thomas C. Marshall, C.O.
Reed, Donald Bradford, Robert Hendry)
1899
1 / 4
Miscellaneous (includes Thomas C. Marshall, C.O.
Reed, Donald Bradford, D.A. Cory)
1900
1 / 5
Miscellaneous (includes C.O. Reed, D.A. Cory, L.D.
Beary, Paul S.A. Bickel, John A. Knox)
1901
1 / 6
Miscellaneous (includes C.O. Reed, George T. Wicks,
John A. Knox)
1902
1 / 7-12
Typed transcripts
1897-1902
General Correspondence
2 / 1
A (includes Walter Aiken)
1897-1903
2 / 2
B (includes A.L. Babcock; Frank Banderob; Billings
Commercial Club; Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railway)
1897-1902
2 / 3
C (includes Thomas H. Carter, Cincinnati
Commissioners of Water Works, Walter Cooper, A.M. Crawford, Alfred Crebbin)
1897-1902
2 / 4
D-E (includes Thomas F. Dow, Engineering Record)
1897-1902
2 / 5
Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, New York
1898-1900
2 / 6
O.C. Finkelnburg, hydraulic engineer
1898-1900
2 / 7
F (includes First National Bank of Billings, S.B.
Fowler)
1897-1903
2 / 8
G (includes Paris Gibson, H.A. Gilbreath, Great
Northern Railway)
1897-1902
2 / 9
J.A. Hall (Big Timber National Bank)
1898-1901
2 / 10
Holland Irrigation Canal Company (includes W.L.
Holloway, Andrew Wormser)
1898-1902
2 / 11
H (includes Ella Knowles Haskell, F.E. Hoss)
1897-1903
2 / 12
I-J (includes Iowa and Dakota Land and Loan Company,
The Irrigation Age, D.S.B. Johnston Land Company, Johnston, W.M.)
1897-1902
2 / 13
S.A. Kean (investment broker selling bonds for
Commission)
1898-1901
2 / 14
K-L (includes John D. Losekamp)
1897-1902
2 / 15
Mississippi Valley Trust Company; Henry Semple Ames
(re financing of Dearborn Canal)
1899-1903
2 / 16
Montana Attorney General (includes C.B. Nolan, F.W.
Mettler, James Donovan)
1897-1903
2 / 17
Montana Governor (includes Robert B. Smith, Joseph K.
Toole)
1899-1903
2 / 18
Montana [miscellaneous state agencies]
1897-1902
2 / 19
M (includes A.W. Mahon, hydraulic engineer; George A.
Marks; J.D. Matheson; David R. McGinnis; Miles City Canal & Irrigating Company;
Miles City Chamber of Commerce; Montana Society of Engineers)
1897-1902
2 / 20
Northern Pacific Railway Company (includes Land
Dept.)
1897-1901
2 / 21
N-O (includes Northwest Telephone Manufacturing
Company, I.D. O'Connell, Oregon Land Dept., Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company,
William O'Rourke)
1897-1902
2 / 22
P (includes Fred W. Panhorst, H.C. Patterson, Pelton
Water Wheel Company, H.W. Perham)
1897-1902
2 / 23
F.H. Ray (re Patriots of America)
1898
2 / 24
P.L. Reece (re bid on Billings ditch job)
1897-1901
2 / 25
R (includes S.B. Robbins, civil engineer; P.H. &
F.M. Roots Company; C.J. Russell)
1897-1902
2 / 26
S-T (includes J.W. Strewell, Sweetgrass County, Ira
Thomas, J.K. Toole)
1897-1902
3 / 1
United States General Land Office; United States
Geological Survey
1897-1900
3 / 2
U-V (includes United States Industrial Commission,
A.R. VanEman)
1897-1902
3 / 3
W (includes C.E. Wantland; Charles S. Warren;
Washington Commissioner of Arid Lands; Fred Whiteside; Winter, Parsons and Boomer,
railroad contractors)
1897-1903
3 / 4-13
A-T (typed transcripts)
1897-1903
4 / 1-2
U-W (typed transcripts)
1897-1903
Outgoing Correspondence
4 / 3
Letterpress book [gap May 11, 1897-June 18, 1899
partially contained in general correspondence]
1895 April - 1903 February
4 / 4
Typed transcripts
1895 April - 1903 February
Court Papers
4 / 5
Opinions of Montana Supreme Court on
constitutionality of Arid Land Grant Commission and of District #1, Billings
1896, 1898
Financial Records
4 / 6
Auditor's notebooks
1900-1901
4 / 7
Bonds and certificates
1898-1899, undated
1
Cash book [1903-1910 entries are Carey Land Act
Board]
1897-1900, 1903-1910
4 / 8
Disbursement of funds received from Holland
Irrigation Canal Company (District #2)
1897-1900
2
General ledger
1895-1903
5 / 1
Journal
1897-1903
5 / 2
Trial balances
1898-1903
5 / 3
Voucher record
1897-1900
5 / 4
Warrants (Districts #1-4)
1897-1902
6 / 1
Miscellaneous (includes bills, receipts, accounts,
vouchers)
1897-1901
Legal Documents
6 / 2
Deed: Bridger Canal Company to State of Montana (re
District #3)
1899
Minutes
3
Minute book [see Processing Note]
1895-1899
3
Minute book (minutes for May 1903-Mar. 1909 are Carey
Land Act board)
1897-1909
Reports
6 / 4
Reports to Attorney General and Governor by State
Examiner on work of Commission
1900-1903
Miscellany
6 / 5
"The Montana Arid Land Grant Commission, 1895-1903,"
by Leslie M. Heathcote, Agricultural History, Vol. 38, No. 2
1964 April
6 / 6
Notes on procedures
undated
6 / 7
Specifications and estimates of material required for
Bridger and Big Timber canals
1898-1900
Clippings
6 / 8
Miscellaneous (re Big Timber and Dearborn canals and
bond redemption)
1898-1901