The Acting Commissioner of the General Land Office, on the 17th day of
October, 1846, instructed the officers of the land office in Iowa that
the grant extended only to the Raccoon Fork.
On the 23d day of February, 1848, the Commissioner of the General
Land Office held that the grant extended along the entire course of the
river.
Notwithstanding this opinion, the President, in June, 1848, proclaimed
the lands upon the river above the Raccoon Fork to be open for sale and
settlement under the land laws, and about 25,000 acres were sold to and
preempted by settlers under said proclamation.
In 1849, and before the organization of the Department of the Interior,
the Secretary of the Treasury decided, upon a protest against opening
said lands for sale and settlement, that the grant extended along the
entire course of the river.
Pursuant to this decision, and on the 1st day of June, 1849, the
Commissioner of the General Land Office directed the reservation or the
withholding from sale of all lands on the odd-numbered sections along
the Des Moines River above the Raccoon Fork.
This reservation from entry and sale under the general land laws seems
to have continued until a deed of the lands so reserved was made by the
State of Iowa and until the said deed was supplemented and confirmed by
the action of the Congress in 1861 and 1862.
In April, 1850, the Secretary of the Interior, that Department having
then been created, determined that the grant extended no farther than
the Raccoon Fork; but in view of the fact that Congress was in session
and might take steps in the matter, the Commissioner of the General Land
Office expressly continued the reservation.
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