Letter from President Theodore Roosevelt to Secretary of the Interior E. A. Hitchcock

SECRETARY FEB 26 1907 THE WHITE HOUSE, OF THE INTERION wASHINGTON. February 25, 1907. My dear Mr. Secretary: I have just received the following letter from Commissioner Richards: "February 25, 1907. "The President: Under date of February 21,1907, Mr. Loeb transmitted to me cer= tain correspondence and a map relating to a charge made by Inspector Linnen that the Red Bank Cattle Company has 286 acres of Government land illegally inclosed. "Upon January 14th I placed this map in your hands with a request that it be returned to the Secretary of the Interior in order that there might be placed upon it certain data, without which it would be impossible to calculate the areas of land involved. "Upon February 15th I wrote Mr. Loeb-upon the same subject, as I had not received the map and desired to make my report upon the same. "Upon February 21st I submitted my report upon this matter. "In the letter of the Secretary of the Interior to Mr. Loeb, dated February 20th, the Secretary says that in view of the fact that the additions desired by me have not been placed upon the map by Inspector Linnen on account of the failure of the surveyor to forward his field notes, he returns the map and my letter with the report of Inspector Linnen, to Mr. Loeb. The report made by Inspector Linnen to the Secretary of the In- terior, referred to, is dated February 19th, and in it Mr. Linnen states that on January 17 1907, he wrote to Frank Gatchell of Buffa- lo, Wyoming, the surveyor who made the surveys from which this map was constructed, requesting that he furnish him with a certified copy of the field notes of his survey, but up to the present time had re- ceived no reply from him. "Mr. Linnen virtually admits that no survey was made by course and distance of the line of the rim rock which makes the western boundary of this pasture; that being the case it is impossible for Mr. Gatchell to furnish him the desired field notes, and the fact that five weeks have elapsed since he was called upon for these notes is further evidence of the fact that there are no such notes. This letter proves the correctness of the statement made in my report that this was not such a survey as would enable a correct computa- tion to be made of the land lying within this pasture. The essen-