Theodore Roosevelt. Document Signed With A Secretarial Signature. U. S. Government / Santa Fe Railroad Land Exchange;

Folio Document, measuring 10.5? x 16?; Partly printed document, with red embossed seal of the General Land Office at bottom left, signed by President Theodore Roosevelt, lower right (Secretarial Signature), Washington D. C., June 3, 1904. A Land Grant Of Federal Lands To The Santa Fe Pacific Railroad Company. This land, a forty acre parcel, east of Gila & Salt River Meridian, Arizona Territory, as part of the Grand Canyon Forest Preserve owned by the SFRR is being exchanged with the United States for a forty acre parcel east of the Mount Diablo Meridian in California. This ?swap? was for land east of San Francisco Bay, for a parcel near Phoenix Az. Also signed by a F. McKean, Secretary & C. H. Brush, Recorder of the Land Office. An unusual land grant. There was a controversy in 1902 regarding these exchanges. The Railroad wanted to consolidate its lands and wished to trade uneven numbered parcels for even numbered ones. Their argument was that this would benefit all. Some members of TR?s cabinet were opposed, but the argument that grazing lands, (Arizona) could not be parceled out if they were not contiguous won the day and the exchanges were executed. This is a simplification of the event and there were other arguments. This document is a vestige of this series of exchanges.…