itions imposed. A large portion of this grant
has already been absorbed by the company, in various ways, by pretended
sales and incumbrances. This road has been constructed to Iowa Falls, a
distance of 143 miles from Dubuque, but I am unable to discover any
reliable evidence of earnest intention on the part of this company to
construct the line to its terminal point on the Missouri River."

The Governor further recommended that the General Assembly pass an act
resuming the control over these lands. At about the same time an
agreement was effected between the Iowa Falls and Sioux City Railroad
Company (which was organized in the fall of 1867) and the Dubuque and
Sioux City Railroad Company, by which the latter transferred to the
former its land grant for the unfinished portion of the Dubuque and
Sioux City road. This agreement was confirmed by the General Assembly,
through an act approved April 7, 1868. The road was completed to Fort
Dodge in August, 1869, and to Sioux City a year or two later. The entire
line was then leased to the Illinois Central.

The land grant to this line of road embraced over 1,000,000 acres of the
finest lands of the State. We can appreciate the magnitude of this
donation when we consider that, had these lands been sold at only $8 per
acre, the proceeds would have paid the whole expense of building and
equipping the road from Dubuque to Sioux City. The lands granted to the
C., R. I. & P. R. R. were sold at an average price of over $8 per acre,
and those of the B. & M. at over $12 per acre.

Among the other important land grants is that made to the McGregor
Western Railroad Company. This company was the successor of the
McGregor, St. Peters and Missouri River Railroad Company, which was
organized in 1857 for the purpose of constructing a railroad from
McGregor to the Missouri River. The construction of the road was
commenced in 1857 at McGregor. Large local subscriptions were taken
along the proposed line, the writer being one of the subscribers. Work
was continued the next year until much of the heavy grading had been
done, when the road was allowed to go through the process of
foreclosure, like many other roads built in the West at that time. The
old stock was completely wiped out, and new owners came into possession
of the property, reorganizing under the name of the McGregor Western
Railway Company. Nearly all the early investments of Iowa people were
thus confiscated by the same class of m