VIDEO TELLS STORY OF O&C RAILROAD LANDS ROSEBURG, OR -- A video exploring the history of the Oregon & California Railroad lands has been posted on Douglas County's Web site. The 12-minute video was produced by the Jackson County Board of Commissioners. It tells the story of how the federal government granted the railroad large tracts of land -- 20 miles on each side of the rail line -- to finance construction of a railroad through what would become western Oregon. The railroad was supposed to sell the land to homesteaders, with the proceeds to pay the railroad's construction costs. However, the plan was ruined by scandal. Corporate interests fraudulently obtained large chunks of land by paying people to pose as homesteaders. The railroad improperly held onto much of the land itself. After Theodore Roosevelt became president, he promised to clean up the mess. Federal investigators spent two years gathering evidence and indictments led to the arrest of more than 1,000 politicians, business owners, railroad executives and others. The government took back 2 million acres kept by the Southern Pacific Railroad, which completed the rail line after the O&C Railroad failed. Today, O&C lands are located in 18 western Oregon counties. They are managed for forest production on behalf of those counties by the federal Bureau of Land Management. Douglas County receives about $25 million per year from the O&C lands, which goes into the county's general fund. The money, distributed among all of the counties with O&C lands within their borders, is considered part of the federal timber safety net. The video can be found at the bottom left of the county's home page at www.co.douglas.or.us. - The Roseburg News-Review
