Hunt came here in 1892, and was take the same, free of charge, the district practically for a number of years the whole taking the canal in its present condition and Belmont Company. All the disappointments such transfer of the canal to the district to of pioneer days were experienced in the sue- be made at the time the notes and mortgage feeding years. The undertaking was a large referred to are delivered by said Bridgeport one and called for heavy expenditures of bank.

money, which the panic of 1893 made il im- Mr, Purrington, who represented the colpossible to secure, but finally, through the onization company, sold upwards of 2,000 sale of land and stuck certificates all the in- acres of the Belmont lands following this

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

movement for an irrigation district, and the people of the community expressed the hope that a satisfactory agreement be reached whereby the Belmont canal, with its franchise and appropriation^ become the property of a district, which meant that they would be controlled by the actual owners and tillers of the land under it, that it be made to render such perfect service to the farmers dependent upon it for water. For the benefit of any opposed to the district plan, a relinquishment form was provided, at the suggestion of P. C. Wade, which form was as follows : To the State Board of Irrigation, Lincoln,

Nebraska :

I owner of the in

Morrill County, Nebraska, hereby relinquish to the Sltate of Nebraska, all of my right, title and interest, and any claim or interest whatsoever, in and to the appropriation of water for irrigation purposes from the North Platte River heretofore made for said land, which appropriation is designated upon the record in the State Engineer's Office, as Docket Number 928. and hereby respectfully ask that said appropriation be cancelled and annulled as to said lands, for the reason that said appropriation has not been beneficially applied for more than three years last past, and for further reason that I do not desire to make application of said appropriation to said lands at any time in the future.