The court declared these mineral leases were without authority, and void. Then at the extraordinary session of the legislature in April, 1918, a mineral statute was enacted, and the board sought to proceed thereunder. Again the courts were invoked, and again the delay. In the end of two or three years of litigation, Briggs secured the potash rights on the section for a five percent royalty, as the potash bubble had so far exploded that he was the only bidder. Thus the lawyers profited, but the state and all individuals interested lost considerable sums, beacuse of the delays.

As commissioner, the editor-in-chief realized the urgency of immediate production of potash, both from the point of national needs

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HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

in war, and also from the point of value of the product. He sought by all reasonable means to get contentious parties into working agreements, either upon a division, or to pay the money into court, and litigate concerning the equities in the money.

Both of these plans failed, and the fact that the state did not receive a large revenue from potash production, and the fact that disputants failed to realize any considerable sums from potash taken from state lands, is due to the alluring appeal of extraordinary legalany other mill in the section, being one of the first in operation, and continuously a producer when any others were producing, and adjacent to and using the water from many of the richest lakes.

Jess lake stands as the one that produced the most potash in Sheridan county or the state. It is said that something near ten million dollars worth of product has been extracted from this one basin.