extending nearly twenty miles up the river. The 
government had estimated the cost for these flowage 
rights and property damages at about three-quarters 
of a million dollars. Notwithstanding that the con- 
struction of the dam was begun in the fall of 1928, 
the government took no action for adjustment of 
these flowage rights and damages until the practical 
completion of the dam, nearly three years later, in 
June of 1931. Desiring to put the dam in service as 
an aid to navigation, the government, on June 2, 
1931, petitioned the United States District Court 
for the District of Minnesota, Third Division, for 
an order permitting it to take immediate possession 
of lands which would be flowed by the dam. The 
government was then confronted with claims of 
property owners for flowage and other damages ag- 
gregating in excess of eight million dollars, more 
than ten times wha't had been estimated and almost 
three times the estimated cost of the dam. Both pre- 
ceding and following the petition to the Federal 
Court, which as stated, was after the dam was sub- 
stantially completed, the government instituted con- 
demnation suits for flowage rights against more than 
5,000 property owners, and has since been very dila- 
tory in the adjustment of these claims. Many claims 
involve farm and grazing lands, improved properties 
of various kinds, and homes. In June, 1932, a year 
after the completion of the dam, but comparatively 
few claims had been adjusted and still fewer paid. 
The situation in this respect is well set forth in the 
brief submitted by the plaintiff in the case of Railroad 
Co. vs. Ryan, United States Attorney, Equity Num- 
ber 1970, in the District Court of the United States 
in the Western District of Wisconsin, in respect to 
the Alma dam, which will later be referred to, where- 
in it is stated: 
"Congress has made large appropriations for this 
so-called 9-foot project on the upper Mississippi 
but the allowance for fiowage damages was meager, 
The report (House Doc. No. 583, 69th Congress, 
2d Session) on which the building of the Hastings 
Dam was authorized by Congress (Act of January 
21, 1927), estimated the cost of the dam at $3,- 
780,310, including 'flowage damages' of $724,440. 
Claims filed by property owners have exceeded $8,- 
000,000-almost three times the estimated cost 
of the dam. The so-called 'comprehensive plan' 
adopted by Congress in the Act of July 3, 1930, 
provided for a total expenditure of $98,423,000, 
of which $22,512,000 is the estimated cost of 
dredging, building additional locks, regulation and 
contingencies (P. 47, House Doc. No. 290). The 
balance of $75,911,000 is the estimated cost of 
eighteen dams, including $11,625,000 for 'flowage 
damages.' The difference, $64,286,000, is the esti- 
[10]