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Railroad water righ ts - Las Vegas. Surface and underground. Los Angeles, May 22, 1924. Dear Leo: I have your le tte r of the 2 ls t re la tiv e to the above, and note what you say about making application to appropriate and apply to a ben e ficial use- the waters developed in the Company* a new w e ll. I agree with you that application should be made to the State Engineer, and we should safeguard the Company*s interests as much as possible under the water law now existing. The question that arises in my mind is whether the application should be made by the Las Vegas Land & Water Co. or by the Railroad Co. I f by the la t t e r , i t seems to me that i t should be made fo r r a i l road purposes, and the waters that are now flowing from the spring be considered as to apply to the Las Vegas ranch and fo r the municipal uses of Clark*s Las Vegas townsite and such additions, insofa r as the same w ill apply. I w ill look into the t it le s and ascertain what righ t, I f any, the ra ilro ad ever acquired to the waters of Las Vegas Spring. She ra ilro a d has been treated as the owner of the water fo r the reason that i t acquired a l l of the land west of the ra ilro ad track upon which the source of water exists, while in truth and in fac t, under the law, the Las Vegas Land & Water Go. and it s predecessors in in terest, as owning a l l of the land east o f the railro ad track, was en titled to the use o f a l l o f the waters of Las Vegas Spring, because i t and Its predecessors had made an application to a benef i c i a l u se -- presumably— of a l l of the waters risin g and flowing from the source of this stream system, namely, the Las Vegas spring. At the time that W, A. Clark acquired the Las Vegas Ranch, and fo r iik&rty years prior thereto, his successive predecessors in Interest owned a l l of the land susceptible to irrig a tio n from this spring and from time to time thereafter acquired the land upon which the spring is located and through which I t flowed unto the lands at the point where i t was applied to a ben eficial use, and there were no re la tiv e rights affected or to be affected along this stream, and the owners of the water and the land were the same, the water being appurtenant to the land. A contract has existed fo r the past ten years whereby the Las Vegas Land & Water Company recognises the righ t of the R ail-
