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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1908 | 14 |
| 1909 | 26 |
| 1910 | 11 |
51 stories matching forest
- Rangers Hold a Kaniksu Forest Fire to Forty Acres
Two rangers and a hired crew keep a West Branch blaze from spreading through the national forest.
- The Battle for the LeClerc Creek Basin
Settlers face off against the U.S. Forest Service in a high-stakes legal fight over homestead patents and timber rights.
- The Kaniksu’s 1908 Fire Season: 40 Blazes, $3,569 Spent, and a Warning in the Young Timber
Federal rangers and local crews kept the Kaniksu National Forest from another Alispel-scale conflagration, but the season still burned 700 acres and cost an estimated $15,000 in damaged reproduction.
- Bureaucratic Blow to Kaniksu Homesteaders
A sudden reversal in federal policy by Secretary of the Interior R.A. Ballinger threatens the residency claims of forty settlers in the Kaniksu National Forest.
- Smoke on Skookum Creek: Crews Catch a Kaniksu Fire Before It Runs
A blaze on the east fork of Skookum Creek draws men from the Forest Service and two lumber companies — while more fires burn near Priest Lake and the supervisor heads in with a crew.
- Kaniksu Forest Lands Opened to Homesteaders
Federal land near Box Canyon and Sullivan Creek is restored to entry, fueling settlement and speculation.
- Federal Land Grab Ends in Washington
Four million acres of national forest land are set to be returned to public entry, marking a shift away from restrictive forestry policies.
- A Homesteader Beats the Forest Service — Then Has to Start All Over
George Neff of the LeClerc district wins back his land claim after a years-long fight with the National Forest Service, only to learn he must live on the property another fourteen months before he can own it.
- The Railroad That Burned the Forest—and Paid the Bill
In 1908, locomotives and clearing crews set eleven fires in the Wenatchee National Forest. The Great Northern Railway’s $2,312.62 payment was an early reckoning for industrial damage to public land.
- The Government Wants the Timber Back: 24 Homesteaders Fight for Their Claims
A federal commissioner opens a day-by-day docket against settlers in the LeClerc Creek basin whose land was folded into the Priest River National Forest two years after they proved up on it.
- Homesteaders Win a Round in the Kaniksu Forest Land Fight
Two settlers are declared entitled to their claims, but the legal battle over public land in the Kaniksu National Forest is far from over.
- Forest Service Challenged Homesteaders in the LeClerc Creek Timberlands
Thirteen claimants faced a March 19 hearing over whether their Pend Oreille River homesteads were homes or timber grabs.
- The Fight for Western Autonomy
Spokane conservationists organize to challenge federal control over forests, water, and mining rights.
- The $5 Billion Plan to Remake the Arid West
At the National Irrigation Congress in Spokane, Interior Secretary Ballinger and Chief Forester Pinchot squared off over whether public bonds or private capital should reclaim the West.
- The Woods Are Tinder: Fire Crews Battle Blazes Across the Pend Oreille Valley
With the forest dry as tinder, deputy fire wardens, lumber crews and ranchers scramble to contain dozens of small fires — while a landowner's brush burn kills two people near Colville and lands him under arrest.
- The Spokane Tribe's Bargain: Timber Revenue for a Forest Reserve
At the agency in Miles, tribal members agreed to set aside unallotted mountain land as a forest reserve and to open Walker's Prairie to homesteaders—if the government paid $5 an acre.
- Fire in the White Pine: Blaze Runs from Blue Slide Toward Calispel Mountain
Lumber companies rush crews to protect one of the Pend Oreille's finest white-pine districts as a forest fire spreads near Ruby Creek.
- Four Sections Burn Along the Pend Oreille
A week-long blaze near Ruby Creek is finally checked, leaving ranchers, timber and a county bridge in ashes—and one firefighter carried ten miles to safety.
- A Forest Fire at Tiger Burns 700,000 Feet of Logs and Two Homes
The Panhandle Lumber Company loses a vast pile of cut logs along the track, and two families — including Mrs. Parker and her daughters — watch their homes burn.
- No Way to Head It Off
A forest fire on the west bank of the Pend Oreille has outrun every crew sent against it. It will burn to the river, the reports say, and cover most of the country between Ruby and Blueslide — and when Newport called for men, none could be found.
- The Railroad That Laid Tracks Through a Burned Schoolyard
After a forest fire burned School District 135's schoolhouse near Blueslide, the Idaho & Washington Northern laid track over the ashes without condemning the right-of-way. The district is still trying to get paid.
- The Battle for the LeClerc Creek Homesteads
After years of legal uncertainty, the Secretary of the Interior rules in favor of settlers against the Forest Service.
- The Surveyor's Chain Reaches Metaline—and Its Squatters
A Portland firm wins the contract to survey the township containing Metaline, opening the west side of the river to settlement while fine timber already occupied by squatters awaits formal title.
- Five Million Feet of White Pine Sold Off the Kaniksu
A federal forestry agent comes to Newport to close a deal with the Fidelity Lumber Co. — 5,000,000 feet of standing timber at four dollars a thousand.
- The Original Miners: How Native Americans Discovered the Metaline's Lead Riches
Long before white prospectors staked claims, Indigenous people mined lead in the Metaline region to make bullets and slugs—and their ancient workings still dot the landscape.