The Fremont Mill Canal Dispute
A local mill company is accused of blocking a natural waterway with piles and a building to manufacture a legal claim against the city's proposed ship canal.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Since the question of opening the waterway from Washington Lake to Salmon Bay, in order to prevent the flooding of White River valley, has been taken up again, a plan seems to have been concocted with a view of preventing such a settlement unless some people be able to make a good deal of money out of it. Where the water leaves Lake Union to flow towards Salmon bay there has been an open outlet for many years, which is not supposed to be anybody's property because it forms a natural water course. But since the agitation in favor of the ship canal has sprung up, the Fremont Mill Company has assumed property rights over said outlet and caused a lot of piles to be driven in front of it. Now that the question of opening the ditch between the lakes to get an outlet for flood water has been agitated, the mill company is driving piles in the channel and moving a house on these piles to stand over the outlet. The purpose is easily understood: when the city, county, or the farmers of White river valley shall commence to widen the existing outlets, the Fremont Mill Company will present a claim for damages for disturbing their piling and building. This is a speculative scheme based upon the misfortunes of hundreds of land owners in the flooded districts; it is an outrage upon the public and should be stopped.
“This is a speculative scheme based upon the misfortunes of hundreds of land owners in the flooded districts; it is an outrage upon the public.”
This 1891 struggle over the Ship Canal and the Fremont Mill's attempt to profit from flood-control infrastructure mirrors modern Seattle debates where developers often use private property claims to stall or profit from public infrastructure projects. The 'natural waterway' mentioned is the historical precursor to the Montlake Cut and Ballard Locks, which reshaped the entire hydrology of the city.
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