A Nooksack Valley Land Fight Ends With One Man Holding Everything

By a recent decision of the Secretary of the Interior, valuable land in the Nooksack Valley has been awarded to Frank Luke. The plat of township 39 north, range 5 east, was filed August 18, 1891, and on the same day Watt Birdwell filed a pre-emption for lots 4, 5 and 7 of section 2, and for lots 1 and 2 of section 3 of the same township. Frank Luke filed at the same time another pre-emption for lots 4 and 7 of section 2. Both parties had settled long before the survey, and the local land office was called on to decide their respective rights under their settlements. On the testimony adduced the local office awarded Birdwell the prior right to entry as to all the land covered by his filing except the east half of lot 7 of section 2, to which it was held Luke had a prior equitable right. Both parties appealed, and the General Land Office awarded Birdwell lots 1 and 2 of section 3, but held that Luke had the prior right of entry to lots 4, 5 and 7 of section 2. Birdwell appealed to the Secretary of the Interior, who waded through the mass of evidence and finally came to the conclusion that the General Land Office was correct in its adjustment. The sum and substance of the whole matter is that Luke gets all the land included in his entry.