The Farmer Who Tore Up the Northern Pacific's Tracks — and Won
After five years of direct action against a railroad crossing his Montesano land, J. B. Biles settles on his own terms — and the company pays his legal bills.
Montesano, May 13.—Special.—J. B. Biles, who has been contesting the rights-of-way through his land with the Northern Pacific railroad for the past five years, and which has caused several criminal cases to be brought against him for tearing up the track, placing obstructions on the track, etc., has at last settled his claim, as likewise the prosecutions against him, by a satisfactory settlement with the company. He is also in full possession of what he asked in the first place, and the company paid his attorneys' fees and the court expenses.
“He is also in full possession of what he asked in the first place, and the company paid his attorneys' fees and the court expenses.”
A lone Grays Harbor County landowner held off a transcontinental railroad for five years by physically tearing up its track — and forced it to pay his lawyers. The Northern Pacific was the defining landowner of nineteenth-century Washington, and fights over its right-of-way and land grants shaped who controlled the ground under the state. The image of a farmer answerable to a corporate giant with a crowbar still resonates in today's fights over eminent domain and rail corridors.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.