Federal Land Ruling Paralyzes Yakima Valley
A new Department of the Interior circular abruptly halts all land filings in Yakima and Kittitas counties, invoking federal irrigation laws to freeze regional development.
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.
A circular letter received at the Yakima land office has struck a staggering blow at Central Washington. A ruling from the Department of the Interior has withdrawn from settlement all lands in Yakima and Kittitas counties, and the south half of Douglas County, while also invalidating all entries of any nature within these limits. This development follows the act of Congress of October 2, 1888, intended to investigate the arid regions for irrigation reservoir sites. The circular mandates that registers must immediately cancel all filings made since October 1888, effectively halting all land claims. This tie-up can only be overcome by a proclamation of the President. Citizens are urged to present this deplorable condition of affairs to the President immediately to show the great and unnecessary injustice done to this section.
“The object sought to be accomplished by the foregoing provision is unmistakable. The water sources and the arid lands that may be irrigated by the system of national irrigation are now reserved to be hereafter, when redeemed to agriculture, transferred to the people of the territories.”
The 1888 and 1890 irrigation acts were early federal attempts to manage water rights in the West, but they inadvertently caused immense economic chaos by freezing land titles. Today, the Yakima Basin continues to grapple with similar complexities regarding water adjudication and federal land management, reflecting the century-old struggle between national resource control and local agricultural development.
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