The Touchet River Water Wars
A Waitsburg milling company heads to court to force the railroad to yield ground for a new mill race.
The Preston-Parton Milling company, of Waitsburg, has commenced a suit in the superior court against the Oregon Railway & Navigation company, to secure a right of way across the railroad company's lands and railway for an irrigating ditch. The mill company desires to construct a new mill race to carry water from the Touchet river to its mill at Waitsburg, and has commenced the proceedings to have the land required for that purpose condemned and the amount of damages assessed. A petition for a jury trial has also been filed in the court, which will be heard January 14.
“The mill company desires to construct a new mill race to carry water from the Touchet river to its mill at Waitsburg.”
Conflicts over water rights and infrastructure remain a defining tension in the Walla Walla Valley. This 1904 suit highlights the early struggle between private industrial expansion and the massive influence of railroad monopolies over local land.
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