Blocking the Mullan Road
Farmers are barricading a public thoroughfare, forcing local officials to intervene.
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.
County Commissioner Edward Cornwell and County Surveyor L. W. Loehr returned last night from an inspection of what is known as the Hart change in the Mullan road, near Prescott. It had been reported to the commissioners that the road had been fenced up in many places and that travel was being hampered. The officials made a thorough investigation and found that the complaints in many instances were well-founded. In several places the farmers had placed fences across the thoroughfare and it was almost impossible to get through some portions of the road. A petition will be circulated among those interested in the road asking for a change in the location.
“In several places the farmers had placed fences across the thoroughfare and it was almost impossible to get through.”
Public access to rural roads remains a contentious issue in Walla Walla County. Just as in 1904, disputes between private landholders and the public right-of-way test the limits of infrastructure and community cooperation.
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